Lovett

June 16, 1999
Web posted at: 4:12 p.m. EDT (2012 GMT)

From Sherri Sylvester
CNN Entertainment News Correspondent

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- Lyle Lovett sees himself as a door-to-door salesman. Granted, not many salesmen have a movie career on the side or were once married to actress Julia Roberts. But the point is that Lovett's music is too unique to fall into radio play, so he's been pitching his wares face-to-face since the beginning.

"I started playing in clubs when I was 18, back in 1976," Lovett says, "so it was 10 years after that that my first record came out, so my musical existence depended on a very loyal small audience for a number of years -- the same 30 people. I got to be friends with everybody who'd come see me play."

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"You Can't Resist It" Audio clip: 185k MPEG-3 Audio clip: 250k WAV Video clip: 1.5Mb QuickTime

Lovett plans to release his first live album on June 29. It's called "Lyle Lovett: Live in Texas." It documents the "small club" feeling and the big Texas welcome he got from his home state in 1995. MCA, his label, lists a concert date for him on June 18 in Midland, Michigan. Then he and his Large Band of 16 start touring on July 8 in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Lovett's most recent gig was a role in "Cookie's Fortune," one of four films he's made with director Robert Altman.

"I'm such a fan of his," Lovett says, "and to get to be a fan from the point of view of being on a set, and to be in a scene and to be directed by him is so thrilling."

Lyle Lovett says he enjoys his forays into Hollywood, but he always returns to his home outside Houston in Klein, Texas.

"My grandfather built the house I live in, in 1911, when he was 21 years old. My mom and all of her brothers and sisters were born actually in the house, and it's a place I grew up in and feel really lucky to live in," Lovett says.