He has appeared as a musician, songwriter or producer on recordings with sales of more than 50 million units which earned more than 30 gold and multi-platinum RIAA Certification awards.

Turning 18, Mathews moved to Sausalito, California, sharing a house with David Jenkins of Pablo Cruise, making a living as a session musician while writing and producing 'blueprints for records' with Nagle.

[1] Mathews convinced an advertising agency he could get Orbison to license his biggest worldwide hit, Oh, Pretty Woman for Tone, a women's body soap manufactured by The Dial Corporation.

[10] Also in 1977, Mathews played drums and dobro on Glen Campbell's album Southern Nights on Capitol Records and worked with Nitzsche on the arrangements of several songs.

Capitol's Artists and repertoire division pushed for Mathews and Nagle to record their own album as the first project with the label and the duo agreed although the so-called 'band', Durocs, but never had any intention of performing live.

[6] Originally labeled as new wave and power pop, Dūrocs wrote and produced material that was more diverse and explored Mathews and Nagle's interests in the styles of The Brill Building, Leiber and Stoller and Phil Spector.

The Durocs negotiated for a limited edition vinyl series to be released exactly 33 1/3 years (representing the RPMs of an album) after the original record.

[20] In 1991, Mathews moved to Marin County and founded Hit or Myth Productions, Inc.[8][21] Mathews hired his own A&R staff for recruiting primarily emerging artists and bought a split level house in Mill Valley, CA on the edge of San Francisco Bay which became his ideal private recording studio, TikiTown, named for the enormous Tiki statues that surround it.

Van Morrison was one of the first artists Mathews brought into the studio and he loved it so much he set up an entire large room as a gym so he could work out while there.

[8][21] TikiTown is also renowned for its museum level quality of music memorabilia and ultra rare Hall of Fame type pieces.

Dale experienced a renewed interest in his music and earned the #1 college radio record for his Tribal Thunder comeback LP which Mathews co-produced.

[2][24] On January 24, 2014, Mathews helped arrange for his longtime friend, Hal Blaine to be inducted at the 29th annual TEC Awards Hall of Fame at the NAMM Show in Anaheim, California.

"[26] Mathews serves as Chairman of the San Francisco Bay Area Council of Little Kids Rock[27] which provides a nationwide program of free musical education and instruments to impoverished public schools.