"I'm just that little shepherd dog," says former radio personality Kevin Matthews, who once ruled the airwaves in Chicago. "If I can get them to God, if I can get them to Christ Jesus, He does the rest. He's the shepherd."
Matthews takes a particular route to bringing people to Jesus. First, he urges them to take the hand of His mother.
"If I can get all you broken people who need your mom to clean you up," he says, "if I can get them to Mary, she does the rest. And when I say, 'She does the rest,' she sends them to Christ.
"We've just got a little conveyor belt happening, and eventually they all get to God, our Father in Heaven."
On Oct. 7, for just one night, Fathom Entertainment presents the documentary Broken Mary: The Kevin Matthews Story. It tells the story of just how Matthews came to be what he refers to as "Mary's Roadie."
Broken Mary is produced by ODB Films (based about 40 miles from Chicago) and Family Theater Productions, in association with Windrider and Dynamic Catholic. Tickets for the one-night theatrical showing are on sale NOW at BrokenMaryFilm.com.
Who Is Kevin Matthews?
If you're from Chicago, and a certain age, likely no explanation is necessary. But for the rest of us, here's how Chicago Tribune journalist Rick Kogan described Matthews in 2022:
I first met him on the radio, as a listener of his popular WLUP show, then as an occasional guest on that show and others, and later when we both worked at a station for a short time.
I was never as devoted as most fans, those ardent thousands known as Kevheads, but I have long admired his sense of humor (well, most of it) and his facility for vocal mimicry that allowed him to give audiences terrific folks such Raymond Burr, Fred Rogers, Andy Rooney, Pee Wee Herman and Barney Fife. There was also the ensemble of characters he created, most prominently the cantankerous sportscaster Jim Shorts.
As his former WLUP boss, Larry Wert, once put it, “(Kevin) had a circus going on in his head.”
But all circuses eventually reach the end of the road.
For Matthews -- who was a nominee this year for the Radio Hall of Fame (not for the first time, but he didn't make the cut for 2025) -- the changing radio business caused his career to take some turns (including into podcasting).
Along the way, Matthews received a devastating diagnosis of a deadly cancerous brain tumor -- so, ironically, he was relieved when the diagnosis instead turned out to be multiple sclerosis.
At the same time Matthews was dealing with all that, he chanced upon a busted statue of the Virgin Mary, abandoned in the dirt near a dumpster.
The film tells the whole story of what came after, but suffice to say, his life would never again be the same.
Interviewees in Broken Mary include Matthews' past radio colleagues, former Chicago Bears player Tom Thayer, radio personality Mancow, and even some priests.
Becoming Mary's Roadie
Matthews has written two books about his transformation: Broken Mary: A Journey of Hope (2016), and Mary's Roadie: My Travels With Mary the Mother of Jesus (2024).
Although a long-married cradle-Catholic husband and father, Matthews had strayed from the practice of his faith. Now, he's dedicated to bringing people back to what he nearly left behind, taking his story, the statue, and the Rosary, to tell people his remarkable tale.
To him, it's deeply personal.
"During our wedding," Matthews recalls, "I danced with my mother. And that to me is the beauty of Mary herself is when we recite the Rosary, we are literally gracefully dancing with her. It's her umbilical cord. That's how she feeds us Jesus.
"And so it means a lot to me because it's just ... I have no words for my love and devotion to Mary, to Jesus, to Christ, all through our Blessed Mother. She rescued me.
"And again, I said the Rosary, and I went over to our Lady of the Broken, Broken Mary, and I just looked and I said, 'Man, I cannot believe how much has happened in 10 years.' And it's truly amazing."
It's also something for which Matthews refuses to take credit.
"I look at it, I did nothing," he says. "And this is all by the grace of God. And so much has happened. And I really started to think I've done nothing, but I have listened, and I've listened, and I've listened to the Holy Spirit, and I've listened to Christ, and I've listened to God.
"I've listened to our Blessed Mother, and I'm just doing what she says to do. And that's how come I am her roadie. ...
"I'm a good listener, and I'm doing the work. I can't believe that's monumental. I'm doing the work of God, because I can help. I can do the best I can. We all can.
"We were all born to be saints. We were all born to be disciples. And I'm proud to be doing what I'm doing."
But Don't Think It's Really About a Statue
Although the Broken Mary statue symbolizes hope and redemption for Matthews and the people he's guided to help, the statue remains just that -- a symbol. And like any symbol, it points to something far more profound.
Explains Matthews, "So, when people say, 'Why do you worship a statue?', I said, 'The statue was made at a Mary statue factory. But I guarantee you this, where this statue is, Mary is, God is, Christ is. There is no question about that.'
"And this statue represents the world in which we live in. We're all broken, but we're loved by God. We're all broken.
"All I know is I'm with Mary all the time. I'm with Christ all the time. I'm with God all the time, the Holy Spirit. And I don't have time to argue."
And It's Also Not Just About a Statue
Wherever Matthews goes, wherever he takes the statue, he also brings the Rosary.
Familiar to Catholics and others, the strand of beads guides the faithful through a series of prayers and Scripture passages meant to illustrate the life of Christ, seen through His Mother's eyes.
Matthews has even created two popular apps for saying the Rosary.
Unlike even the most devoted Apostles, Mary was there for it all, from Christ's birth through His death and Resurrection. From the moment when the Angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she would bear the Son of God, she was the first believer.
And it was through her body that Christ came into the world.
For Matthews, the Rosary is an echo of that connection.
He says, "Because, again, the Rosary is the umbilical cord of Christ. I had someone say to me, 'Well, I don't see the Rosary in the Bible.' Because it is the Bible. It is the Scriptures. Mary is seeing Christ through her eyes."
And After the Movie ...
When Broken Mary concludes, the Fathom audiences will have a chance to pray part of the Rosary with Matthews.
Says Matthews, "Christ and Mary and the saints and the disciples, they're all going to fill that theater. So if you want to come and be with them, come and see Broken Mary."
Tickets for the one-night theatrical showing are on sale NOW at BrokenMaryFilm.com.
Image: Fathom Entertainment
Kate O’Hare, a longtime entertainment journalist, is Social Media Content Manager and Blog Editor at Family Theater Productions.
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