The Beatles song Danny Trejo will always associate with a prison riot: “We just went totally insane”
After spending 18 months in prison and starring in some of Hollywood’s most notorious action movies, Danny Trejo is the only person genuinely allowed to say he has lived many different lives.
After a small role in Runaway Train, the actor went on discover his niche talent of playing gangsters and criminals in the likes of Heat, From Dusk till Dawn and Desperado, as well as the Spy Kids franchise created by Robert Rodriguez. However, beneath the glittery exterior of fame and excess, the actor was battling his own demons, and spent most of adult life in and out of jail.
The actor served time in the Los Angeles County jail, where he coincidentally met Charles Manson, as well as San Quentin State Prison and a year of solitary confinement at Soledad State Prison. But beneath all of this there as striking softness to Trejo, and when sharing some of the stories he’s collected over the years, he described one memory involving the Beatles song Hey Jude that shows the sweetheart beneath the facade.
Trejo has been on a long journey to redemption after his harrowing experiences in prison, which he traces back to his difficult childhood and early exposure to drugs, first trying heroin at the age of only 12 years old. Once in prison, he earned a reputation for himself as the kind of person you wouldn’t want to mess with due to his interest in boxing, a skill that he honed during his time behind bars.
The actor later released a documentary about life in prison, revealing the uncomfortable truths and horror stories of incarceration, however, there is one story that is surprisingly touching.
‘Hey Jude’ was one of the biggest songs released by The Beatles, becoming a number one hit in multiple countries around the world. Many people have soft and fuzzy memories of the track, and Trejo is one of them, recalling the success of the song among his fellow inmates. “It’s always real noisy and chaotic in the hole [prison] and this song comes on and you can barely hear it from the officer’s radio,” he said. “And the hole got quiet and quiet and quiet. It’s not good when the hole is quiet. And then, ‘Judy Judy Judy Judy Judyyyyyy!; Sinks were broken! Toilets were flooded! We went just totally insane! That song was so beautiful it was worth a riot.”
The song sold eight million records and has been recognised as one of the greatest. Who could predict the effect that it would have on the world, something that Trejo and his friends deeply felt in prison? It’s a touching story and probably one of the fewer positive experiences that Trejo had during this time.
But despite this, the actor has completely reformed and changed every aspect of his life, enjoying the freedom of working in Hollywood again, with an upcoming project called Seven Cemeteries being released this year, and presumably, finding new ways to listen to his favourite song.
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