Lyle Pearce Lovett (born November 1, 1957) is an American country singer-songwriter and actor. Active since 1980, he has recorded 14 albums and released 25 singles including the number 10 hit on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, "Cowboy Man". Lovett has won four Grammy Awards including Best Male Country Vocal Performance and Best Country Album. His most recent album is 12th of June, released in 2022.
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Early life
Lovett was born in Houston and grew up in the nearby community of Klein, Texas. He is the son of William Pearce and Bernell Louise (née Klein) Lovett, a marketing executive and training specialist, respectively. Lyle grew up in the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod. He graduated from Texas A&M University with Bachelor of Arts degrees in German and journalism in 1980. In the early 1980s, he often played solo acoustic sets at the small bars just off the A&M campus.
Career
Lovett began his music career as a singer-songwriter. By the early 1980s, Lovett distinguished himself in the burgeoning Texas folk acoustic scene. He performed in the New Folk competition at the Kerrville Folk Festival in 1980 and 1982. An American singer, Buffalo Wayne, whom he met in 1978 during a college trip to Germany, invited Lovett to play with him at the 1983 Schueberfouer funfair in Luxembourg. The owner of the fair was a fan of the Phoenix house band J. David Sloan and the Rogues. He invited the Rogues to perform the event and Lovett was encouraged by band members Ray Herndon and Matt Rollings to sit in with the group. They performed some of Lovett's songs and Lovett later said it opened his eyes to what his songs could sound like with proper backing. At the time, he had never sungwith a band.
In 1984, Lovett recorded 18 songs after n Sloan and band member Billy Williams offered him deal on studio time, first day free. The demo tape of the first four songs led to his first record deal and ten of the songs recorded with the Rogues became Lovett's self-titled debut album. Some of the Rogues players including Herndon, Matt McKenzie, Rollings, and Williams played in Lovett's band. Williams produced or co-produced several of his albums from 1987 to 2007. Through the Rogues he met Francine Reed, who began recording with him in 1985 and toured with him for decades. In 2022, reliving his Phoenix connection, Lovett said,It led to a demo tape, an album and now, this rolling Thanksgiving tour... It's all because of running into this band in Luxembourg. That's a long way to get to Phoenix from Texas. It's a lot shorter if you just do I-10.
Lovett signed with MCA Records in 1986 and released his eponymous debut album. He sang harmony vocals on Nanci Griffith's The Last of the True Believers album (1986). While typically associated with the country genre, Lovett's compositions often incorporate folk, swing, blues, jazz and gospel music as well as more traditional country & western styling. He has won four Grammy Awards, including Best Country Album (1996 for The Road to Ensenada), Best Country Duo/Group with Vocal (1994 for "Blues For Dixie" with the Texas swing group Asleep at the Wheel), Best Pop Vocal Collaboration (1994 for "Funny How Time Slips Away" with Al Green) and Best Country Male Vocal (1989 for Lyle Lovett and His Large Band). In 1995, Lovett performed a duet of "You've Got a Friend in Me" with Randy Newman for Toy Story. He plays Collings acoustic guitars.
Lovett acted in a number of films, notably four for director Robert Altman: The Player (1992), Short Cuts (1993), Prêt-à-Porter (1994), and Cookie's Fortune (1999). He also composed the score for the director's Dr. T & the Women (2000). Some of his other film roles include Bastard Out Of Carolina (1996), The New Guy (2002), Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007), and a humorous role in Angels Sing, a family Christmas film (alongside fellow actors and musicians such as Harry Connick, Jr., Connie Britton, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson). His television acting forays include guest roles on Mad About You and Castle, a recurring role on The Bridge (as Flagman, a lawyer), and appearances as himself on Dharma & Greg and Brothers & Sisters.
Personal life
Lovett married actress Julia Roberts after meeting her on the set of The Player. Following a three-week romance, they eloped and married in June 1993 in Marion, Indiana. In March 1995, they divorced after less than two years of marriage. Career demands were cited as the reason for the breakup, and they remained friends.
Lovett became engaged to film and music producer April Kimble in 2003; they married in 2017. The couple's twin son and daughter were born June 12, 2017. Lovett chose the date for the title of his 2022 album 12th of June. On the album, the song “Her Loving Man” is an ode to his wife. The family's home is an East Texas farm, homesteaded by Lovett's great-great-grandfather in the early 1850s.
On March 28, 2002, Lovett was trapped by a bull against a fence on his uncle's farm in Klein, Texas, before being pulled to safety. He fully recovered after six months from a badly broken leg, and he began touring again in summer 2003.
Lovett was given an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters by the University of Houston on May 15, 2010, at its general commencement ceremony. His mother was in the audience as her son was presented with an honorary doctorate from the same university from which she had received her bachelor's degree in 1960. His father was also a graduate of the Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture of the University of Houston. In 2015, Lovett received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Texas A&M University.
Lyle Lovett is a horse enthusiast and co-owns and competes in reining competitions with his world class Quarter Horse named Smart And Shiney. In 2012, Lovett was inducted into the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame. In 2018, he was awarded the National Reining Horse Association Lifetime Achievement Award in the National Reining Horse Association Hall of Fame.
Discography
Lyle Lovett (1986)
Pontiac (1987)
Lyle Lovett and His Large Band (1989)
Joshua Judges Ruth (1992)
I Love Everybody (1994)
The Road to Ensenada (1996)
Step Inside This House (1998)
My Baby Don't Tolerate (2003)
It's Not Big It's Large (2007)
Natural Forces (2009)
Release Me (2012)
12th of June (2022)
Filmography
Musician
Still Alice (2014) — song performer "If I Had A Boat"; songwriter for Karen Elson's performance of same
The Bridge (TV series, 2014)
True Blood (TV series, episode "I Will Rise Up", 2009) — song performer "I Will Rise Up"
Walk Hard (2007) — song performer "Walk Hard"
Deadwood (TV series, episode "Bullock Returns to the Camp", 2005) — song performer "Old Friend" (1994)
The Exonerated (TV movie, 2005) — song performer "Amazing Grace"
The Interpreter (2005) — song performer "If I Had a Boat"
61* (TV movie, 2001) — song performer "Nobody Knows Me"
All Over the Guy (2001) — song performer and composer "She Makes Me Feel Good" and "The Blues Walk"
Dr. T & the Women (2000) — Song performer and composer and also used a recording of "You've Been So Good Up to Now" (1992), "She's Already Made Up Her Mind" (1992), "Ain't It Something" (1994)
For Love of the Game (1999) — song performer "Summer Wind"
Stuart Little (1999) — song performer "Walking Tall"
Mumford (1999) — song performer "Ballad of the Snow Leopard and The Tanqueray Cowboy", "Till It Shines"
Clay Pigeons (1998) — song performer "Teach Me About Love"
Hope Floats (1998) — song performer "Smile"
Theatre
Actor
Much Ado About Nothing (The Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles, 2010) – Balthazar
Composer
Much Ado About Nothing (The Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles, 2010)
Honors
Grammy Awards
The Grammy Awards are awarded annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Lovett has won four awards from 17 nominations.
