The 50th anniversary concert for The Woodlands Township is on October 18th and we were fortunate to spend a little time with the headliner. Klein’s very own Four Time Grammy Award Winner, Lyle Lovett. It was the perfect opportunity to not only look back on both The Woodlands and Klein areas but also about what is important to Lyle as a person and an artist.
With more than a dozen studio albums under his belt, albums like "Lyle Lovett and His Large Band" and "The Road to Ensenada" stand out as milestones, not just for the accolades they received, but for the stories they tell and the boundaries pushed.
Looking back, Lovett sees a life painted in the rich hues of creativity, a career built on respect for musical traditions while constantly pushing their boundaries. He's seen decades of dedicated fans who found pieces of themselves in songs like "If I Had a Boat" or "That's Right (You're Not from Texas)”.
At 66, Lyle Lovett reflects on a life well-lived, a career that leaves an indelible mark on Americanicana/folk music, and a legacy that continues to inspire new generations of musicians who dare to color outside the lines.
The following is just but a brief view into that wonderful conversation.
Your most recent album titled "12th of June" lead song recalls the day your twin son and daughter were born, pot luck dinner, family gatherings and the heavy love you have as a father and a husband. When performing locally, you always make sure your family is there to celebrate with you and candidly introduce them to the crowd. What was it like growing up in The Woodlands area ( Klein, TX) in the 60's?
“Well as you know, when I was growing up in Klein, it was still out in the country. There were still lots of farms up and down Spring Cypress Road, and Stuebner Airline. And there were still lots of farm families there. My family, the Kleins, farmed there since the mid-eighteen hundreds, so I grew up on part of my grandpa Klein's farm place. By the time I came along, he was retired, but his sons kept the farm going. I was able to work in the hay field and in the dairy barn. I had a real appreciation for farm life, mainly because of how it involved the entire extended family. Everybody pitched in, everybody helped. It was a wonderful way to grow up.”
What was it like as far as going to school in Klein at that point?
“Well, I went to Trinity Lutheran through the eighth grade. In those days, Trinity had a couple of hundred students. We always had two grades in one classroom, one teacher for every two grades. It was a wonderful preparation for going to Klein High School. Klein was the only high school in the school district in those days, the class I was in was the biggest class to date, which was 418. My mom was in the class of 1945, there were 15 in her class. So from 1945 to 1975, it grew that much, and then just continued to grow almost exponentially after that.”
What was the first place that you actually played at in the area where you were actually paid, or actually was your first gig?
“It was the summer of 1976, my high school buddy, Bruce Lyon, was a year ahead of me in school, he was class of '74 at Klein, and Bruce and I learned some songs together. We got a gig playing two nights a week at a restaurant on FM 1960 across from Champions, called The Mariner. Sammy Nolan was the manager of the Mariner in those days, and Sammy hired us. We came in and played a few songs for him, he let us play two nights a week there the entire summer.
Bruce and I played on Tuesdays and Saturdays, all summer. That was the first time I’d ever gotten paid to play, and it was just a great experience. From then on when I went back to school that fall, I just kept playing. I’d call around, ask for gigs, and just kept playing from then on. I played somewhere just about every week after that”.
As an artist, I read that you love photography as well. So you take the whole picture. Were there other hobbies growing up as well?
“My parents made choices in their lives based on what they had to do. They both went to work for the Humble company when they were 17 years old. Then they went to night school at the University of Houston, put themselves through college, went to night school while they worked full time. Even after I was born, they were still in school. I got to go to both of their graduations. I remember. They worked really hard all their lives, and they gave me the chance to do things. They made choices based on what they had to do. They gave me the chance to make choices in my life based more on what I wanted to do.
And with any of my interests, from motorcycle racing, which I did growing up, working in motorcycle workshops in Houston and Conroe, and racing off-road races with my parents' support, and help, and involvement, from doing that to taking music lessons. My music lessons used to be in downtown Houston. And my mom, after work, one day a week, she would come drive all the way out to Klein, pick me up, and drive me all the way back downtown for a guitar lesson once a week. They gave me the chance to do things that I love to do”.
Motorcycle Racing?
"I went to work for Richard Sanders when I was 14, my first job away from the family when I was 14, at Cycle Shack in Bel Air. I worked there during the summers. Every day during the summers, then on Saturdays during the school year. Once again, my parents, after commuting from Klein in downtown Houston all week on Saturdays, they’d drive me to Bel Air and drop me off in the morning, Saturday morning, and then pick me up Saturday evening. It shows much trouble they went to for me, to be able to do something that I love to do. And then Richard bought the Honda-Yamaha dealership in Conroe from my cousin, actually. And then the last year I worked for Richard. I worked in Conroe, at the shop that's now Cycle Shack North, which is just off the Frazier exit. So yeah, I've been a part of the motorcycle world since then. We all started riding as a family when I was about 12 years old. In my racing days, however, I rode Pentons and Husqvarnas”.
Your songs, where do you get your inspiration?
“Most of my songs come from observations in everyday life. In terms of songs specifically, they run the gamut from things that are very literal, to things that are imagined, or things that are seen through the eyes of others. There's not just one sort of inspiration for me, it's the whole world around us”.
A favorite is If I Had A Boat. Can you tell us about that song as you wrote it?
“Oh, gosh. Well, thank you. I was 20 years old and knew I wanted to play music, but I didn't know how realistic of an aspiration that was. It was just a lighthearted look from a child's point of view, what do I want to be when I grow up? I thought to myself, "Why can't you just be everything you want to be when you grow up?" So, the idea of that was to be a captain of a great ship and be a cowboy at the same time... The beginning of the idea for the song came from an experience I had when I was about 10 years old, and I decided to try to ride my Shetland pony though a little pond next to my parents' house. We got about halfway, and we both started swimming. I always thought to myself, if we had the right technology, we could have made it”.
Thank you for sharing that! It’s amazing.
“But the real meaning behind the song really was just that I was struggling with what I wanted to do in my life. I didn't know if I'd actually get to do it. I thought, "Why can't you just be everything that you want to be all at the same time”?
This is actually not only The Woodlands anniversary, but it's actually the foodie issue. Do you have favorite restaurants here in the area that you like to still frequent?
“Oh, gosh. Yeah, so many. Are you kidding? Yeah. In the Woodlands in particular? Well, let's first talk about our regrets. I miss Haydn's Steakhouse. New Orleans Sam, who was the original oyster shucker there, worked at a little bar next to the Exxon building. I met Sam before he even moved out to Haydn's in The Woodlands. But yeah, these days there's so many great places to eat. We go to Pappasito's, we go to Goode Company. We go to Escalante, we go to Perry's. We make the rounds, and it's close.
I also remember going to the ice skating rink right after it was built. It was that first part of The Woodlands off of Grogan's Mill that was developed. In part of the first developments, my parents had friends from Exxon who built homes there. We started going to the Woodlands right away. And in terms of having a nice place to go on a date in high school, the Woodlands was kind of it! We had the ice skating rink and The Glass Menagerie restaurant next to it.
So yeah, that was the place. But, just to go ice skating, which I was terrible at, but it was a big deal when The Woodlands started, and it's amazing. It is just amazing what it's become today. And it's rare that we go into Houston. You just don't have to. Our children were born at St. Luke's. We go to the Woodlands for everything”.
The upcoming concert here in The Woodlands, you're going to be working with Hayes Carll. It seems like you guys have been collaborating a lot lately. You also have Jack Ingram added onto the ticket, but what does it mean to you?
“I love Hayes, he's such a wonderful person. How he is personally is reflected in the songs he writes, in his point of view and the words he chooses. The same way with Jack. Jack's got such a great sense of humor. When The Woodlands first invited me to be part of this, I just felt really honored that they wanted to have hometown folks to be part of the celebration, that Jack grew up in The Woodlands, that Hayes grew up there, and I grew up across Cypress Creek, across Spring Creek, that means the world to me. That they would think of me to be part of this celebration. We're going to have a good time. We'll end up singing some stuff together, I'm sure”.
Thank you for spending time with us. One final question. Do you have a “secret sauce"? Is there something that keeps you going, that continues to drive you to reinvent yourself?
“Oh, gosh. Well, first of all, life is always interesting, but family has always been the center of my life. My parents, extended family, grandparents, aunts and uncles, my cousins. I was always especially close with the cousins that I grew up around. But now at my age, having children of my own, the world is just a wondrous place to be, through their eyes especially. For me, all along it's been family. Now, being able to see the twins at seven years old become interested in anything is exciting to me. To be able to raise them with knowledge of my family, and knowledge of how I grew up, being able to tell them stories about their great-grandparents. For them to know their grandmother.
My mom gave up on me years ago, but she's 94 years old now. And I'm convinced that my children being here has kept her going with an extra enthusiasm these last few years. All of that is what's important to me. I'm thankful that I had great teachers growing up at Trinity Lutheran School, great ministers of music.
I feel lucky that my family has always supported my pursuing my interests. I'm mindful of that with every second I spend with my children. I just hope they're able to find something that they love to do as much as I've loved playing music”.
The Woodlands 50th Anniversary Free Concert (You must register!)
Friday, October 18, 2024
The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
Gates Open at 6:00 PM | Concert at 7:15 PM
Register for priority access to tickets https://www.thewoodlands.com/50th-anniversary-concert-registration/.