In 1978 the Clash wrote the song “Jail Guitar Doors” in honor of their friend, and MC5 guitarist, Wayne Kramer, who was incarcerated on drug charges. When Joe Strummer died in 2007, Billy Bragg launched an initiative of the same name in England to provide musical equipment to help rehabilitate inmates serving time in Her Majesty’s Prisons. In 2009, Wayne Kramer returned the favor, partnering with Bragg to found Jail Guitar Doors USA, and for the past five years the two have been holding annual fund raisers (as well as intimate prison performances) to help raise money and awareness of the effect music can have on a prisoner’s quality of life.
This year’s installment of the annual Jail Guitar Doors is going down on Friday, September at Ford Theatres in East Hollywood, and features Wayne Kramer, Jackson Brown, Tom Morello, and Tim Presley of White Fence—who incidentally just released a prison-themed video for the song “Like That”. Tickets for the event are $35 with a discount rate offered for parolees. All proceeds go to benefit Jail Guitar Doors.
