HTX+ with Lyle Lovett in Klein: "There's No Place Like Home"
KLEIN, Texas (KTRK) -- Lyle Lovett is a Grammy winning musician who's traveled the world, but he always comes home to Klein.
"It's the place I see the whole world from," he told ABC13 Eyewitness News. "Everything is from this point of view, and my experience here and the people that I, you know, I see people that I've known my entire life every day when I'm home."
Klein is more than home for Lovett, it's a namesake.
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"My mom was a Klein and the whole maternal side of my family is the Klein family," said Lovett. "My great, great grandfather, Adam Klein, was the first client to come to this area and settle here."
Adam Klein, as the family legend goes, left Germany on a ship with the love of his life. They traveled to Cuba, and then to New Orleans.
Klein rode up the Mississippi, joined a wagon train, and staked a claim to gold in California. That was in the 1840s and 50s. He returned to Galveston and then settled in the German community now known as Klein.
He was also among those who formed the Trinity Lutheran church in 1874.
"The church really was the, the social center," said Lovett. "Not just the spiritual center of the community, but the social center of the community as well."
It's where his grandfather and mother went to grade school. Lovett also attended grade school at Trinity Lutheran, and it's where he still attends church.
The fourth iteration of the sanctuary on this site. He marvels at the size of congregation now, and the organ that graces its balcony. Lovett is at home here, and his love for the community is reciprocal.
In November, the Klein Independent School District named its fine arts wing at Hofius Intermediate for Lovett.
He is inextricably linked with this place. He still lives on the family's land near his mother and cousins.
And no matter where he travels, no matter the myriad of distant and glamorous halls on whose stages he performs, he always shares a piece of Klein with the audience, and he always comes home.
"There's no place like home," he said, "I'm fortunate that I do get to travel and I get to see, you know, I've gotten to see the world and I'm grateful for that, but I tell you, there's not a better feeling in the world to me. And then, and walking through my kitchen door or walking into my house right here in Klein."
