It’s not often that an artist will choose to perform at a prison. You certainly don’t see such brazen acts much nowadays. But back in the 20th century, a few musicians stepped outside of the norm and decided to perform for incarcerated audiences at famous prisons. And one of those performances is downright legendary. Let’s take a look!
The Cramps
American psychobilly punk rockers The Cramps once performed a full set at Napa State Mental Institution back in 1978. I know what you’re thinking: A mental institution is not the same as a prison. However, back in the 60s and 70s, mental institutions were a lot more like prisons than one might want to think about.
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The Cramps performed with fellow rockers The Mutants at the institution for what would be one of the strangest musical sets in punk history. The band performed on the institution’s courtyard to an audience of a dozen or so fellow punk rockers, a few staff members, and upwards of 200 patients.
“We’re The Cramps, and we drove 3,000 miles from New York City to play for you,” lead singer Lux Interior said to the crowd. “Somebody told me you people are crazy… but you seem alright to me.”
Sex Pistols
Sex Pistols being on this list isn’t exactly a surprise. The punk rock band was never a group to shy away from doing unconventional things. Sex Pistols famously performed at Chelmsford Top Security Prison back in 1977, and thankfully, the audio of the concert has survived through the years.
Though, don’t trust sound engineer Dave Goodman’s original recording as true-to-life. Goodman overdubbed the sounds of riots into the recording to make the whole thing seem even wilder than what it was.
Johnny Cash
This wouldn’t be a list of musicians who performed at prisons without mentioning Johnny Cash. The Man in Black famously took his outlaw country music to San Quentin State Prison back in 1969. No stranger to the law himself, Cash decided to perform for prisoners at the institution after getting famous for his notably not factual “Folsom Prison Blues”.
The inhabitants of the prison allegedly begged Cash to perform there, and he obliged them with a legendary set in February of 1969. The recording of the concert is still massively popular today.
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