Bob sent us these great photos of him rocking out with Lyle Lovett, former husband of Julia Roberts and famous American country singer-songwriter and actor. Here’s what Bob had to say:
Here’s the truth of it all. Scott Wallenberg (the guy with the red guitar) is a good friend of Lyle’s as they both share a motocross/vintage motorcycle interest.
There was a vintage motorcycle race/event that happens every year in Boise and is partially hosted by Scott and the magazine “Racer X” for which Scott is the publisher. Lyle actually joined in with these motorcycle events by coming to town on his own nickel for the weekend. On Friday night, Scott took Lyle and about 20 other motorcycle enthusiasts to the local restaurant called Pizzalchik (A good friend Mike actually turned me on to this restaurant several years ago). I play a regular house gig there and I was playing with the house band which includes the restaurant owner, Brad Breakell, on drums. Scott is a frequent guest artist (and my very good friend) there and I have played in his band “The Blues Addicts” for 6 + years now. So, Friday night Scott joins the house band who have been entertaining the regulars and the special motorcycle guests including Lyle. Scott called him to the little stage and Lyle plays “Just a White Boy Lost in the Blues” then takes a seat. The room and the house band is pretty charged up and we finished our gig with vigor and energy and I thought “that was that”…
On Saturday the motorcycle vintage racing takes place and all of the participants gather for a banquet after the races at the Red Lion Downtowner hotel.
The featured entertainment is a satellite broadcast of some big super cross race happening where one of the Boise race participants’ grandson is one of the top riders…
About 3:30 on Saturday afternoon, I get a call from Scott saying “Lyle wants to play at the end of the race tonight!” I asked how much time we had to put a PA together and get it set up and he answered “1 hour”. I answered ok and went to work gathering the PA and the lead guitar player Chris Murray (the tall guy with the glasses) who I co-own a pro grade PA with and we put together a high quality mini PA and headed down. We had to wait several hours and eat bad banquet food (it was not that bad…) and at the end of the race, we played 4 tunes with Lyle with zero preparation and zero instruction. Lyle thanked everybody for a great weekend and dedicated his first tune to a young woman named Maddie and launched in to “If I had a Boat” followed by “You can’t resist it” then a song called “Closing Time” that he pretty much played by himself. He closed his little performance with “She’s no lady, she’s my wife” which we all joined in on. Lyle is a very kind and gracious man. He posed for every picture the folks in the banquet room desired!
I wish it could be more romantic but that is what happened. It was pretty cool!