PART 1: THE SILENCEThe cell door in FCI Butner doesn’t slam. It clicks. A soft, final click that R. Kelly says he heard a thousand times in his first month, and then stopped hearing at all.For almost 30 years, his life was noise. Screaming crowds, studio speakers vibrating the floor, phones ringing at 3 AM, lawyers, managers, artists, girlfriends, family. Noise was proof that he mattered.Now, the loudest thing in the room is the fluorescent light buzzing above his bunk.In a recent phone call that was later shared by people close to him, he said one line that everyone remembered:”You realize who really loves you when the music stops. And for me, the music has stopped.”He is housed in protective custody. 23 hours a day inside. He is allowed a small tablet with limited music, but he says he rarely uses it to listen to his own songs. “It’s too painful,” he reportedly told a visitor.The man who wrote anthems for weddings and graduations now says his birthdays pass with no cards. Christmas passes with no visits. He told one interviewer that he spends hours looking at the same two photos taped to his wall – his children when they were younger.”I gave people hits. I gave them my life. Now I can’t get a call back,” he said.
SAD NEWS: R. Kelly Speaks on Feeling Abandoned in Prison 💔
