[2] Due to a high draft lottery number that decreased his chances of being sent to the Vietnam War, he dropped out of college and began working as a freelance writer.

[3] Matthews's characters Vic and Nat'ly Broussard are an overweight husband and wife who speak in what some call the Yat dialect and run a working-class corner bar and po-boy emporium in the city's Ninth Ward.

[13] His monumental painting, "Nint'Wardica," based on Pablo Picasso's "Guernica" and inspired by the BP oil disaster in 2010, was displayed at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art.

[3] During his career as a music journalist, Matthews interviewed countless celebrities including James Brown, Brenda Lee, Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Bunny Wailer, Lee "Scratch" Perry, Professor Longhair, Fats Domino, Eddie Bo, Ernie K-Doe, King Floyd, Bobby Marchan, Jessie Hill, Albert Collins, Elvis Costello, Mark E. Smith, Marilyn Chambers, Cab Calloway, Black Flag, Jonathan Richman, Suzi Quatro, Al Green, and 1978 Playmate of the Year Debra Jo Fondren.

He composed album liner notes for artists including Smiley Lewis, The Meters, Earl King and James Booker, with whom Matthews was close friends until his death in 1983.