{"id":248664,"date":"2025-09-23T10:19:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T10:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/248664\/"},"modified":"2025-09-23T10:19:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T10:19:11","slug":"talking-to-kevin-matthews-about-his-broken-mary-movie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/248664\/","title":{"rendered":"Talking to Kevin Matthews about his “Broken Mary” movie"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hello Kevheads.<\/p>\n

Been a while. So, how are you? Getting older, I know. Tell me about it. Changed jobs a few times, right? Kids grown? Same husband or wife? What are you doing for fun? Still getting high? Still going to concerts? So expensive now, right? Still dreaming of the good old days, the sights and sounds of your carefree youth?<\/p>\n

Welcome back, then, to radio\u2019s Kevin Matthews, one of the icons from our collective past, who returns in a new movie that shows him in a surprising way. \u201cBroken Mary: The Kevin Matthews Story\u201d premieres in movie theaters on Oct. 7.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a one-night-only event, but it is a terrific movie, a Fathom Entertainment presentation handsomely produced by locally-based ODB Films and Family Theater Productions in association with Windrider and Dynamic Catholic (tickets at BrokenMaryFilm.com<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The first half of the hourlong film will evoke the most memories, as it details Matthews rise from childhood in Pontiac, Michigan, when he suffered from dyslexia, a quick-tempered father and the discovery that he could \u201cuse comedy as a shield\u201d; college and his first brush with radio, which he felt was \u201can escape \u2026 a theater of the mind,\u201d he told me; arrival at Chicago\u2019s WLUP, where he joined Jonathon Brandmeier and Steve Dahl and Garry Meier in a stunningly successful daily lineup; his vocal mimicry of such people as Fred Rogers, Andy Rooney and Pee Wee Herman, and creation of such characters as the irascible sportscaster Jim Shorts; big money, big ratings, wild times.<\/p>\n

Kevheads, the term for Matthews\u2019 fans, will notice that many of those wild times are treated with kid gloves in the movie. That\u2019s understandable but know that they were anything but sedate, their antics still talked about in hushed barroom conversations. (Take a deeper dive via \u201cThe Loop Files: An Oral History of the Most Outrageous Radio Station Ever,\u201d<\/a> by Rick Kaempfer),<\/p>\n

\"FormerFormer Chicago DJ\u00a0Kevin Matthews\u00a0on Feb. 23, 2022. (E. Jason Wambsgans\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

When it came to an end, Matthews retreated to Michigan, did a bit of podcasting and brooding and in 2009 was diagnosed with a rare type of multiple sclerosis, the often-debilitating disease of the brain and spinal cord.<\/p>\n

And then along comes Mary, in the form of a shattered statue of the Virgin Mary he finds by a garbage dumpster. He keeps it and it gives him \u2014 he was raised Catholic \u2014 renewed faith. It also led to a 2016 book, \u201cBroken Mary: A Journey of Hope\u201d as well as frequent appearances and talks at churches.<\/p>\n

I reconnected with Matthews<\/a> about four years ago, driving up to his Big Events Studios, a massive 100-year-old facility in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he was running a business that made commercial videos and shot photos for major corporations.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people think I died,\u201d he said at the time.<\/p>\n

But he was busy, telling me about this film and other ventures.<\/p>\n

Talking Sunday on the phone, he told me that the documentary was six years in the making, begun after a church talk on the West Coast six years ago when he was approached by two producers with the idea.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has never been about me,\u201d he said Monday. \u201cI just listened to God and allowed the filmmakers to do what they did. And they have been able to capture my message, that we are all broken and we are loved by God.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the documentary\u2019s slight faults, to my mind, is that it barely mentions his wife Debra, daughter Teage and her children or son Trevor Menear, a musician based in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

\u201cAgain, this is not about me but we are all fine,\u201d Matthews says.<\/p>\n

He is powerfully the film\u2019s center. He looks good and healthy and offers thoughtful, introspective commentary. Last year he published \u201cMary\u2019s Roadie: My Travels with Mary the Mother of Jesus,\u201d about his spreading his essential message.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe faithful walk down Chicago Avenue from St. John Cantius Church to the Chicago Water Tower, May 31, 2019. Former Chicago radio host Kevin Matthews had a spiritual awakening after finding a broken statue of the Virgin Mary beside a dumpster and it was the centerpiece of the walk. (Chris Sweda\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

Also featured in the film are former radio colleagues such as his boss at WLUP, Larry Wert, who once famously described called Matthews a man who \u201chad a circus going on in his head\u201d; Mitch Rosen, radio executive and once Matthews\u2019 producer at WLUP; former Chicago Bear and radio voice Tom Thayer and, most intriguingly, radio\u2019s Erich \u201cMancow\u201d Muller, who refers to his ratings battle with Matthews as a \u201cbloodbath\u201d before happily admitting that they are now friends.<\/p>\n

We do see and hear from some from the Broken Mary years, a couple of priests who are quite admiring and a couple of parishioners who were helped \u2014 though cancer and alcoholism \u2014 by hearing Matthews talk.<\/p>\n

So I asked him what he expects from this film, his new book, the future?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be in 1,000 theaters. There is a billboard about it now on Hollywood Boulevard,\u201d he says, adding that he will be at an Orland Park screening on Oct. 7. \u201cI am proud of it. It is a movie about all of us and I just hope that people like it, that\u2019s my modest expectation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, I have heard a few cynics who think Matthews\u2019 \u201cBroken Mary\u201d endeavor is what one called, \u201cjust another in the series of Kevin creations, nothing to take seriously.\u201d Too bad. In this increasingly cynical world such suspicions are not rare. But in the words of an old song, \u201clet it be.\u201d See the movie. Judge for yourself.<\/p>\n

rkogan@chicagotribune.com<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

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