On this day in 1957 in Houston, TX was born a youngster who would end up being known to most people around the world as the guy that first married Julia Roberts. Yes, he is a good singer and song writer and he does have acting skills but I am here to tell you, while all of those are good qualities, those are not his best qualities.
Lyle is a true Texan, not just by birth, but by his actions. He is as loyal a person you will ever meet, just ask the people that work with him on his ranch and in his music career. He doesn’t make promises he won’t keep, if he tells you he is going to do something you can trust it will be done.
He’s a member of the choir at the church his family help found back in 1874 in Klein, TX. Each Christmas Eve service he sings Silent Night in German, the Klein community started as community of German farmers back in the 1860’s, his mother is from the original Klein family.
I can tell you Lyle is a better singer than he is a bull fighter, but he didn’t think twice about risking his own life to save his uncle, Calvin Klein, when a bull named “Cotton” decided to turn on Calvin, back in March of 2002. The bull had knocked Calvin to the ground and was going after him when Lyle slapped the bull to get its attention, when the bull turned on Lyle, he headed down the fence line to draw the bull away from Calvin. Calvin was able to crawl and make it out of the corral, Lyle seeing that Calvin was safe, started over the fence but wasn’t quite quick enough and Cotton pinned his leg against the thick board fence. Old Cotton snapped Lyle’s leg in several places from the knee down.
Lyle was air lifted to the Houston Medical Center, when I got the call from my wife I was working 10 minutes away from the hospital. I’ve seen some broken bones in my day, rodeo has a reputation of producing broken bones, but Lyle’s leg look like it had three ankles between the knee and the ankle. Bones were pressing the skin like they were just waiting to poke through the skin.
One of the most respected surgeons in Houston at the time was Dr. Red Duke, Lyle and Dr. Red was friends. When Dr. Red looked at his leg he was like, “We might just want to take this one off at the knee.” They didn’t, but the surgery to repair it was several hours and Lyle ended up with wires and three “halo rings” on the outside of his leg for a good six months. Calvin had been taken to a different hospital for treatment, and before Lyle went to surgery he was more concerned with how Uncle Calvin was doing, so I had to track down where he was and his condition before Lyle would let them operate on him.
The bull actually was owned by Lyle and he ended up selling it later on, if it had been mine we would have been cooking that bad boy, but Lyle was forgiving. He said that the bull had reacted to something Calvin did to piss the bull off; he didn’t blame the bull at all for what ended up happening.
Lyle is an avid photographer, seldom will he be somewhere without his Nikon camera. He’s a damn good photographer too; in fact I’ve told him on several occasions that if his singing career doesn’t pan out he could make a living taking pictures. He loves to take photos of the concert venues he plays his music at. When the kids go over to the Lovett place we end up with a ton a pictures in the “in box”, of course it’s not hard to take good pictures when you have beautiful models to work with.
He’s good with his fans, he will spend as much times as needed to meet with guests after his concerts, the same goes for church, he visits with all the members after church. He’s also a true cowboy, competing in reigning and cutting horse competitions and he always makes time for folks at those venues as well for pictures and autographs.
His favorite BBQ joint is in Giddings, TX. , it is actually a meat market that has a BBQ pit in the back of the building. If you ever pass through Giddings stop at the City Meat Market, you won’t be disappointed. When I stop there for lunch I always text him a picture of what I’m having, his usual response is “I’m jealous, tell ‘em I said hello.”’ The BBQ is served on butcher paper so it is easy to tell as most places don’t serve it like that. They have his picture on the wall along with a bunch of other famous Texas legends.
Lyle and April, his wife, are good people and live in the restored little clap board house that belonged to his grandparents from the Klein side of his family. They raise older horses and some cattle and now they have expanded their interests in raising young ones. I haven’t been over to see the latest two foals but I here hear they are pretty darn cute.
So, now you know a little more about the man who turns 60 today. Happy Birthday Lyle.
