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[gentle music]
-[film reel whirring] -[light ethereal music]
-[footsteps] -[rattling]
[Kevin] If you would've told me 30 years ago
that I'd be carrying around a broken statue
of the Virgin Mary talking about God,
I'd say, "Are you high?"
[upbeat music]
-[inaudible chatter] -[indistinct shouting]
Will there be another Kevin Matthews?
-No. -[crowd cheering]
-Let's party! -[inaudible chatter]
Well, everybody knows who Kevin is.
-Kevin is a genius. -There's, there's just no one like him.
I thought he was insane. Like, a lot of people thought he was insane.
-[cheering continues] -[Charlie] It was amazing. It was like a religion.
Turn on the radio in the morning, listen to Kevin Matthews.
-[static] -This is Ben Stiller.
You're listening to Kevin Matthews.
Hi, I'm Chris Farley! You're listening
toThe Kevin Matthews Show.
There was once upon a time this thing called radio.
And in Chicago, it was th-- it was the,
it was the, the pinnacle.
It was the, the place. Not New York, not LA.
We were superstars.
-I-- I'm not kidding you. -[Larry] 99% of people
-tune in to radio at some point during the week. -Hi, this is Mike Ditka,
and you're listening toThe Kevin Matthews Show.
This is Peter Frampton. You're listening
-to Kevin Matthews. -[Mitch] Radio was
a companion. Radio was a friend
you were listening to in your car,
you were listening to in your office.
And Kevin was with you. You know, you could take Kevin with you
and his cast of characters anywhere you went.
[Larry] The Loop formerly was WLUP-FM
and WLUP-AM.
[Tom] So, when you got your first car,
you kinda dialed in the radio station,
you pulled out the button, you set it back in,
and then that station was set.
This was the station that you set on your radio first,
number one, and it rarely left that part of the dial.
[Mitch] The Loop was high school with money.
In Chicago radio history,
there will be nothing like it. There was nothing like it.
When Kevin or Jonathon Brandmeier
or Steven Gary or Danny Bonaduce would walk down the street,
people would be in awe.
And Kevin was one of them. He was on the Mount Rushmore
of The Loop and Chicago Radio and it will ever be that way.
[Tom] The quality of talent of radio at that time,
uh, with Kevin, you'll never see it again.
[Kevin] We had ten million people listening to us a week.
We were The Rolling Stones of radio.
We owned Chicago.
[static]
[light ethereal music]
I am Kevin Matthews and I'm from Jupiter.
Um, where am I from?
[exhales] I'm from, uh, Pontiac, Michigan.
We lived in a really tough area of Pontiac.
I didn't know how little we had until I got older.
I had problems reading or writing,
and I learned as an adult.
I have dyslexia, you know, really bad dyslexia.
So, I was the kind of a kid they just, you know...
[stutters] "We don't know what's wrong with him, just...
[grunting] whatever. He's a mutt," you know.
I needed to make people laugh,
so I wouldn't get beat up.
I had to make my dad laugh,
and he'd have neighbors over,
and they'd have cocktails.
And then, "Kevin, come out, you little circus monkey,
do your funny voice," you know, and I did.
I used to-- u-- be barefoot, walk on my toes,
and I could im-- uh, impersonate, uh, President Kennedy.
So, if I made him laugh, he wasn't hitting me.
[music continues]
[clicks]
I just always used laughter as, um,
a way to escape death.
[inhales, scoffs]
Think of that, you know, um, that's pretty sad.
[static]
It was growing up at a time,
you know, I saw people die on TV.
Oswald, Kennedy, Jack Ruby. You know, I'm a little kid.
People were crying and they were dying
over in this place called Vietnam.
My mom said that I always used to talk to myself, you know,
and I didn't have a lot of friends, really,
so I didn't h-- I would make up friends.
You know, I had-- I, I used my imagination.
I'd make up friends or I would talk to people.
You know, I would talk to God.
And, you know, there'd be so many times,
if I'm really little and there's fighting downstairs,
you know, I'm third grade and I'm crying.
I'd just ask God to kill me, you know, I--
uh, I'm a new little Catholic.
I hear about this God...
...who's in heaven. Well, I don't wanna be here, so kill me.
[light melancholic music]
You know, my brother and I, you know, we'd break windows,
set fires, M-80s, steal out of this grocery store.
T-- and then, you know, I get kicked out of fifth grade.
Fifth grade. How many people get kicked out
of fifth grade? I did.
And my dad came from GM s--
and he had to take the day off. He took me home
and beat me with a breadboard.
I was a junkyard dog.
You had to survive and you had to be,
you had to be mean, you had to be...
Otherwise, you, you, you, you weren't gonna make it.
[clicks]
And then, eventually, what happened is I just got bigger
and I could defend myself. And I made it real clear
to my dad, you know, "You're done with me,
and you're never gonna hurt mom again."
When I graduated from high school,
I was in the Marine Corps fitness.
I was gonna leave high school and go
and become a drill sergeant.
But I blew my knee out and I couldn't go.
So, I took a year off... and we partied.
And then, you know, I went to college.
[gentle music]
In college, same thing. I could get people to laugh.
I'd get a crowd. Comedy, to me, was my shield.
And I had no breaks. I had no breaks.
When I was a freshman, my roommates got pot plants and these long hair.
But he did a radio show at the student station.
So I started hanging out.
And one time, the program director,
he had-- was hospitalized.
So somebody called and said, "Hey, um, can you do his show?"
"Sure, I'll do it." So I went down there
and he was doing a jazz show.
I didn't know anything about jazz,
but there's a section, "Jazz,"
I pull out. "Hmm. Miles Davis.
Okay." I put Miles Davis on.
I don't know how to run the equipment, I'm winging it.
Then, after a while, I'm like, "Uh, okay, skip that.
I'm gonna play Jimi Hendrix."
You know, and it's like, think of the jazz people,
like, "What's going on?" But I did it.
[light cheerful music]
Then, I noticed I could do--
It was theater of the mind.
This is-- I'm Orson Welles.
I can do whatever I want.
And that-- and then, I got very involved.
-[thunder rumbling] -One night, I came into the station,
and it was a real bad storm happening.
Anyway, I just started my shift, and so, I just,
"Nah, I'm gonna play Jim Morrison and The Doors,
'Riders on the Storm'."
And you don't have to say anything, yo-- you just play it.
[rain spattering]
I loved that song because you could literally hear
the rain hit the studio window that looked outside
over a dark campus.
And at that time, there were no cell phones.
People were listening to the radio and they would go,
"Wow, this is perfect. This is perfect."
-[light whimsical music] -So, now it's my second year,
third year, I'm doing the morning show.
So, every student had a clock radio.
And if I'm on at six o'clock, and-- but I'm late,
the whole campus is late, right?
And, wh-- and if this was happening, where-- "Oh, my-- I'm late."
Silence. So I, I thought, "Cover your butt."
Remember Pontiac. Junkyard duck.
One time, I was so late, I just got on the air,
and I said, "Listen, the reason I'm late
is because the whole campus is a crime scene.
President Lubbers got murdered last night,
and there's no class."
[laughs]
Awesome. Well, the s-- campus closed us down,
the FCC took the license away.
I still got a letter in my office from Arend-- from Lubbers,
President Lubbers, 'cause I needed three credits to graduate
and he just said, "This letter will do.
You're never allowed on campus again."
It-- and he was, he was mocking.
He had a great sense of humor, but not at the time
when I said you were dead.
And then, I eventually-- I got hired in Grand Rapids
for my first commercial station.
-[static] -[light jazz music]
I went to college. I didn't graduate,
I needed three credits. I got a letter saying,
"You got 'em, stay off campus."
Got married. My son was born in Grand Rapids.
Went down to St. Louis for nine months.
I was wanting to go back to Grand Rapids,
but they were calling at The Loop
because I used to send Steve Dahl--
I could impersonate Ron Reagan, who was president at the time.
So I was sending all this stuff up as Reagan.
It was really good too.
-[Kevin as Ronald] -[woman] Yes, sir?
-[laughter] -[Kevin continues]
-[woman] Yes, sir. -[Kevin] Uh-huh...[continues]
Uh-huh...
-Huh? -[woman] Who is this?
[Kevin continues]
[woman speaking]
[Kevin speaking]
[woman speaks]
[Kevin speaks]
[woman speaks]
[Kevin speaks]
And they sent two first airfare tickets,
limo'd in.
The studio's in the Hancock Building on 36th floor.
"Let's go out to lunch. We want you here.
Let's go over to The Palm."
So, we're day drinking, you know. It's 11:00.
I signed my contract on a napkin,
a cocktail napkin. The rest is history.
-[static] -[man 1] From Chicago,
it'sThe Kevin Matthews Show.
[man 2] Kevin Matthews is AM 1000.
Our number 591-WLUP.
Welcome to Chicago's Loop, AM 1000.
-[light inspirational music] -Chicago at that time was the perfect storm.
-[crowd cheering] -Michael Jordan is a Chicago Bull.
The '85 Bears just won the Super Bowl.
You have this new lady, Oprah, she's in town.
And so, the country was watching what was going on in Chicago.
Kevin's different than all the other guys anywhere, period.
-[man] He is the voice of Chicago morning radio. -[indistinct chatter]
Kevin Matthews, who got his start jockeying at Grand Valley State
years ago, is now on top of the heap in Chicago,
-between 5:30 and 10:00. -[announcer] It's Kevin Matthews!
[Tom] And we didn't know much about him.
as a personality in the most popular radio station
in the history of Chicago.
And then... [exhales sharply] Kevin just blew up, man.
People loved him because he would turn on the mic one day
-and be a different personality. -[woman] Kevin Matthews in the radio booth
creating his vision of the world every day.
If I needed an excuse, I could c-- create a character,
but I didn't wanna get in trouble.
Again, cover your butt.
Always, from day one. Cover your butt.
If I wanted to do something questionable,
I just made up this character,
Jim Shorts, Richard Baggs.
[music continues]
Richard Baggs. Hmm. "You a driver, Rich."
Oh, yeah, I get it. I'd call him Jim Shorts.
You know, just-- But his real name's Richard Baggs, aka Jim Shorts.
[woman] Kev-Heads know the characters Jimmy Shorts and Devon.
-[man 1] That's another story. -[as Jim] That's a whole another story, baby.
You wanna talk to Kev? He's on line four.
-Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. -And Jim was vile.
Jim, Jim was vile.
Hi, sports fans. I'm back with Kevin Butler.
Kevin, during a game, did you ever have to ****?
You know, the Bears basically beat the crap
out of the Dolphins. That's how I look at it.
If I was riding the edge, the line,
I would just do Jim Shorts and Jim would get yelled at.
So Jim is, uh, my dark side.
-[Harry speaks] -[Kevin as Jim speaks]
[Harry speaks]
[Kevin as Jim speaking]
[Mitch] There were so many people, I think, even to this day,
they think that Jim Shorts was a separate person,
that didn't know that Kevin was the voice of Jim Shorts.
[Tom] My mom heard one time that Jim Shorts fell off
the washing machine and got hurt, and she thought Jim Shorts,
at the time, was a real person. Kevin, man, you didn't see that.
He was behind the scenes on the radio.
He was like the great Wizard of Oz.
-[inaudible chatter] -[Kevin] One time,
I got on the air and I said,
"We'll take the 10th caller
and you get to win our General Manager's office furniture."
Now that's-- ap-- that's a contest,
so you have to give his office furniture away
according to the FCC. So they literally had to give...
[chuckling] the office furniture away.
And eventually, he later found out.
"Wait, that's Kevin doing that voice? Da-da-da."
They had a checkbook. If I got fined by the FCC.
"No problem, Kev. J-- bam, bam, bam, bam.
Right, right. Yeah. Yep.
That's $5000. That's 5000."
It was all the time.
He developed a cult audience, Kev-Heads.
-[phone ringing] -[man 1] Hello?
-[Kevin] Chris. Hi, Mark. -[man 2] Hey, Kev. What's up?
-Hey, what's going on, Kevin? -[Kevin] Steve, you've been on hold
-for a long time. Hiya, Mary. -Hi, buddy.
[Mary] Oh. Hi, Kev! How are you doing? I hate your job.
-[man 3] ...how are you? -[man 4] Hey, Kev.
It was talented crew 24 hours a day.
You know, the reason I got into radio is because of those guys.
We noticed the ratings... ticking up,
which, you know, really caught everyone's attention, it was, like, "Wow!"
And, and middays was a harder place
to have available audience, so it was even more amazing.
A lot of the blue collar, um, people that were in their car,
you know, truckers and, and salesmen and--
just people who would, would find him during the midday.
We had ten million people listening to us a week,
Ten million people listening to us a week.
[Larry] And I think that's when the Kev-Heads,
um, became their own kind of cult, if you will.
[Mitch] It was a club that anybody was invited to.
[Tom] There was a character on his show for everybody.
Yeah, you wanted to be close to him and follow his path,
and that's the way it was for us back in the day.
[indistinct chatter]
-[speaks indistinctly] -Kevin rules, man.
-[woman laughs] -Definitely. Radio has picked up.
-[all] Free bird! -Free bird!
[clicks]
[Kevin] My audience, we did everything together.
We grew up together, we got married together,
we had kids together, we partied together.
If I needed a swimming pool, the listener, "Come on over, do it."
We partied, we did everything together.
[indistinct chatter]
[light inspirational music]
[Mitch] Kevin, one day, on the air said,
"How many people didn't go to their prom?"
And people call, "I didn't go, I didn't have a girlfriend,
I didn't--" So we came up with--
we used to do the Kevin Matthews Prom.
We had, like, 2000 Kev-Heads at Willowbrook Ballroom.
[man] It's Kev-Head High Prom this Friday night.
[announcer] Help out tonight and show us some Kev-Head support.
But I would like to introduce to you
your class president for 1995.
Let's hear it for Mr. Kevin Matthews.
[crowd cheering and clapping]
All right. Thanks.
It's really good to be here.
[Kevin] We partied hard. Everybody.
W-- we were psychopaths. And as they say,
we were high school with money.
[clicks]
Adam Sandler, David Spade, me, and Tina Turner.
This is me when I was on Baywatchwith Pam Anderson.
[Mitch] He became friends with Bears players.
Kevin Butler Buttheads, one of his best friends
because they listened and they'd be--
and they liked him, and they thought he was funny.
Kevin was kinda talking some trash on-- about the Bears on the radio.
We basically kick in the door,
we hold him down, and we duct tape him to the chair.
We wheel him down onto Michigan Avenue.
Everybody knows who Kevin is.
And so, there's a guy walking down the street,
and he's got this big case of, like, 100 markers.
And so, I took money out of my pocket, I go,
"Here, I wanna buy these from you."
So I give him money, he gives me the markers,
and now, people know who Kevin is, start gathering around.
We start handing out the markers.
We go, "Hey! Go sign him. [chuckling] Wherever you want to."
And Kevin's going, "I gotta go. This is my anniversary.
I gotta be home after this show." And I go, "I don't think so."
-[clicks] -[Kevin] We used to do stuff
that I look back at it now, could've killed a lot of people.
For example, I launched a blow-up doll,
inflate her with helium, and then I would put weather balloons on her.
But I would put, "If you find this,
call this number, you've won a valuable prize."
We never told the FAA.
We have-- O'Hare is flying, and Midway.
And here I'm launching a hot air balloon.
Can you imagine being in a United flight
and right next to the cockpit window
here's... [chuckling] an inflatable blow-up doll going at you.
One time, somebody called from southern Kentucky.
[low-pitch] "Hey, I found a, a, a blow-up doll, and it says
if I call, I win something."
[static]
And we'll go for the cheap laugh if we have to. We wanna make people happy.
-[cross talk] -Come on down and hang out with us,
Mancow's Morning Madhouse, as we broadcast live
from the south side. I am...
I'm Mancow. The Mancow.
And that's a stupid radio name, but that's, that's it, it stuck.
I didn't grow up in Chicago. I didn't know Chicago.
I am competing against the company
that is running The Kevin Matthews Show.
And you'll never be Kevin Matthews. Kevin Matthews is the greatest.
-Yeah! -[cheering and clapping]
Come on over! Oh, this is glo-- this is glorious.
This is glorious! This is--
This is Kevin Matthews' BuSpar? Hmm.
Your franchise is dying over there, and they know it.
That dinosaur radio is not working.
He's an a******. He's like a little gnat, you know?
Uh... [scoffs]
...hey, man, life's too short. You know what I'm saying? Life's too short.
[young Mancow] Your million dollar **** treating people like this?
-Well, the prodigal son... -[Mancow] I mean, look,
Kevin and I were put in a very uncomfortable position.
You know, this guy is-- it's 1994.
This guy's the king of the hill, and this is business.
And if I don't get ratings, I'm fired, and I wanna feed,
I wanna feed myfamily! It was--
it was a bloodbath, man.
It was-- e-- every second we had to fight.
We're fighting for the same advertisers,
the same celebrities, the s-- everything.
So, they really put us in a pressure cooker situation,
and they goosed the hatred.
And we, we developed a real hatred for each other.
[engines rumbling]
[Kevin] We were animal house,
but at the same time, I also had Catholic faith.
I'm a weekend warrior. I'm a zombie Catholic.
And why can't zombies-- why do-- I--
One thing I've wanted to work on.
Why do zombies always have to dress so poorly?
That's a side note.
When I was on The Loop, there was a nun,
her name was Sister Honora,
and she knew how popular The Loop was,
and she asked me once, "Can you help me get diapers?"
Because she would take in
mothers who were addicted to crack, cocaine.
And I said, "Yeah, of course, I will."
And I said, on the air, I said, "Hey, Sister needs us.
She wants us to get diapers, but I don't want you
to just drop off one... package of d--
I-- who-- I want people to buy pallets of diapers."
For the years, years, and years, we--
hundreds of thousands of diapers went to her.
Just the outpouring from the audience.
You know, the charity involvement,
we used to do a big food drive,
and Kevin would get behind it too.
The audience was so charitable and they were charitable
because of the personalities like Kevin.
If Kevin said, "This is important to me,"
it was im-- then it was important to us, the audience.
You know, tur-- he's very, uh, philanthropic.
He always has been, he's very charity-centric.
You know, we had so much fun golfing.
Kev said, uh, "Why don't we have a golf outing?"
And we had the first ever Jim Shorts golf outing.
[light inspirational music]
It was memorable, the first one, wi-- without a question.
He got all the celebrities to agree to come out and play.
We had some Kev-Heads.
Well, we broadcast from the outing.
All right, well, Jim, as you can see here, we're here at the, uh,
beginning of your golf outing. Looks like it's shaping up to be a great day.
We've got a lot of celebrities, uh, who've come out today.
[Kevin] In ten years, I got kicked out of ten courses.
So, think of what you've gotta do
to get kicked out of a course.
We did it ten years in a row.
-[crowd cheering and laughing] -[indistinct chatter]
[Kevin] You've got a gallery of 4000 people.
There's a woman who parachutes out of a plane in a bikini,
lands on the tee box, hands me my ball.
I tee it up and start.
And then, we had the banquet and a food fight starts.
Steve McMichael, of the Bears, takes his prime rib
and throws it at Jerry Taft, the weather guy.
Broke windows. Uh, chip-- it was, uh--
The course is ruined. And, and you'd get these letters.
"We're never having you guys. You're sophomoric."
It was just... chaos.
-[inaudible chatter] -We earned $310,000
"for the kids." But by the time the bar bill
and the damages, we gave "the kids,"
guess how much. We made 310,000.
We gave the kids a check for $3000.
[laughs]
And I'll never forget that.
[laughing continues] Talk about a disappointment, you know.
You, y-- you bring out a big cardboard check
and it's 3000?
We tried... [laughing] you know, we tried, for the kids.
-[light cheerful music] -[airplane engine whirring]
I broke Pearl Jam. We were the first to play U2 and The Clash,
Amy Winehouse and Boy George.
I worked with Tim Allen, Jerry Seinfeld,
this is before Seinfeld.
-[cheering and clapping] -I'm doing stand-up comedy.
-[clicking] -One time, we did 65,000 people.
It was a Kevin Matthews comedy jam.
I had Dana Carvey, Mike Myers on the bill.
-Uh, Ellen DeGeneres. This is before her show. -[crowd cheering]
♪ You're just Too good to be true ♪
♪ Can't keep my eye... ♪
[crowd laughing and clapping]
♪ ...off of you ♪
The audience and everybody on the air,
we ran hot. Really hot.
And it was just nonstop. Brandmeier in the morning,
me mid-day, Steve Gary in the afternoon.
Nobody could touch us.
[Jim] ...WLUP. And now,
here is Kevin Matthews!
[Kevin] Thank you, Jim Shorts. Eight o'clock here in Chicago...
[gentle music]
Now, and when I'm on The Loop, yeah, I'm Catholic,
but I'm like, "Yeah, right."
I was a Sunday weekend "look at me" Catholic.
[serene music]
Growing up, I always had a fear of God.
The Catholic faith back then, I didn't understand that.
It was scary. The nuns, you know, they were brutal.
I soon got a big fear of God.
And so, now, I've got to...
...con him, you know.
Uh, "He's not gonna see me do this," you know.
"I," you know, "that golf outing, that stripper.
Nah, he," you know, "it was for the kids."
-[light melancholic music] -[scoffs]
I literally had a priest at one of the golf outings.
Turn around, he's looking,
he's seeing what's happening up on... the green.
And... he just shook his head.
He kind-- "Well, it's for the kids."
He just-- y-- it was a disappointment.
Again, that's a con. "Look at what I--
hey, I can have strippers at a golf,
but it's the good strippers because we're helping kids,
okay?"
And-- so that's the con, you know.
And then, it's-- started to crack.
Satellite radio.
Uh, Steve and Gary broke up, Johnny went to LA.
Larry Wert went to television.
I went to ABC, CBS,
then lot of turbulence.
[clicks]
I compare it to the Titanic.
We hit a giant iceberg.
I'm on deck. I'm starting to lean, I see all these deck chairs.
"Hey, something's going on." People are jumping in lifeboats.
You know, I can't jump, you know.
Uh, I'm a fat guy, and I'll take up too much room.
It's women and children, and, I-- uh, we all sank.
Simple as that. Advertisers,
"We're not getting the ratings we can."
They f-- wanted to cut my pay in half,
but I still making them millions, I'm like, "No, I'm out of here."
And it just collapsed.
And so, I went back to Michigan where it all started.
[water lapping gently]
[static]
I was doing my morning show, I was on the air and, um,
it was 7:16 in the morning, I couldn't move.
I thought I was having a stroke, and they took an MRI.
You know, I went in with my wife, they said,
"We think you have a brain tumor and it's the size of a walnut.
And where it's at, we can't operate.
So, what we suggest is you go and g-- get your life in order."
And this is it. I'm done. I'm dead.
[light melancholic music]
You know, I was an hour away from getting a brain biopsy
and they said, "It's, uh, it's MS. It's a rare form of MS."
And I'm, like, jumping up and down.
"Great! Cool! That's good, right?"
And, uh, and then,
you know, that-- then the treatment for that
and everything, it got real tough, you know.
And, um, it was hard for me to be on the air.
It was hard-- I, you know, I-- the last thing I wanted to do
is radio, the heat, the stress.
Eventually, it cost me my job because I wasn't
"the old funny Kev."
New owners come in. They don't care.
"They wanna see you downstairs. You're fired."
Two weeks notice, and I'm done.
I've been 35 years in radio and I get two weeks' severance pay.
That's it. Good luck.
So, you talk about broken,
you talk about hitting rock bottom.
Yep. There we go.
[static]
[music continues]
Comedy has always been my way of-- it's a shield.
It's my baby blanket that my dad threw away.
When I got MS, what did I use? Comedy.
They didn't know. They said it's a brain-- it--
"We think it's a brain tumor. Where it's located, you're gonna die.
So prepare yourself. Have a good h-- Christmas."
And I, I'm thinking, "Wow, that's a good comedy bit.
You know, my last Christmas. I hope the gifts are good.
You know, I can't take 'em back, I'll be dead."
Everything about it, I wouldn't-- I... saw my MRI
and there's my brain. I said to my wife, "Look, I do have a brain."
Or they're gonna drill a hole in my head.
And I'm thinking of The Three Stooges,you know,
with the... [mimics whirring] I, I can't be serious.
I was so broken,
and it was until I said, "I'm so broken,
I give-- here...
...the pieces,
the garbage, the beatings.
I give it to you, give it to you. Help me."
Boom! My life changed.
[music continues]
[birds chirping]
[leaves rustling]
It's 2009 now. I'm in Chicago.
I have to go see my attorney out in the western suburbs.
And as soon as I get on the Eisenhower, I hear a voice
that says, "Go to the cemetery."
As soon as I get close to the exit,
I hear the voice again. "Go to the cemetery."
I thought, "Uh, okay." And I went and I went up on Wolf Road
and there's this cemetery entrance, it's huge.
And there's a statue, there's a big cross.
Huge cross of Jesus Christ crucified.
And I walked to the cross, it's so tall.
I put my hand up on the feet of Christ.
I prayed.
And as soon as I said, "I'm so afraid, help me,"
water started po-- coming down on my hand,
and it's not raining, it's, it's coming down,
and I couldn't move my hand because of the MS.
I couldn't. It was, it was numb. I couldn't do this.
And suddenly, I put the water on my head
and I poured the water on my legs.
And I can do this.
And I just laughed and I got in my car and I went home.
I didn't-- I wanted to go see my wife,
I didn't wanna see the attorney.
And I said, "Debbie, look it, I can do this.
I went to the cemetery." And a day would go by,
two days, and it's, like, I forgot God.
I was back to my old self. I can use my hand, you know.
"Maybe I can go online again. Maybe, you know, I can smoke cigarettes now.
I can hold a beer. It's awesome.
Thanks, God. Bye-bye."
[gentle music]
And I realized now I wouldn't--
And two years later, I would...
...come face-to-face with Jesus Christ.
When I actually came back to Michigan, you know,
I went to church and I knew Father Mark, this priest.
When I came back, the last thing I wanted to do
was to look at a statue of Mary.
No.
Mm-mm. So I just, you know.
"Hey," you know. "Hey, how's it going?"
You know. You know that, that one.
-[producer speaks] -Uh, it's just, you know,
again, it was, you know, th--
when you have women parachuting out of a plane in a bikini,
you know, it's like, "Enough." You know?
And then, you see purity like that, and it's, like,
"No, I can't do that. I'll go to confession."
So, this is my first confession since fourth grade.
So here we are later. And I give my confession to Father Mark.
And it was after that, I was able to finally look
at the statue of the Virgin Mary in Saint Anthony's and say, "I'm sorry."
[music continues]
Wow.
Okay. I've just lost my job. I've got MS.
Oh, and I just was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.
At least my wife is back in town, we've got a house.
I'm thinking, "What am I gonna do?
I've got a two-week severance pay.
What am I gonna do?" I'm-- like, Saturday, I'm driving. I hear a voice.
-[light suspenseful tone] -"Get your wife some flowers."
I look up, flower shop. I pull in,
and I look over, and there's a dumpster.
I see this statue lying on the ground,
and I know it's a statue of the Virgin Mary.
And I look, and she is-- her eyes are looking at me.
She's on her back. She has no hands,
she's broken in half, she's covered in dirt and garbage and weeds.
But I'm like, "That's wrong."
[gentle music]
And as soon as I--
I saw that, I heard... this voice,
it's Christ,
say, "Will you deny Me? Will you deny My mother?"
I'm, like-- and it all happened so quickly.
And I turn around and I go into the flower shop.
I'm all by myself. And the-- "Can I help you?"
And I said, "I wanna buy that statue
that's-- of the Virgin Mary that's out by the dumpster."
"Oh, no, no, no, no, that's not for sale.
That's a family heirloom."
And I'm thinking to myself, "I'll come back and steal it."
Right? I'm a junkyard dog. But then, I hear that voice again,
"Will you deny Me? Will you deny My mother?"
And in that second,
I close my eyes and I say, "God, help me."
And I said, "I'll give to the nuns that live out here."
W-- I have no idea what I just said.
I have no idea about nuns living out here.
But the woman goes, "I know your voice.
You're Kevin Matthews.
You, you were on the radio, you got fired."
I go, "Yeah." "What happened?"
I'm, like, "You know, it's a long story." But--
She goes, "Sure, sure." You know. So I go out and I pick it up
and she's heavy awf-- and say, you know,
I don't wanna talk about a woman's weight,
but man! And it took me like an hour 'cause I got MS,
and I wrap her up, and I didn't buy my wife flowers.
And I got on in my car.
The radio comes on, I turn that off.
I hate radio now. I'm never gonna listen to that.
Turn up the heat. And I said, "Mary, I'll take care of you."
[gentle music]
I called up Father Mark. I said, "Listen, I found this statue.
Where can I get her fixed?" And he told me about a monument maker.
He looks at her. "Oh, yeah, we can put her together
and I can put new hands on her
and I can paint her, she won't even look broken."
And that's, that's when I start crying.
I said, "No, I don't want her fixed."
I said, "She reminds me of me. I was garbage."
I've got MS, I'm busted, I'm broken, I'm garbage... [stutters]
...I could really relate. I said, "No, I want it.
Just put it together, keep her hands broken,
keep chips, everything."
[music continues]
[clinking]
[clanks]
[soft rustling]
If you saw the movie Cast Away, she was my Wilson.
I'm still smoking back then, got a mullet, kinda, you know, smoking--
I'd have coffee. I'd see Mary. "Hey, Mary.
[inhaling] How you doing, Mary?
Mary, how are you doing? How you doing, Mary?
Yeah, Mary. Da, da, da, da, da."
And eventually, a year went by. Two years go by.
I've got a Mary in my dining room.
And for Lent, I wanted to recite the Rosary.
And I didn't know how to say the Rosary, I didn't even know what it was.
And I had to google how to say the Rosary.
An Irish guy comes up and I'm listening to him and I'm doing the Rosary.
Father Mark reminds me,
"Hey, you-- don't you owe nuns money?"
I'm like, "Wh-- [stutters] what? Yeah. Wait, what are you--
are there nuns out here?" "Yeah. They're Franciscans.
And bring the statue and tell everybody, um,
just-- the story." I said, "I kept her broken because,"
I said, "we're all broken and we're loved by God."
[light ethereal music]
And I kept thinking about what he said that night
and kept thinking about that statue.
And I said, "You know, you need to share this story in church.
You need to talk about this. You need to bring Bo-- Broken Mary to church."
And I'm thinking, "Sure." I can't say no.
And I've done comedy.
I've opened for Seinfeld and Bill Hicks.
How hard is church?
You talk about dying. I'm getting no laughs, right?
I'm like, "Oh, man." Flop sweat.
Uh, but I say it, "We're all broken."
Now I gotta do it again at the ten o'clock.
I get done with the ten o'clock, I get done and I say,
"Father Mark, I don't wanna do the 11:30. I am dying up here."
And he said, "Kevin, why don't you turn around?
There were people kneeling in front of this statue."
[music continues]
And it was as though Jesus was saying,
"I'm gonna leave you with My mother,
and she's gonna clean you up."
That's what it was. "I'm gonna leave you with My mother,
and she's gonna clean you up."
And it was unbelievable.
And from that point on,
he knew and I knew there was something special about this.
[inaudible chatter]
I think Kevin is actually my best friend.
Um, I'm really surprised by that.
[inaudible chatter]
Here's a man who's had a true conversion.
Here's a man who loves God so much.
Um, I didn't know Kevin Matthews,
I think somebody mentioned him to me.
Somebody brought him into the church,
and Kevin walked in,
and I was up on a ladder changing a light bulb.
And I was called down and he said,
"This is Kevin Matthews." And I gave no reaction 'cause I'd never heard of him.
I grew up in Canada, in northern Canada,
I didn't know who Kevin was.
But he, he told me this story of this statue that he had in the car,
the statue that was broken and was restored.
When he first brought out the statue,
it was on the steps of the, of the church.
And he opened the box. Remember, she had her own box.
And it was just so simple, you know. She had no hands,
uh, a crack right through the center of the statue,
but her face was beautiful and charming.
[gentle music]
I had this inspiration.
"It's time for Kevin to come home to Chicago
and let's show Chicago this broken statue."
I knew that showing the city a statue of Mary
found in a dumpster with an icon like Kevin that they once adored
would make huge impact. And I, I had that image 'cause, like,
who doesn't know the name Kevin Matthews in the city?
But the events that led to this procession were miraculous.
And when I think about it now, it amazes me.
We had to go through two major police districts.
I'm asking to close down Chicago Avenue.
I was asking for Friday, May 31st, a Friday night in May.
Chicago Avenue is four lanes, it's one of the biggest streets in Chicago.
I'm asking for the street to be closed down.
I went down to City Hall and I asked the lady,
and she said, "Father, I, I don't know if we, we can do this."
And she said, "What's the name again?"
I said, "It's called 'Hope for the Broken'."
This was the name of the event. I put it.
She wrote it in and she said, "Isn't that true, Father?
We need hope for the broken." She started to cry a little bit
about the violence in our city.
She started to weep a bit about-- just--
there was a heartache in her heart.
I went home and three days later,
their permit was, was, was approved.
No fees, nothing.
"Let's show Chicago this, this broken statue
-of the Virgin Mary because it has a message." -[music continues]
The big day came, May 31st, and we thought, "What have we done?
Is this gonna be okay? Are people gonna come?"
Minutes before the actual event started,
there was almost no one in the church.
And then, Kevin and I just prayed and surrendered and said,
"Mary, whatever you want." And... that's when
the people just started coming.
[light inspirational music]
[reporter] We are about ready to have a procession
with thousands of people.
What is the procession for? It's for Our Lady of the Broken.
[Joshua] I couldn't believe it. Walking on Chicago Avenue,
policemen and women from every district.
So, she went from a dumpster to a bed of roses
being carried by police and firemen.
[stutters] It was unbelievable.
And on a Friday night in Chicago down Chicago Avenue.
[Joshua] There were people in restaurants and cafés,
and there were even people who were doing drugs
and homeless people on the streets.
And I remember, as the procession with Broken Mary move--
moved along, people joined the procession.
I wanted it to be for the healing of our city,
and just before this procession, a high-ranking police officer,
Commander Bauer, was shot.
And he left behind a wife and a daughter.
Unbeknownst to me, in that procession that night,
when we got to the water tower, the wife of Commander Bauer
came up to me and said, "Thank you. This did more
to really assuage my heart than anything,
than anything that, that h-- that the city has, has done."
And she was just so moved by this p-- procession.
If that was what this was for, it was worth it.
[music continues]
And we said a prayer to Mary, asking her to heal our, our city.
It was beautiful.
[indistinct chatter]
[clicks]
The statue... [exhales] of Broken Mary has been
at the cathedral here in Chicago.
It's been in the most beautiful churches.
Kevin takes the statue everywhere, you know.
He's probably taken it to churches in every single part of the United States.
And, um, he calls himself Mary's roadie.
So I've seen the statue in some of the most beautiful cathedrals.
I've seen it on city squares.
So I'm very honored to introduce tonight's speaker,
the famed, the only, Kevin Matthews.
-[crowd clapping] -[Kevin] Thank you, thank you, thank you,
thank you, thank you, thank you.
Oh. Thank you, Father, thank you so much.
Thank you. For the next five-and-a-half hours,
-you're gonna know everything there is to know about me, okay? -[laughter]
Tonight is a celebration. It's not about me.
It's about us. We're all broken.
It's a journey of hope.
[music continues]
[Mark] He always said, from the very beginning,
"Broken Mary isn't mine.
She's not the church's.
Um, she's everybody's."
In his former life, when Kevin was speaking
to an audience of ten million people weekly,
he was so funny and he connected to people,
and now, he connects with people even more.
God sent me to a dumpster...
...to meet His son, who would leave me with His mom.
Our blessed mother was there to clean me up.
And I was filthy.
I say she doesn't belong to me. She belongs to the broken.
If you know anybody who's sick, take her.
People started to take the statue.
Hospice, emergency rooms. People were dying with her.
Men walked miles home to the sick
and they would leave notes.
[Joshua] You can never measure success by numbers,
but I believe there's something very deep and real
in the people that Kevin is touching.
He is touching so many lives of people who have been hurting
or broken, and I think those people
are going to affect people as well.
[Tammie] Four years ago, in March,
March 28th to be exact, is-- um, our life changed.
I came home from work that day and found that, uh,
my son had died by suicide.
That completely shattered me.
Um, our family, everything was kind of a blur for a while.
Our real good friends of our family asked me to come
to, uh, hear Broken Mary, the Rosary.
Um, and that kind of turned everything around for me.
And people will say to you, in times like this,
"I understand what you're feeling."
Um, I don't really think that that is true,
unless they have walked in my shoes.
And it dawned on me there is somebody that has walked in my shoes.
In the stations of the cross, there's one station
where Mary is kneeling at the base of the, the crucified Christ.
And... it dawned on me,
"She knows the depths of my hurt, my brokenness.
She was a mom, first and foremost, just like me.
I don't have to tell her how shattered I am inside.
She knows there's a heart that is shattered and it's exploded."
But what's left in the middle is a shattered heart
that is even more beautiful than what I had before.
[light melancholic music]
[inhales deeply]
And that's what the Broken Mary is.
She's beautiful, even with her cracks.
I--
[music continues]
[inaudible chatter]
[Kevin] There's one woman here by the name of Cor,
and I was speaking on the south side a few years ago
and I was out getting ready to come out and speak
and I hear our blessed mother say, "Go to her
and tell her that she will be fine."
Now, I go up to Cor,
and then I said to her, "You're gonna be all right."
And we met afterwards,
and I found out that she's been battling breast cancer.
I was diagnosed with breast cancer in June of 2018,
and I just basically came up to him and said to him, I said,
"How can Broken Mary help guide me through,
you know, my breast cancer journey?"
I was, uh,
desperate. I think a lot of times,
so many people are lost they don't know who to turn to anymore.
Showing them that it's okay to be broken,
it is okay to ask for help,
and it is okay to have faith also.
You're not alone.
And actually, I just had a visit
with my oncologist yesterday
and I haven't told Kevin yet.
-And it's all clear. -[hopeful music]
The cancer has not spread.
[chuckling] I gotta just take that and relish in it, you know?
[inaudible chatter]
Started listening to, to Kevin back in 1996
and I was a Kev-Head instantly. And I said, "You know, I--
I'd lo-- I, I would like to be on the radio.
[chuckling] Why don't I try this? What about broadcasting?"
So I, you know, I followed him as, as my life kinda,
you know, I went to Chicago and then I read about,
you know, MS, and,
you know, it really-- it-- it hit me
hearing all of his interviews and everything
that he was going through while I was going through
something pretty big at the time, uh,
you know, I was, uh, out of control with my alcohol.
Uh, I was, I was an alcoholic and I didn't know it
and I just didn't wanna admit it.
And I was really struggling in my late twenties,
throughout my thirties, uh, feeling broken.
When he comes out and talks about all these experiences
and these miracles and his transformation, his conversion.
And he talked about, you know, how, you know, we're all broken,
but we're loved by God, and, and I, I--
You, you felt-- I felt that way.
Through that inspiration of Broken Mary
and Kev putting himself out there,
Kev being so brave, asking, "I'm all in."
Like, wh-- "Let me do your work."
And I went into this adoration chapel one day after work
in September of 2018, and...
...I just said, "I'm done. I want to be closer with you.
God, I wanna live. I wanna do your will."
And I just said, "Help me to just stop.
Give me the grace and, and strength to stop."
And I walked out of that, you know, chapel
and here we are, just about six years later, sober.
No urges, no setbacks. Thank God it's one day at a time,
but... having that experience of,
of knowing what Kevin went through,
and here's somebody that I've...
...revered and, and held--
you know, it's just such a high standard
from everything he did in radio and, and it--
for it to come kinda full circle that way...
...it is a miracle.
[inaudible chatter]
You cannot understand how we were played like puppets.
And, and we were, you know, we were put against each other.
And, and it-- it's just, it's a God thing that we're friends now.
We have more power together than we had
being big radio superstars fighting each other.
He's taught me forgiveness. And, and we have love and brotherhood.
[inaudible chatter]
And you and I are like, like pit bulls or,
-or, you know-- -[Kevin] Yeah, right. It is.
It's like dog fighting.
And, and, uh, and-- so--
-But we're friends now. -We're friends. But I just,
I-- you know, and I-- you know, I've cried about this.
I've cried about it a lot with you and without you
being around. I mean, I, I--
-you're a lovely guy and, and I... -[Kevin] Than--
...I-- it's, it's horrible.
-You know, I wish I could go back. -I-- I-- But--
-yeah, but-- oh, hey, buddy-- -I'm sorry.
-[crying] You know-- I know. -I love you.
-But it's at the same time. -I know.
-I mean, I, I love my friendship with you.
-That's what I care about. -Yeah.
[gentle music]
When my dad was dying,
he'd ask for forgiveness. What he did was horrendous.
But what I've done or what anybody watching-- can be horrendous.
And if you ask God for forgiveness,
you are forgiven.
And he, he closes his eyes,
and I, I whispered to him, I said, "Dad, it's okay to go.
It's okay to forgo-- I, I forgive you.
You-- go. Go."
And he did. He went.
You know, and it's just-- wow!
A big piece of baggage...
...went with him.
It touched me and it touches everybody that sees that statue.
Nobody's perfect.
And what a better way to represent that
than through a statue of the blessed mother
who is... broken.
People can relate to that brokenness.
[music continues]
[Kevin] What I love most about me at this point in my life
is that I'm so broken.
I'm a sinner. I've done so many things I'm ashamed of.
I'm broken. But I know, without a doubt,
I'm loved by God.
We're all broken, but we're loved by God,
and thank you so much and to my crew
and to my friends here and to Father.
God bless you all.
[crowd clapping]
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you.
[inaudible chatter]
Let me say this carefully.
There are very few people in life that I think are saints on, on Earth.
But Kevin is one of the few that I actually think might be a saint on Earth.
Often, people who are close to God suffer a lot,
but it doesn't take away their joy
because suffering, uh, can exist even in that joy.
And Kevin has that kind of joy where it's not happiness,
it's not satisfaction, it's not relief.
But we don't seek relief. It's something deeper.
The healing God gives is always deeper
than the physical infirmities. There's something deeper in our hearts.
-[inspirational music] -[inaudible chatter]
God uses us with the gifts that we've been given,
and God has given him some gifts
that he can relate to people,
that he could relate on the radio,
and now can relate in a whole different way.
I've never been happier in my life.
[inaudible chatter]
I'm sore.
I feel like Joe Pesci in the movie,
uh, Casino,in the cornfield.
Baseball bats. But I've got so much.
I've got beautiful grandkids. I got a beautiful wife. I've got so much.
God is continually bombarding me with gifts.
God, who I was so afraid of...
...for so long. I've never been happier in my life.
[Mark] And then...
...we have Kevin,
-who leads our Rosary on Saturday afternoon. -[coughing]
[exhales sharply] People don't understand that.
He doesn't hang out with strippers anymore.
He hangs out with nuns and priests.
-[inaudible chatter] -[music continues]
I used to do comedy as a shield.
Now, when I speak, there's no cigarette smoke.
It's not a comedy club. There's no 25-cent beers.
I don't do great. I, yeah-- Do I get standing ovations? No.
Mary does. God does. Jesus does.
I'm just that roadie.
Straps her in and takes her off for the next gig.
I love what I do now. I have less money. I have less things.
It's like throwing out of a balloon.
All this stuff, this weight, this garbage,
"I don't need this." And I'm flying higher.
I've never been happier in my life.
[rattling]
[Joshua] People are looking for a spectacle,
but sometimes, God doesn't use a spectacle.
He came to us in a manger, in, in poverty.
And this story of Broken Mary is not a spectacle.
When you look at her, you're not gonna see anything special.
You're gonna see a broken statue.
And even in the work that she does,
you have to have the humility to see what she's doing,
because what God is doing through the story
of Kevin Matthews and Broken Mary
is something much more--
it's something much more ordinary,
but it's something much deeper.
There's a deeper healing, a healing of the heart.
[Kevin] This is not about me. The story is about us.
[music increases]
[gentle music]
[upbeat music]
[music continues]
[gentle music]
[music continues]
[music ends]