Ron Isley treated like a king during prison stint

R&B veteran Ron Isley has fond memories of the time he spent behind bars for tax evasion because he was treated “like a king” and walked out of jail with a whole new group of close friends. The Isley Brothers star was sentenced to serve three years in a detention centre in Indiana in 2007 after he was convicted of failing to pay over $3 million (£1.94 million) in federal income tax, but the singer insists it was far from a punishment because the majority of the inmates were fans – and were willing to help him out however they could.
Isley became such good friends with one of his fellow prisoners, he’s even invited him to head out on tour with the crooner once he’s a free man.
He tells America’s Sister 2 Sister magazine, “It wasn’t like a prison; it was like a camp. It was (sic) about 250 people there, and one of my best friends now is – he’s still there but I can’t wait ’til he gets out… And he’s going to join me out here on the road…
“It was a different experience for me. I’m glad that I met some of the people that I met, and it was a great experience for me… In there I was treated like a king. I had almost 200 fans doing everything, and always around me, always pepping me up to make me feel like, ‘Hey, you’re like Elvis Presley.’ I didn’t have to do anything. Anything I wanted I could get. Anything they could do for me they would do, and that part about it was unmatchable by anything. I would have liked to have filmed it.”
And Isley, 72, admits he wouldn’t mind going back to the jail to serve as a motivational speaker for his old prison pals.
He says, “I wish I could go back… talk to them and be able to do things for them, and it’s probably something I’ll have to work on but that would be a wonderful thing, for me to go back and talk to some of the guys that’s (sic) still there.”
Isley’s account of prison life will give singer/rapper Lauryn Hill a little boost – she checked into the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut on Monday (08Jul13) to begin a three-month sentence for the same crime.