If you're thinking the journey of Coyote Ugly's protagonist -- struggling to keep up with the more seasoned bar-tainers as well as break into the creative world -- mirrors Gilbert's experiences, though, you would be mistaken. The essay is largely about the different ways she convinced men with names like Nazi Dave, who owned large collections of Confederate flag memorabilia (different guys, to be clear), to fall in love with her. It's also called "The Muse of the Coyote Ugly Saloon," so it's nice to know she's always been the same, shall we say, inwardly focused Liz.
In many ways, though, it's actually a better story. There's no cheesy romance or inspiring family drama, but the real star of the story is Liliana Lovell, known to filmgoers and countless numbers of bikers as "Lil," the hot, hard-drinking, no-nonsense owner of the bar who really did scrape her way through the dives of New York City to found the Coyote Ugly brand by age 25 and force men to drink tequila from her boot. Today, she sits at the top of a delightfully tacky empire and, if her social media is anything to go by, parties just as hard well into her fifties. Now that's an inspiration.
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