In August 1973 Jan Reid was published for the first time in Texas Monthly in what was the seventh issue. On April 20, 1998, he was shot by bandits during a robbery in Mexico City. In between, he wrote countless articles for countless publications, earning his reputation as one of the country’s top writers. This month’s cover story on Lyle Lovett (see “The Improbable Rise of Lyle Lovett,” page 94) is Reid’s first major magazine piece since the shooting. “Surprisingly, the writing was there, and the synapses still work,” says the 53-year-old Austinite, who is wheelchair-bound—for now. “What was difficult was the logistics. Most of the time, when we were trying to get our schedules together, Lyle was in Los Angeles. Heretofore, I would have just jumped on Southwest Airlines and gone out there and done it in a day. We kept waiting for him to come back to Texas, but that didn’t happen, so I ended up having to go see him in New York. And I hadn’t been anywhere farther than the grocery store or the rehab hospital. I couldn’t have done it without my wife, Dorothy. It was good for us—a confidence builder.” Any surprises? “Not really,” he says, “except that the only time we had a bad deal with taxis was on the way home from the Austin airport. The New York cabbies were great.”
