From Prison Cell to Radio Airwaves
By Jacob Sopher

We’ve all heard of incarcerated authors publishing books from prison. But what about a band producing a song from prison and getting it played on the radio? That’s exactly what happened to Chad Hamlin, 49, and his recording project element66.

Following a murder conviction, Hamlin arrived at the Oregon State Penitentiary (OSP) in Salem, Oregon in February of 2001. One of his neighbors in the cell block knew the inmate director of the Roadie School—a music and music production program at OSP. During his first day at OSP, Hamlin was given a tour of the prison which included the band room and music production room. In the music production room, he met Bobby Beausoleil playing guitar. He offered to jam, and Chad grabbed a bass guitar. For over twenty minutes they jammed and made music together, Beausoleil remarked that he hadn’t had such an “amazing musical conversation” between instruments in a very long time.

Chad was given the opportunity to become the band room coordinator which facilitated ten inmate bands at OSP. His first big project was setting up mics and recording a drum circle of the OSP Lakota Ki-Oyote Native American club. Chad produced an eight-song recording for their club of spiritual songs from Native American culture.

Months later, Chad received his subscription to Guitar World Magazine, and he was incredibly surprised to see that Bobby Beausoleil was featured as one of the top twenty-five bizarre guitar players in the main article of the magazine. Hamlin went to Beausoleil who went on to admit that he was well known and had been a member of the Manson family and had produced movie soundtracks and several albums—all from within the prison.

Due to an unforeseen circumstance, in 2003 the band room was shut down. Not to be deterred, Hamlin wrote a proposal in 2004 and became the youngest Program Director of the Roadie School. The Roadie School was founded in the 80’s by the Jaycees who later turned over control to the inmates at OSP. As Program Director of the Roadie School Hamlin oversaw thirty-five other inmates learning the art of sound reinforcement and audio production. They also learned how to mix up performing musicians along with setting up speakers and amplifiers. They were taught the techniques of using sound shaping on mixing boards for live performances. Another part of Chad’s job included booking entertainment which consisted of bands that performed on the OSP Yard. These bands were from all over the northwest. The Roadie School was shut down in 2010 due to a change in facility security policy.

In 2011 Hamlin met Kenneth Fisher, a fellow inmate at OSP that was interested in producing music. They both reached out to captains asking for approval to buy music equipment, at their own expense, to use in their cell. They became cellmates in honor housing in cell 366 bringing about the birth of their recording project titled element66. Both Hamlin and Fisher were gifted musicians and played multiple instruments. While Kenneth’s focus was mostly on guitar, vocals and keyboard, Chad excelled with bass guitar, synthesizer and drum machines. Due to the lack of having access to a drummer, or a band room, they produced all of the element66 recordings from the confines of their cell.

In 2013 a Lifer friend of theirs had been granted parole and he took with him the first demo of element66. He happened to place the demo in the right hands after being released and within three months the first element66 song “Abandon” was playing on the radio. Willamette Valley radios stations such as KINK and KBOO had picked up several of the element66 songs. Without Chad or Kenneth even knowing a friend of theirs came to their cell and said, “I just heard one of your songs on the radio, ‘Eckart Tolle’”. They were shocked that that song was picked for the radio because they never thought of it as a radio song. Both Chad and Kenneth were inspired by the teachings and life philosophy of Eckart Tolle. Later that year, Chad did phone interviews with KINK radio and with Portland Radio Project.

Bobby Beausoleil connected the band with a professional manager who had them register their music with ASCAP and BMI to bring their music to an international audience, this allowed them to feature their music on Spotify, iHeart Radio, Apple Music and other streaming services. Their new manager also helped them set up a website www.element66.us. At the height of their popularity a correctional officer remarked that his girlfriend had been listening to element66 and her favorite song was the Star Wars themed song “Degobah!”. The same officer told Fisher and Hamlin that element66 was ranked number one on Reverb Nation. Due to a lack of Internet access in the prison, Fisher and Hamlin did not even know what Reverb Nation was at the time. During this time Hamlin also launched an experimental side project called LooNurGooSe, which was a vehicle for working with other contributing artists around the prison and his own solo work.

Hamlin has done much with his time at OSP beyond musical accomplishments. Not only was he the director of the OSP Roadie School, he also was the Director of the OSP Car & Bike Show from 2005 to 2010 where he oversaw an inmate crew of sixty to eighty inmate workers. Each year the show displayed between sixty and seventy-five vehicles which Hamlin coordinated with the OSP Wood Shop to build custom trophies for the show.

Hamlin stated one of his greatest accomplishments that has benefited every inmate in all of DOC is the sale of electric guitars, bass guitars and keyboards in the prison commissary. It took him seven years of lobbying the administration for these instruments to be available to be sold. The main selling point was that the instruments could be played quietly in a cell with headphones in contrast to the acoustic guitar that produced noise. Finally, Hamlin and Beausoleil were able to secure a contract with Schecter Guitar Research out of California to facilitate the purchase of these instruments statewide within the Oregon prison system in 2009.

When the Roadie School was shut down in 2010, Hamlin wrote another proposal that allowed him to teach a music theory class to twenty-five students at a time. He designed the curriculum himself and divided the class into two twenty-week courses—music theory beginners, and music theory advanced—which helped fellow inmates to hone their skills on guitar and keyboard. In the advanced course, he even taught MIDI step sequencing and audio production along with composing. Over 1,000 students have taken Hamlin’s course over a twelve-year period.

Hamlin has made outstanding scholastic achievements. He has earned three associate’s degrees from Chemeketa Community College including associates of science, associates of general studies and associates of Oregon arts transfer degree. In 2015 after applying for many scholarships, Hamlin was granted a full-ride scholarship through Chemeketa and received all three of his degrees in 2023.

Currently Hamlin works as a Peer Wellness Specialist where he teaches yoga classes and music classes to those that are suffering with mental health disorders. He is eligible for parole in June of 2025. If granted the opportunity for release, Hamlin plans on pursuing a bachelor’s degree in music and continuing to teach and be of service to others. Chad Hamlin is proof of his statement, “Just because you are in prison, life is not over. You can still accomplish great things from behind these walls.”