I thought he was somewhat older. Must be how he looks and definitely the hair. Lyle is a treasure from the Austin area although I think he’s more culturally tied to Killeen (a small city northwest of Austin) and he did his graduate work at Texas A&M; there’s a story about him giving his English students extra credit if they came to watch him perform.
Not to brag but I was into his music years before he married that skank Julia Roberts. When I was an intern at WQFM, I was paid in music which was fine since my tuition was already covered and I had work-study for college necessities (beer). One of the records Downstairs Dan gave me was Pontiac. I remember Dan pointing it out saying Lyle was gonna’ be big one day. When I saw that Lyle was on the MCA Curb label, I had doubts I would like it because Curb was MCA’s Country music division. Then again, Dan had good tastes despite working at a radio station that behaved like Led Zeppelin never broke up. Still, being a know-it-all college student, I never bothered playing the record. A year later, I started listening to WBZN, a contemporary Jazz station which would play “What Do You Do/The Glory of Love.” A pretty funny track and it grew on me. After I moved back to Central Illinois, I discovered how to pick up WXRT from Chicago by connecting the cable TV’s coaxial to the stereo. Lyle was a staple of the station so when Joshua Judges Ruth was released in 1992, I was pretty well versed in his current material. My friend Fast would play other tracks and albums on his WGLT show (ISU’s NPR station). We immediately jumped at the chance to see Lyle appear in Chicago later on in the Summer of 1992.
Then I moved to Austin and seeing Lyle Lovett is nearly impossible due to him having a larger following. Personally, I think most of his current “fans” around Central Texas are the same people who only like Willie Nelson because his weed smoking is more public. Oh well, it’s one of the trade offs I’ve accepted for living here. I still get all his records because even a mediocre record of his is better than some people’s A-list material. The memory of his Chicago appearance 14 years ago will always be awesome since he opened my mind up to different “types” of Country music that don’t stink.