McConaughey’s bongo madness

last updated 8 January 2015

Matthew McConaughey is no longer a tub-thumping wild man, said Eric Spitznagel in Men’s Health. In 1999, the actor was arrested at his Austin home after neighbors called police to complain about music blaring from his pad. When the cops arrived, they found McConaughey—allegedly high on marijuana—playing the bongos in the nude. He ended up paying a $50 fine for breaking the city’s noise ordinance. “The lesson learned from that incident,” he says, “is that if you’re going to play drums at 3 a.m., shut your window.” McConaughey has grown disenchanted with stoner culture. “Very few people sit around and pass a joint anymore,” he says. “When I was [younger], weed was just something everybody did to get a little giggly. It was the socialization of passing a joint around. And everyone kind of chuckled and it was harmless and that was it.” But McConaughey thinks that modern marijuana is simply too strong to be enjoyable. “I’ve seen people smoke a joint and their subplots become unmanageable,” he says. “I’ve asked them, ‘Dude, why are you doing this if you don’t have any fun?’ And they’re like, ‘It’s just weed.’ Weed is obviously not what it used to be.”