Growing up in T’ville with Ol’ Ugly

by Steve Dunford

Kendell Marvel at Old Setter Days in Galatia back in May. (Thank you for the photo, Mary Beth Puckett.)

Ol’ Ugly will be taking the state tonight at Black Diamond Harley Davidson, along side Herrin native David Lee Murphy who has had a very successful country music career, and highlighting the event will be country music superstar Toby Keith.

Ol’ ugly is successful country music songwriter Kendell Marvel, who has written songs for Gary Allen, Blake Shelton, Jake Owen, Jamey Johnson, Joe Diffie, Lee Ann Womack, Trace Adkins, Darius Rucker,  Tracy Lawrence and Josh Turner.  There might be some that I have forgotten about.

Right now the latest hit he wrote, Either Way by Chris Stapleton is getting a lot of air play on country radio.

How we started calling each other Ol’ ugly I do not know. That is just what referred to each other as.  I just know he is much more successful and tons better looking than I am.

I remember him as a kid in the rival town of Galatia, packing around a guitar that was bigger than him.

I also remember him in junior high as a cocky little runt who was the point guard for their basketball team.  I was an overgrown kid, that current West Frankfort Basketball coach Kevin Toney referred to as man child.   He was a young coach at Mulkeytown then.  I had chest hairs sticking out of my uniform, and could have grown a full beard if my mom would have let me.

We (Thompsonville)  were playing at Galatia my 8th grade year.  They were 30 points better than us, but Jerry Warren our coach at the time, showed his McLeansboro roots by having us play their style of ball.

It was early in the 4th quarter and we were winning 14-12.  The little runt was driving on a fast break, it was a rare occasion, but I got back on defense.  I sent his shot into the second row of the Junior High gym in Galatia.  He walked a way with his team having an OT win.  I walked away with a broken right thumb and fore finger.

I was 5′ 10″ at the time and Kendell was probably 4′ 11″ on his tiptoes.  A lot of people thought I would end up 6′ 4″ or 6′ 5″.  I grew a little over an inch.  Kendell was the one that ended up that tall.

At the start of my sophomore year, Kendell started going to school at Thompsonville.  He is from the booming metropolis of West End.  His house sit right on the Saline-Franklin county line.  I have heard all kinds of theories why he transferred. but I think a girl named Randa Kerley had something to do with it.  She is now his wife of nearly 30 years.

He immediately dethroned me as class clown, and I had to take the secondary role.  It was mandatory that we took a study hall.  Both of us made trips to the office during them.  We really never was in deep trouble, we were yelled at and sent back to class.  I had two different teachers tell me that he was funnier than you, but there were times they had to get rid of both of us because they were afraid they would bust out laughing.

All through high school he would be picking at festivals and honky-tonks around Southern Illinois.     He always had the entourage from T’ville and Galatia that followed him around.

One night that comes to mind, was he was playing at a fundraiser at a tavern down in Pope County, I believe it was around Eddyville.  Channel 3 happened to be there.  My mom was watching the news the next morning and I was woke up to her saying Stephen Duane come here.  I came close to going, but I went to a ball game somewhere instead.  I was interrogated for half the day asking if I went there.

We had our senior prom at the student center at Rend Lake College.  We had a live band, they were cocky, but they were terrible.  I remembered some in the band came up to the table that I was at and said how do you like our music?   I said I can get someone out of the crowd that can sing better than you all.

Randa was aggravated at him at first, but he strapped on the guitar and sang a few songs.  He got out of the doghouse by singing the Oak Ridge Boys song  Ill Be True to You, and dedicated it to her.  I went up to one of the disgusted band members and  said he wrote that for her.  He said “really”.  I was lying through my teeth, not realizing at the time he would be one of the top songwriters in country music.

A few weeks later from that event, we were both part of the Thompsonville High School class of 1988, all 26 of us.

A few years later, he was still singing and picking and followed his dream, embarking on a music career in Nashville.

In 2000, he had his breakthrough hit as a songwriter, Gary Allen’s Right Where I Need to Be. I heard the song a few times on the radio, but I did not realize he co-wrote it.  I was heading to work one morning, heard it on the radio, and right after that, Kent Zimmer and Juli Ingram interviewed him on Z-100.  I was thinking how cool I went to high school with the writer of the song.  I also thought that it was someone who pursued their dream, and was successful.

I have kept a close eye on his career, and went and heard him a few times at some festivals.  Every time we would cross paths.  Even though he has a lot of fame and fortune now, he has not changed one bit.  In the last several months of working on this website, some of the most popular posts comes from sharing he has been in an event, or videos of performances from him.

A little over a year ago, he came to church on Easter Sunday at Calvary Baptist Church, where I attend. His in-laws John and Terri Griffith attend there.  At the start of the service we all go around shaking hands.  I tapped Ol’ ugly on the shoulders.  Then he called me Ol’ Ugly, and hugged my neck.   I did some catching up with him and Randa after the service.  I was asked a few times why we called each other ugly that night at church.  To this day, I still don’t know.

A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of hearing him down at Old Settler Days at Galatia.  There were several hundred there form Thompsonville, or had Thompsonville ties.  I caught up with several people from Galatia that I hadn’t seen in years.   There were  He mentioned that he is glad the people from Galatia are still not mad at him for “switching over” to Thompsonville.

He mentioned on stage how when we played each other, how we would end up eating pizza together at Bondo’s in Galatia.  We couldn’t stand each other when the ball was tipped up, but we all became buddies again after the last horn sounded.   In fact, a young Doug Creel banned us from going to Galatia.  There was a little altercation on the stage at halftime my sophomore year at a game at Galatia.

As soon as we got off the bus, there was a convoy of vehicles making the 11 mile trip down Route 34.  We did not have a very fun practice Monday afternoon, that is when Bondo’s  and the whole town became a forbidden place.

I know there will be several of you attending.  Have fun tonight and stay safe.  He will be making appearances at Desoto and Harrisburg later in the year.