Culture
Lyle Lovett talks about forging emotional connections through music and being in awe of Leo Kottke with WOUB’s Rosie Wong
By: Rosie Wong
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MARIETTA, Ohio (WOUB) – Four-time Grammy Award-winning artist Lyle Lovett co-headlines a show with Leo Kottke at the Peoples Bank Theatre (222 Putnam Street) Monday. The show is a part of Lovett’s fall tour, which highlights selections from throughout his extensive 14-album discography – including his most recent, 2022’s acclaimed 12th of June.
WOUB’s Rosie Wong spoke to Lovett in advance of the performance. Find a transcript of their conversation, edited for length and clarity, below.
It’s my great pleasure to get on this chat with you today. Thank you so much for your time. I am such a big fan of music and recently I’ve gotten into country music and a lot of other diverse genres. So it means so much to be able to talk to you today. So, my first question for you is: how would you describe your music?
Lyle Lovett:
I have been fortunate to work with people in the business from the beginning of my career who’ve allowed me just to be myself, and my music reflects all kinds of music that I like to listen to. Music that I grew up liking – country music is certainly part of it, but also my parents had Ray Price records and Ray Charles records. They had Nat King Cole records, they had Glenn Miller records, they had Bob Wills records. So my taste was influenced by all of that. My taste was influenced by all of that, and my music reflects it.
Rosie Wong:
That makes sense. I play the Chinese guzheng. It has 21 strings, so I grew up playing string instrument as well. It just really amazes me that music really connects people from all over the world, even though you may not share the same language. And to a certain extent, music has its own language.
Lyle Lovett:
Music is emotional. The impact of music is emotional more than it is intellectual. And yeah, the reason music is a great connector is it appeals to the basic emotion in all of us as humans. And if you think about it that way, we as people, no matter where we’re from, no matter how we grew up, we feel a lot of the same things. And I think that’s a really great place to start.
Rosie Wong:
You have over 40 years of experience in the industry. Can you tell me how you feel about your journey?
Lyle Lovett:
In terms of just getting along – my journey has been wonderful. I started playing out in clubs when I was 18 years old – in the summer of 1976 – so, really, I’ve been playing music even longer than 40 years. And in 1976 when I was 18, I would never have dreamed that in 2023 I’d still be playing and singing, getting to do something that I love to do. So I just appreciate every part of my career. I appreciate all the people who’ve listened to my music over the years, all the people who continue to come to my shows, which makes it possible for me to do shows all over the country and around the world. So I’m grateful to the audience, to the people that have supported me all these years. I mean, it doesn’t get better in than being able to do something that you love to do every day.
Rosie Wong:
I noticed that in previous interviews you have said that when you’re making music, it’s about you showing your take on things. It’s a type of self-therapy.
Lyle Lovett:
Well, for me it’s been about taking one baby step after another. But my songs really are based largely in personal experience and I just try to write songs that are true for me. And I hope that if they’re true for me, then perhaps what someone else might get out of a song could speak truly to his or her experience as well. One of my favorite compliments I ever get – it’s actually the highest compliment that I ever get on a song – doesn’t have to do with the writing of the song, but it’s when someone says to me, ‘I remember exactly what I was doing the first time I heard that song.’ When one of my songs reminds a listener of his own life, then that to me is a great accomplishment because that’s what it’s all about.
It’s about underscoring, reinforcing something someone else has experienced and someone else feels, not forcing my experience on someone else, but really helping someone think about his own experience. That’s really what music does. I think it takes the listener to a place of reflection in their own life. And if one of my songs can do that for somebody, I’m really thrilled. I’m thrilled because that means that I might get to keep my job – but my songs really are from my own experience and I’m not writing for someone else. I’m really writing for myself and then hoping that it will be of such quality that it works that way for someone else, too.
Rosie Wong:
That is really insightful. And what you said about connecting with your audience – the emotional connection – stems from the truth that you have for yourself. And I think that’s one of the biggest motivations there is when it comes to making music. There is no such thing as powerful as your truth and your genuine willingness to put your words, your take on things, out there in the hope that it connects with someone else.
Lyle Lovett:
Well, it’s a privilege to be able to go through your life and your career, just being yourself. I think it would be awfully hard to have to assume a character night after night – that’s sort of unsustainable. And I’ve considered myself lucky that my audience accepts me for how I am and who I am and I can walk on stage and relax and just be there with the audience.
Rosie Wong:
I know that you’ve been on tour this whole month. Have there been any things that have blown your mind so far?
Lyle Lovett:
Oh gosh, well, the very first show we did on this tour was with my band, and we played Carnegie Hall, which is an extraordinary experience. I played there before, but every time I get to step into that building and onto that stage, it’s just a wonderful experience. And then the next week of the tour I did with Chris Isaac, who’s one of my favorite people and favorite singer songwriters. And then now the last almost three weeks I’ve been out with Leo Kottke, who is just a master of the instrument and one of my dear friends in the business.
We met in 1986 and played shows together through the late ‘80s and into the ‘90s. And to reconnect with Leo and get to spend time with him and ride on the bus with him has been just a pleasure. And there’s nobody who plays guitar the way Leo does. It’s his style. It’s just impossible to emulate. And the way he plays is so, gosh – it’s so deep and so masterful that I sit there and I feel like I’m in the presence of one of the great masters every night as I sit on stage with Leo.
So it’s been a fun tour. In the summertime, I’m out with my large band usually. And so the contrast between playing with 14 other people on stage to just playing solo and being on stage with only one other person, that contrast is fun to experience. Going from making a lot of sound to making a very intimate sound. I enjoy that kind of contrast in doing these shows. And we’re playing smaller halls that make it possible to fill the room with one voice and one guitar. So that’s a great feeling as well. You feel as if you’re talking individually to each person in the audience. And I enjoy that very much.
Rosie Wong:
Just to go off of that point, I watched some of your previous performances available online and I also watched Leo’s performances online as well. Even though it’s through a screen, I can just tell that you’re really immersed in the moment. So I’m curious: could you talk about your experience – in terms of being reflective while you are trying to reach deep within yourself and your truth while collaborating with others? How does that feel to you? It seems like it’s a very transformative moment.
Lyle Lovett:
Well, you said it already. It is just being there, being present, being in the moment and listening. I mean so much of playing music is about listening. Listening to people in your band, listening in general. And in the case of these shows, I love listening to Leo Kottke and oftentimes I don’t know what I might play next until Leo is playing the song just before I play what he chooses to do. The songs he plays, what he says between songs, all of that influences my next selection. So being that spontaneous, being that in the moment, as the performance unfolds on stage – is extra fun. We’re not going on stage and simply doing a performance that we’ve worked out. We are just on stage being ourselves right then, and we wait to see what is going to happen next. And that’s always fun.
Lyle Lovett performs with Leo Kottke Monday at the Peoples Bank Theatre. Find more information and a full list of Lovett’s upcoming performances at this link.