bio

There are other sites that can give you the quick facts on Taylor Hicks, but if you’re interested in good, live music, wonder who Hicks is and why you should listen to him, read on:

“I’ve never doubted Taylor’s ability, though I was surprised that the AI angle was the one he chose.” Wynn Christian, fellow musician, The Corner News, 31 May 2006

“Billy Earl McClelland was Delbert McClinton’s old guitar player, and he was my sideman when I was 18. … He once said to me ‘It’s not how you get there; it’s if you get there.’” TH – Heart Full of Soul, 2007

To say that Hicks was not your typical American Idol contestant borders on ludicrous understatement. On a show committed to finding the next pop idol, Hicks appeared to be the embodiment of “anti-pop”. Yet more than his old-school music aesthetic, what set Hicks apart from the typical Idol contestant was his level of musicianship and experience as a live performer. Hicks, a blues-belting, harmonica-blowing veteran, arrived on the Idol scene with something approaching a decade of songwriting, live gigs, and back-road touring under his belt. Which begs the question, doesn’t it? What sort of journey could have propelled this 29-year-old seasoned musician to audition for a cheesy television talent show?

“When everyone was hooked on Blind Melon, I was hooked on Ray Charles’ Live in Japan. I was a musical outcast.” TH – Jon Caramanica, Vibe, November 2006

The journey started early. From his childhood discovery of The Best of Otis Redding at a friend’s home, Hicks’ affinity for classic artists like Redding, Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye, Joe Cocker, Van Morrison and the great Ray Charles had, by his late teens, grown into a consuming passion for making music. He taught himself guitar and harmonica, and by 18 had written his first song, In Your Time, which would later become the title track on his first self-produced album. If Hicks needed further encouragement, he found it in the sweet taste of early success, singing and blowing harp on Sweet Home Alabama to win a high school talent contest. But it was more likely the occasional under-aged sit-in with Birmingham’s local club musicians, sprinkled like exclamation marks through his teen years, which taught him his chops and solidified the love of live performance that would define the next decade of Hicks’ life.

“[F]or most jam bands—and for me as well—the thrill of making music is putting everything you’ve got into your live performance. When you’re on stage, that’s when you’re most alive as a musician.” TH – Heart Full of Soul, 2007

Like a few thousand other high school grads in Alabama, Hicks headed off to Auburn University in the fall of 1995. Almost immediately, he became part of the local music scene – hooking up with Passing Though, a college jam band that covered Widespread Panic numbers, as well as other blues-based tunes for which Hicks was a natural on vocals and harp. The band flourished on the local bar scene and on the southeastern college circuit, as Hicks again enjoyed the taste of quick success, becoming something of a campus celebrity over the next few years. Things were good. In 1997, filled with confidence, twenty-one-year-old Hicks pressed his first CD on his own dime. In Your Time had seven tracks, including four Hicks originals. But efforts to gain local airplay, much less score label interest, led nowhere. Meanwhile, in 1998, Passing Through had reached an end, as various members were graduating and moving on. Over the next year Hicks continued working the Auburn band scene and other southeastern gigs. With so much effort focused on achieving his goals in the music world, Hicks realized that college had become an irrelevant distraction. Still a year shy of a degree, Hicks left school behind. But his real education was just beginning.

In Your Time

“As I saw it, the time had finally come to try to do the only thing I ever wanted to do.” TH – Heart Full of Soul, 2007

“So now I didn’t just work at making music, I worked at making it in music. … My goal was clear: to get a major-label record deal.” TH – Heart Full of Soul, 2007

In the winter of 2000, like so many hopefuls before him, Hicks put it all on the line and moved to Nashville, determined to create the break that would take his music career to the next level. Instead, all he found were closed doors and a crushing lack of interest in the soulful, bluesy sound he had to offer. Unable to score regular bookings, Hicks resorted to making the 200 mile trek back to Birmingham on weekends, where steady gigs earned him just enough to keep him going in Nashville. After months of frustration, and nothing much to show except piles of new songs written over that lonely year, Hicks bid Nashville goodbye. For some, it might have been time to bid the dream goodbye as well. But for Hicks, it was just time to re-evaluate and change strategies. If Nashville wasn’t the place for his sound, then he’d take his sound on the road.

“I cut my teeth in honky-tonks and juke joints; I worked the chitlin’ circuit.” TH – Jon Caramanica, Vibe, November 2006

“…I was beginning to feel like a rat stuck in some dark and crazy maze. All I could really think to do was keep moving in any direction where I spotted a little light.” TH – Heart Full of Soul, 2007

Returning to Birmingham, Hicks set about finding the right set of musicians to play his music, to be the Taylor Hicks Band. Hitting the road to play the clubs and honky-tonks of the southeastern states and the Gulf Coast, Hicks and the band eked out a living, always searching for a way to take it to the next level. If Hicks had found his songwriting muse in Nashville, his road years would make of him a bandleader, a businessman, and a versatile entertainer. There would be encouraging highs in the form of rare opportunities to open for such acts as James Brown, Percy Sledge, Robert Randolph, and the rising young star, Keb’ Mo’—with whom Hicks would form a lasting friendship. There were even occasional high profile bookings outside the southeast, such as a stint at the Playboy Mansion. But there were also the inevitable lows: the nights spent crashing on some stranger’s floor to avoid hotel bills, some less than healthy living on the road, and the galling need to sacrifice musical integrity by booking weddings and bar mitzvahs just to pay the bills. One particularly harsh setback came in the fall of 2004 in the form of Hurricane Ivan. Hicks and the band had worked their way into a steady and crowd-pleasing gig at the Gulf Coast’s notorious Flora-Bama – as good as it gets on the southeastern honky-tonk circuit – only to see that gig literally washed away by Ivan’s fury.

Forever Man, Nashville, date unknown

As 2005 arrived, Hicks was approaching his 29th birthday and could feel time running out on his dream. Still trying to make it happen, Hicks again invested his own money in a self-produced album. Entitled Under the Radar, this effort consisted of seven tracks, all originals penned by Hicks. With new CD in hand and having gained some bookings on the West Coast, Hicks once more set about trying to score the elusive recording contract, to find the sort of interest in L.A. that had eluded him years before in Nashville. But once again, the doors remained closed.

“The bottom line was that I just didn’t fit in anywhere—either rock, pop, or country. I was a man without a genre, and once again without any real prospects.” TH – Heart Full of Soul, 2007

“At that point in my life—facing down thirty with precious little progress to show for all my time and trouble – the clock was most definitely ticking. Realistically, game time was almost up.” TH – Heart Full of Soul, 2007

Well, as they say, desperate times call for desperate measures. On October 10, 2005, having just turned 29 and rapidly running out of viable options to sustain his dream – Taylor Hicks auditioned for American Idol Season Five in Las Vegas. When questioned at that first audition about why he was there, Hicks’ response, “I want my voice heard,” probably says all that needs to be said. Indeed, he had spent a decade doggedly trying to find someone to listen. This time, taking it straight to the American people with something as close to Hicks’ brand of real music as the Idol format would allow, it finally worked.

But here’s where it gets interesting. Among those fans who noticed Hicks early on, were many who were not regular AI viewers, but who heard something real and passionate in Hicks’ performances that sent them running to the internet to find out more. For these fans, Hicks’ rendition of A Change is Gonna Come may have been the bait, but it was their discovery of his early CDs and some highly-treasured live club recordings that hooked them. And so Hicks emerged with a core group of fans for whom a singing contest wasn’t the ultimate prize, but a means to an end – a promise of the raw and gritty goods Hicks could deliver on the other side.

Use Me Taylor Hicks Band, 12/05

“To be able to blow harmonica with the Allman Brothers, play harmonica with Widespread Panic and sing with Robert Randolph. … It’s just a dream come true, and it really makes me want to get into my own music.” TH – Birmingham Magazine, September 2006

Despite the rigorous appearance and touring requirements imposed on him in the aftermath of Idol, Hicks wasted little time getting on with the business of making music his way. After months spent enduring an Idol-enforced ban on instrumental performance, and with his “coronation” song still blasting across the airwaves, Hicks began popping up unexpectedly, harmonica in hand, to smoothly sit in with the likes of the Allman Brothers Band, Widespread Panic, and Robert Randolph and the Family Band – a practice that continued through the following year.

“Playing those second shows late at night while on the Idol tour was a way of staying connected with my roots and my true musical self.” TH – Heart Full of Soul, 2007

In an even more unexpected move, Hicks took part in a national “shadow tour” with his former band mates, now billing themselves as the Little Memphis Blues Orchestra. As it worked, the band found bookings at clubs across the country on nights the Idol tour was in town, and Hicks would show up when he could for late night “guest” appearances. These after-hours opportunities to hear Hicks live, jamming in smaller venues with his own band, became the hottest tickets of the 2006 summer for fans in the know.

“It is somewhat ironic that an artist who won a singing contest before a national audience never really got a chance to showcase the elements that distinguish him as a commanding live performer.” Randy Ray, relix.com, 5 May 2007

“He’s the guy holding court in smoky bars. He … doesn’t craft brainless Top 40 fodder or soaring anthems. He plays raw music, influenced by the soul and blues he studied as a young musician.” Melissa Ruggieri, Richmond Times-Dispatch, 8 July 2007

“Hicks played the band as if it were a single instrument, standing in the center of the revolving stage, using his hands and his body to bring up the keys while quieting the drums, then bringing everybody back up to fever pitch.” Gwenn Friss, Cape Cod Times, 19 June 2007

And finally, after a decade spent pursuing a major record label, Hicks released his first major album in December 2006: the self-titled Taylor Hicks, on the Arista label. Among its more notable tunes are Hicks’ own Soul Thing and The Deal, previously recorded on Under the Radar, and a killer soul-ballad with an excellent pedigree called The Right Place, penned by Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance.

Soul Thing

The Right Place

Still, for a live guy like Hicks, the show’s the thing and the stage is where it really happens. On February 21, 2007, Hicks kicked off his first solo national tour. Backed by a tight, hard-hitting band that can give as good as they get in the spontaneous jams, bluesy tags, and unexpected musical excursions that characterize his performance style – Hicks finally has the chance to show America what he’s about. And make no mistake, this gritty, free-range Hicks, who lifts his audience and his band to fever pitch, only to drop them gently on the notes of a soft blues riff, is “about” the business of making real music.

But don’t take our word for it: read a review, check out some video, or better yet, take in a show. You can find it all in the tour pages here. There’s always another live gig just around the corner.

“…it’s my fervent hope that this tour doesn’t really end until the day I die.” TH – Heart Full of Soul, 2007

“The only thing I have is my live show and my songs. That’s it. I have to be booked. I’ll always hang my hat on being a live performer…” TH – J.R. Taylor, Black & White, 05/17

- text by R. Andrews