Chad Lovell performing with his alternative band Course of Empire.
Courtesy of Kerry Crafton
Chad Lovell, a well-known Deep Ellum-based musician, died on Tuesday, seven years after sustaining traumatic brain injuries from a fall.
Lovell, 59, was a drummer for the band Course of Empire and sound engineer at the Curtain Club in Deep Ellum.
“Everybody in Deep Ellum knows Chad,” his mother, Yvonne Lovell, told The Dallas Morning News.
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She said he was “born with rhythm,” playing the drum keys on his mother’s at-home organ in Terrell while he was still in a high chair.
Seeing his musical talent, Yvonne Lovell and her husband attempted to get him into piano lessons at a young age. He refused until a drum teacher advised him to do so. His love for music, specifically drumming, flourished. He later played in the band at Mesquite High School.
After a short stint at Dallas College Eastfield Campus, he returned home to Terrell and told his mother he was never going back to school.
“He said, ‘Because I know more than they do,’ and he wasn’t being facetious,” she said. “It was true. Chad was just brilliant, but he wasn’t overt with it. He was very kind. He was just Chad.”
Chad Lovell became one of two drummers for Course of Empire, an alternative rock band, which toured and produced three albums from 1988 to 1998, according to the band’s website.
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When the band separated, Lovell became a sound engineer at the Curtain Club in Deep Ellum and worked for Deep Ellum Radio.
Kerry Crafton, a Deep Ellum producer and engineer, said he and Lovell immediately bonded when they met 15 years ago. He described Lovell’s impact on Deep Ellum’s music scene in one word: “Inestimable.”
Crafton recalled Lovell’s spontaneous 53rd birthday celebration late one night at several bars in Deep Ellum as one of his fondest last memories together before his accident.
“He worked hard, and he wanted everybody to sound great,” Crafton said. “He was always gracious and kind to everybody, but then he could also tell it like it is if he needed to, no doubt. But he was just a great, just a great graceful soul.”
In 2019, Lovell fell in his home, suffering traumatic brain injuries, leaving doctors to predict he would not live more than four days. He was diagnosed with “unresponsive wakefulness” and lived for seven years after, moving in and out of several nursing homes, according to his mother.
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Family and friends shared updates on his recovery on an “Official Chad Lovell Update” Facebook page with almost 2,000 members. In 2021, friends hosted the sold-out “Love for Lovell” show at Club Dada in Deep Ellum to raise money for his recovery.
Crafton said he hopes his friend is remembered as a musical soul, powerful musician and great person, but more specifically for how he was in his prime as the Course of Empire drummer.
“With his sticks raised in the air, and just the look of determination on his face, and his ugly sunglasses cocked back on his head – that’s fun Chad. That’s how I remember it,” Crafton said.
Family and friends planned to gather Friday evening at the Max Slayton Funeral Chapel in Terrell, according to the funeral chapel website. Friends are also in the process of adding a tree memorial in Chad Lovell’s honor in Deep Ellum around his birthday in August, according to his mother.