From Music Lessons to Grammy Awards, Lyle Lovett Appreciates His Good Creative Fortunes

Lyle Lovett remembers the kindness of his early music teachers.

Songs entered his life especially early; truly, he can’t remember a day without them. He’d watch television shows growing up in Houston, Texas that hosted performers, and dancers. Lovett had his own record player and records, listening to them even before he was school-aged. He sang in church. In second grade, his mother asked if he’d like guitar lessons and he said yes without a thought. That’s when he met Charles Woods, his guitar teacher, who never made him feel bad if he didn’t practice on a given week, who let him learn the songs he liked and essentially create his own curriculum—the Beatles, the Monkeys, Buck Owens, Hank Williams. He learned the C chord and the G chord. He struggled with F and barre chords. He read music and played duets in class with Woods. It’s the kind of foundation that makes for a long love affair with the art form and can even, if one is lucky, create a career. Today, the well-accomplished, award-winning Lovett, who has been playing for decades now, is headed out on tour and is celebrating his latest LP release, 12th of June, which dropped in May.