Screenshot of Chad Lovell from his obituary on Max Slayton Funeral’s website
Chad Lovell, a drummer for the band Course of Empire and sound engineer at the Curtain Club in Deep Ellum, died July 21 from complications of a traumatic brain injury sustained in a 2019 fall. He was 59.
For decades, Lovell helped shape Dallas’ music scene both onstage and behind the scenes. In Course of Empire, he helped define the city’s alternative rock movement during the late 1980s and 1990s. Offstage, he worked as a sound engineer at Club Clearview before spending years at the Curtain Club, where he supported countless local and touring musicians, according to the Dallas Observer.
In 2022, the Dallas music community rallied together for Lovell and his family in continued live concerts and an auction benefit called Love for Lovell.
Friends, family and fellow musicians gathered July 24 in Lovell’s hometown of Terrell to celebrate his life and legacy. According to Lovell’s mother in The Dallas Morning News article, friends plan to add a tree memorial in Deep Ellum in August around Lovell’s birthday.
