E-mail a friendLyle Lovett
airdate October 29, 2007
Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Lyle Lovett pushes the boundaries of various musical genres. Initially pegged as a country singer, he incorporates elements of jazz, folk, gospel and pop into his music and has developed a loyal cult following. Born in Klein, TX—named after an ancestor—Lovett studied journalism and German at Texas A&M, where he first began writing songs. He also segued into acting, with credits that include The Player and TV's Mad About You. He was inducted into the Texas Film Hall of Fame in '06.
Lyle Lovett
Tavis: I'm pleased to welcome Lyle Lovett to this program. The four-time Grammy winner has enjoyed tremendous success with his unique blend of music that includes everything from bluegrass to gospel to big band and rockabilly. He and his band are out with a new disc called "It's Not Big, It's Large." Here is some of the recording session for the single, "Up In Indiana."
[Clip]
Tavis: There's a lot of good stuff on this CD, Lyle Lovett, but I'm partial to that song because I just happened to grow up in Indiana where that corn grows. (Laughter) I literally grew up in a cornfield in north central Indiana.
Lyle Lovett: Well, you did grow up in Indiana, then.
Tavis: Yeah, I did.
Lovett: And you went to school there, too?
Tavis: I went to school in Indiana, yeah, so that song resonates. It's nice to see you.
Lovett: Very nice. Thanks for having me on.
Tavis: Glad to have you, and thanks for the shout out to Indiana, we appreciate that. (Laughter) First of all, today's Monday - Thursday, I'm told, is your birthday.
Lovett: Well, it is, that's right.
Tavis: So happy early birthday.
Lovett: Thank you very much.
Tavis: So you're still going strong.
Lovett: Still going. (Laughter) That's the main thing.
Tavis: No, you are not just going - you are going strong. This 16-piece band, you've been traveling with this size of group for how long now?
Lovett: Well, the first time we went on the road as the large band was in 1988.
Tavis: Eighty-eight, yeah.
Lovett: And it was really just an effort to play some of these arrangements that we did in the studio, to play them live. And so I kind of painted myself into a corner, and ended up needing to carry a horn section sometimes, and a vocal group.
Tavis: What's the challenge to - I'm sure the guys love it, but what's the challenge to touring with a band that large for this long?
Lovett: Well, really just being able to sustain it economically. Being able to go out and play places in the summertime (unintelligible).
Tavis: You know MC Hammer went broke doing that. (Laughter)
Lovett: Well, we were able to take the whole band out in the summertime because we play larger venues. This time of year, we're more indoors and smaller places, and can't always take the whole band. But I'll tell you, the musicians that I've gotten to work with over the years are so talented, and they've been so good to me, stuck with me over the years, that it's just a privilege every time I get to step on stage with that whole band.
Tavis: When you say a privilege to be on stage with the band, what, for you, is the value, after all these years, of still being able to do what you do live? You don't have to do that now. You choose to go out on the road. What's the value for you of being out on the road as much as you are?
Lovett: I love to play. That's what got me interested in doing this in the first place, and the thought of actually being able to make a living doing it, to make an entire career out of doing something that I love to do this much just didn't ever seem realistic. And I still love to play, that hasn't changed for me. And what makes playing really fun is being able to work with talented people. Being able to step on stage with, in essence, my fantasy band every time.
Tavis: It obviously stems from your being just wonderfully gifted and open to receiving that gift for what it is, but talk to me about this ability you have to play such a wide variety of stuff. Even on this CD you've got some gospel - as I mentioned earlier, you play some of everything, and not a lot of artists can do that these days, it seems.
Lovett: Well, gosh, it certainly doesn't have anything to do with my ability, it has to do with just liking a wide range of things and I think a person's ability - you're always working on that. But in terms of what I like to listen to, I grew up listening to my parents' record collection. When they were at work, I'd go through their records and they had big band records and they had Lefty Frizzell records and Merle Haggard records and Ray Price records.
And they had Nat King Cole records and Ray Charles records. And so I've always been interested in lots of different styles, and I've been fortunate in my career to work with people in the business who have allowed me to do that.
Tavis: When you say - I'm glad you said that, Lyle. When you say work with folk in this business who've allowed you to do that, there is this accepted format on radio that does not allow a particular artist to branch out too far from what he or she comes to be known as, and yet it doesn't stop you from putting out CDs whenever you get ready to put one out with a variety of stuff on it.
Lovett: Well, I think that must be human nature. I think we're all comfortable with - we want to know something is, and we want it to always be that. And I guess just personally, I've always felt as though there was no need to be only just one thing. And so I've simply just done things that I've liked to do, and as a result I've been supported in doing that, so.
Tavis: When you go about putting together a record and you have a variety of stuff you want to put on it, what thought goes into how much fighting do you do with the record label when you want to put a variety of stuff on and they're interested in radio airplay or interested in what's going to sell, and here you come with this eccentric CD. They're like Lyle, Lyle, Lyle, please.
Lovett: I think one of the secrets to having some freedom creatively is I've never had a song that's been done so well on the radio or a CD that's sold so well that they want me to duplicate that or to repeat it. So I think career has been just under the radar enough, if you will, to give me some freedom. And so there's not a great deal of expectation.
The record company seems to be happy enough with the number of records I sell. I've been with the same record company - companies - since the beginning, since my very first record, the Universal Music Group, MCA Records.
Tavis: You know how rare that is, obviously.
Lovett: It is; it's really rare. As we were recording the CD, I had a meeting at the record company in Nashville and just joking with them I looked around the room and said, "I've been here longer than any of you guys." And it's true, it changes so quickly, and the music business in the past few years has changed so quickly. But I've been with MCA and with Curb Records my entire career.
Tavis: See, that's amazing. Of all the conversations I think I've had on radio and television for years now, with a lot of talented artists, I think that is probably - you took me aback on that - probably the first time I've had an artist ever say to me that it is, I'm paraphrasing here, a blessing to be just under the radar, to not have had a record or records that are so big that you have to duplicate that for your fans so it does, in fact, give you a certain freedom to do what you want to do. I've never heard it quite put like that.
Lovett: Well, I think certainly I wouldn't mind the curse of having a giant record, either. (Laughter) I could try to figure out a way to deal with that. But I think it has allowed me a certain amount of freedom, and I just try to do a good job and I feel so fortunate. The musicians I get to work with on the road and in the recording studio are just so talented, and they're my musical heroes in so many cases, and people that I grew up listening to.
And to get to go in and make a record with talented people like gosh, Russ Kunkle playing drums and Dean Parks on guitar, and Paul Franklin playing steel guitar and Stuart Duncan playing fiddle and Victor Krauss playing bass. It's a wonderful experience, and I just enjoy being able to do it.
Tavis: I don't think any true music lover believes or should believe that every lyric ever written or uttered has to be - how shall I put this - socially redemptive, and yet I get the sense from listening to your stuff over the years that lyrics mean something to you.
Lovett: Certainly narrative does, and just to tell a story that means something and that reflects something that I see in the world that is real to me, yeah, I think I certainly try to do that in my songs.
Tavis: Here's an impossible question, but I just want to give you a canvas to pain on here, since you went there. How is Lyle Lovett seeing the world that we live in these days?
Lovett: Well, gosh, I think the world, like people, like individuals, the world is just an extension of each individual on the planet, and it's a wonderfully complex place where good and bad things coexist. With every moment that passes in the course of a day, those kinds of choices are before us all, I think.
Tavis: You ever think that - have you ever had the experience of thinking once you wrote something that you were putting too much of yourself into it, that you were putting too much of your world view, too much of your politics in it, where you thought you needed to back down a little bit, or never had that experience?
Lovett: I haven't had that experience. I've always felt free to say exactly what was on my mind, and have been well-supported in doing that. I haven't even felt reined in by the people that I work with.
Tavis: I ask that question in part because I think I read somewhere that you might not have been a musician one day; you might have been sitting in this chair. That is to say, that you were a journalism student?
Lovett: I did take - that was my major in school, and I really enjoyed it and even did some TV classes. I look around this studio and I think I got low marks when I had to light the set (laughter) on the show that we did, but all that stuff, there's a lot to it.
Tavis: How'd you end up choosing music, then, over journalism?
Lovett: I just was lucky. I played music for fun, and my parents put me through school. I didn't have to work to go to college, but I played three or four nights a week while I was in college at places where I could make $40 to $50 a night and I could save that money and upgrade my PA equipment and upgrade my guitar and spend it on my music. And so it was just something that I loved to do, but I just didn't dream that it would really work out.
Tavis: Before I let you go, tell me about this CD, the new one - "It's Not Big, It's Large," in your own words.
Lovett: The title is sort of a joke. I always called the band The Large Band because we did some jazzy kind of arrangements but never straight-up big band, and sometimes when you show up with a lot of people, people were referring to it as a big band. But in the musical sense, it certainly isn't big band music. And so I called it The Large Band, and so this is just a - people still refer to it as the big band, and so it's just my way to keep it going a little bit.
Tavis: He is an amazing talent, and I am honored to have the opportunity to talk to him on our program tonight. His name, of course, Lyle Lovett. Lyle Lovett and his Large Band - "It's Not Big, It's Large." I am so glad for two reasons that he chose music over journalism. One, because your music is so good, and two, I don't need any more competition. Lyle, nice to have you on the program.
Lovett: Tavis, you're nice. Thank you.
Tavis: It's good to see you, man. That's our show for tonight.
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