Lovett was attempting to rescue his uncle, Calvin Klein, 67, who was thrown by the bull and mauled while Klein was working on his farm. Lovett, who was visiting his uncle’s farm near Tomball at the time, rushed to help.

Lovett slapped the bull away from Klein using his cap. The bull, named Cotton, is Lyle’s pet; it turned on the singer, chasing him to a fence. It pinned Lovett’s leg against the rail and raked him over to a post, shattering his shin bone.

“If it wouldn’t have been for Lyle, I wouldn’t be here talking to you,” Klein told the Houston Chronicle.

A 6- to 8-inch area of the singer’s lower right leg was crushed, according to the program director for the Department of Orthopedics at University of Texas medical School in Houston. Dr. Kevin Coupe, who performed the two-hour operation, found 20 pieces of bone, including nine major fragments.

An exterior device comprising wires, rods and rings was attached to Lovett’s leg, and Coupe said it would take between six and eight months for a full recovery.

He also suffered a break to the tip of his right thumb.

Klein, no relation to the fashion mogul, was rushed to the Tomball Regional Hospital for chest pain trauma and was released that evening after undergoing X-rays and a CT scan, according to a hospital spokesperson.