Eugene Weekly can say anything about Lyle Lovett here, because, as a former journalist, he says he never reads what people write about him. But, in spite of that, we’ll just let him speak for himself. 

Lovett, a country singer whose music is wrought with eclectic genre influences and sounds such as jazz, pop and folk, will be bringing his lopsided smile and funky Large Band to the Cuthbert Amphitheater on June 22. Though he’s been around the celebrity block, with his ill-fated marriage to Julia Roberts (after dating for three weeks), and winning four Grammys, Lovett will always be a small town cowboy. 

I’m sure that every single journalist you’ve ever talked to has asked you, but you were a journalism major. Can you tell me what brought you to journalism, and why you fell out of that and became a musician instead?

I was just so interested in singing. I started going to college at Texas A&M, and I wasn’t the best student at first. I didn’t know my major yet, but I was involved with a Coffee House Committee on campus which was part of the Student Union, and we had performances every weekend. That’s where my real interest was. 

Finally I stopped asking myself, “What do I want to be when I grow up?” But instead, “What could I possibly be if I had to grow up?” I always did well in papers that I wrote, and I knew how to type. We had a daily paper at Texas A&M, and I visited the newsroom, and I saw just how enthusiastic the people and the students were about what they were doing. They were as enthusiastic about getting the paper out every day, as I was about my weekend shows at the Coffee House. 

I was really intent on trying to play music, but I wanted to get an education and I did both at the same time. I could drive to Austin or Houston or even Dallas for shows, and get back that same night or the next day, and be able to go to class. I did that as long as I could.

Is there anything from your journalism experience that has contributed to your approach to songwriting, whether positive or negative?

You know, it’s all about language. So much of what journalism school was for us was learning how to be clear, learning how to express yourself, and learning the best way to say something that communicates to people. 

I became a staffer for the local paper on the city desk, and my editor was a guy named Jamie Aiken. He would sit down with me after I turned in a story, and he’d critique me. I enjoyed going through what I had written with someone who knew more and who helped me. 

I think it’s the same interest in language and in human nature that drew me to trying to make up songs in the first place. It’s the same thing that interested me about journalism. Several of my classmates went on to be lifelong journalists with jobs all over the world. I could see their potential. I was inspired by their drive.

Speaking of Texas, you grew up in a small Texas town surrounded by family, and you’re still there today. What does family and, by extension, being a cowboy, mean to you?

My grandparents gave each one of their children a couple acres of an old farm to build their homes on. So  I grew up in a house that was just a few hundred yards through the pasture from my grandparents. 

My grandparents’ house was kind of the center of activity so my aunts, uncles and first cousins — somebody was always at my grandma and grandpa’s house. Even though I don’t have brothers and sisters, I always felt as though I come from a big family. We were all very close. 

Family gives you, ultimately, gives you your sense of yourself and your confidence to grow into whoever it is you’re meant to be. It’s that base of family love and support that gives you the confidence and the strength to go out into the world. I’m lucky that I came from a family like that.

I’ve always wanted to be a cowboy. My mom’s younger brother, who’s 90, still runs his cow-calf operation on our place. After my grandmother passed away in 1979, most of the farm was sold out of the family. I was able to buy it back in 1994, so my last work really has just been trying to hang on to my grandpa’s farm place. 

When I was a boy, he had a dairy farm, and now he runs mixed breed commercial cattle, so we make hay together. I don’t know if I’m a real cowboy, but I do participate in Western events, like showing horses, and reining cows and horses, and I love that. 

Back in 2012 I was inducted into the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame. I’m as proud of that as any accomplishment or award that I’ve ever received, because I get to be in there and rub shoulders with real cowboys. 

A friend of mine, a great horseman from out in West Texas, a gentleman named Johnny Trotter, was also inducted in the Texas cowboy Hall of Fame, and he gave a speech that I just thought was brilliant, where he said, “You’re not a cowboy until somebody else calls you a cowboy. Don’t call yourself a cowboy.” I think that holds true. 

I appreciate the Western way of life and its values; the sense of responsibility, the sense of right and wrong, because, when you’re working with and caring for animals, there is certainly a best way to do things. I’ve always appreciated that, the practicality that comes along with it.

Now to talk about your music, critics have a tough time pinpointing your genre. Everybody has been able to call it “country” at the center, but it is a lot more complicated than that. What would you say your “genre” is?

My music is a reflection of different kinds of American music, from country to Western swing to even jazz and gospel. I’ve always been fortunate to be able to play in any style that occurred to me.

I think some songs are better supported by different musical forms. I think a song tells you pretty quickly, what kind of form it wants to take, and that I have a complete handle on how all that works, but I think some ideas are expressed better in a blues format than in a country format and vice versa. So I’ve been able to work within different forms and really, I think of it all as American music.

How does your Large Band contribute to the scheme and sound of your music?

I am so blessed to work with such stellar musicians. We often think of arrangements as I write a song, sometimes in a style that would suit the horn section, for example. So, I find myself writing to the band. Not always, but I do because of how accomplished they are because I know what they’ll bring to something that allows me to think in that direction. We have 14 people total: four horns, a rhythm and a vocal section, so we’re a large outfit.

Playing in a place like the Cuthbert, outdoors in the summertime, makes for a more festive set. I enjoy playing with the band outdoors. Outdoors seems to be just a little more festive in general. And the summer evenings in Oregon and Eugene are so beautiful that it’s fun to keep things lively in a situation like that. 

The musicians in the band are just so stellar. James Harrow on guitar, Buck Reed on steel guitar, to stand in the middle of the stage and listen to them have musical conversations with one another every night that are different from the last, it’s just fun for me every time.

To conclude, many of us grew up listening to your song “If I Had a Boat.” We in Eugene must know, did you ever get a boat?

[Laughs], no, I’m still working on getting the boat, but I’ve got the pony for sure. The image that came to mind when I wrote the song is that when I was 10 years old, I thought it would be a good idea to ride my pony in the stock tank next to my parents house, and we made it about half way across before he threw me off into the water. And so that was that. I always thought to myself, if we had the right technology, we could have made it.

Lyle Lovett and his Large Band perform at the Cuthbert Amphitheater, 7pm Friday, June 27. Doors at 5:30 pm. Tickets start at $58.25 and are available at TheCuthbert.com.