Taylor Hicks ~~ Biography: The Journey, Finding His Voice

“The first thing I ever stole was an Otis Redding LP from my friend’s house,” says singer/songwriter and 2006 American Idol, Taylor Hicks. “I think I was in third grade.”


And though he was born years after the heyday of the great soul and blues performers, Hicks spent his childhood immersed in a steady stream of music by artists such as Sam Cooke, Ray Charles and Van Morrison. At 16, he bought a $2 harmonica from a flea market in Bessemer, AL and spent most of his time practicing while other kids were more concerned with driving cars.

Today, Hicks’ own brand of soul-and-blue-influenced music reflects the same sort of raw emotion and sensibilities so apparent in the songs he grew up on: pain, loss, love and the confusion inherent in them all.

He says his passionate writing and singing style is just a natural progression of a life that has been a little different than those of his peers. “Some people grew up in close-knit families,” he explains. “They could identify with the sugar-coated, new-wave music that was popular in the ’80s and even now. My home life wasn’t very supportive or comfortable - with divorce (among other misfortunes). I had to make life-changing choices at an early age. And the whole time, I was listening to soul music—music where you can actually hear a man’s heart break. So it just really made sense to me—even at such a young age.”

Hicks said he found the comfort he was looking for on stage. “I just made it my home. It’s where my heart is.” And watching his intensity on stage, it’s apparent that he holds nothing back. Even the slowest songs are sung with such energy, sweat and grit it would make his predecessors proud. The addition of his growling harmonica style is explosive at least.

On his debut album, “In Your Time“, Hicks demonstrates that, although he has a reverence for those artists he learned from, he’s far from a stuck-in-the-past purist. The title track, written by Hicks, from this live CD could be identified as modern soul music, but it is tinged with swinging horns and jazzy guitar licks. The acoustic ballad “The Fall” brings the listener along on Hicks’ sentimental thoughts of a relationship on its last leg. He leaves behind the bigger band sound, opting for sparse accompaniment that drives home the nakedness of emotion in the song. The recording also features classics including “Georgia” and the Archie Bell & the Drells song “Tighten Up”.

Backed by several bands and such musicians as Nashville veteran Billy Earl McClelland, Hicks has entertained audiences at festivals, clubs and fraternities while sharing the bill with some of his idols such as Percy Sledge along the way. (taylorhicks.com 2006, edited)

The Hoover, Alabama, native, born October 7, 1976, first stepped onto the entertainment stage at Corey’s Sports Bar in Birmingham. The audience numbered only a few more than his age. It was just the beginning of a long-running love affair with music and the stage for the 15-year-old blues singer.

Early on, Hicks learned to “just be me.”

“I hired a sideman when I was 17 years old. A guitar player named Billy Earl McClelland who was Delbert (Mc)Clinton’s old guitar player. We worked together when I was at Auburn, he told me that I was a natural entertainer and I shouldn’t worry about putting on a show. I should just be the person I was and that was entertainment enough. I had never thought about it that way until he told me that. I was able to loosen up and just be me."

Billy Earl McClelland was in his mid-40’s when he worked with Hicks way back in those early Auburn days. Hicks’old mentor joined him on stage in Birmingham, 2009, in a show-stopping duet of “Dust My Broom.”

Hicks first tasted success during his days at Auburn University when he was joined by David Schrimcher, Patrick Lunceford, Philip McGowan, Steven Jackson and Michael Douglas and formed “Passing Through” a pretty decent jam band playing gigs on college campuses throughout the South and at clubs along the Gulf Coast.

When Passing Through members went separate ways, Hicks formed a short-lived Fletch Lives band, including Quinn Borland and eight to ten members with only about an eight-song repertoire. The Florabama Club on the Gulf Coast, where Hicks says he cut his musical teeth, was a favorite gig for Fletch Lives.

For his own questionable reasons, Hicks became a college dropout in 1997. He was at a turning point and, as it always would, music guided his decision. From his autobiography, Heart Full of Soul: “For a million probably lousy reasons, I just couldn’t take even another moment to do the right thing. As I saw it, the time had finally come to try to do the only thing I ever wanted to do.”

Hicks left college and committed to his music and to entertaining as his life’s work. With band members Jon Cook on lead guitar and vocal, Jay Knorr, drums and vocal, Ian Correy, bass, Eddie Ayers, percussion, Brandon Kidd, alto sax, and Wade Johnson, trombone, Hicks released his first independent CD, In Your Time, recorded live to save on production costs. He was 19 years old. The fledging entertainer and his band hit the road to promote the new CD. On the not-so-glamorous “chitlin’ circuit” through the South, Hicks learned much about performing before a live audience and building a show. What he took away, he still lives by--

"Either you entertain people, or you go home.”

In 2000, Hicks took his dreams to Nashville. He realized quickly that he was not the next Johnny Cash. He describes his year in Music City as one of the darkest and loneliest in his life. He knocked on every door but could not score a gig for him and his band, The EZ Widerz. He did, however, write some of his best music, and many of the songs would later appear in his second independent CD, Under the Radar. After a year of frustration and rejection, Hicks returned to Birmingham and reconnected with his own kind of blues and soul music.

Undeterred in following the only dream he had ever had, Hicks and his own Taylor Hicks Band played wherever an audience would gather from the local VFW to opening for some top A-listers performing in the South. He shared the stage with entertainment greats like James Brown, Percy Sledge, Tom Petty, Jackson Browne and Keb Mo. “I’m a working musician. That’s how I make my living.”


Hicks went back to the studio in 2005 with a few borrowed dollars from his family and recorded his second independent album, Under the Radar. It showcased exclusively the early works of the struggling musician. He was backed by his own Taylor Hicks Band, a talented group of musicians, some of whom had been with him at Auburn: Jon Cook on guitars; Wynn Christian, electric guitars; Patrick Lunceford, drums; Mitch Jones, bass; Jay Smith, percussions; and Brian Less, Piano and B3 organ.

Life on the road was taking its toll. In “Soul Thing,” one of the tracks from Under the Radar, Hicks knowingly wrote, “The road can be your friend, or the devil in disguise,” and a place to get lost. He had been there and experienced the pitfalls.

“We all get lost sometimes—that’s part of being on a journey and being human…For me, the real measure of a man isn’t whether he gets lost, but whether he can still manage to find his way back somehow.”

The road back took him to New Orleans and face to face with opportunity in the wake of disaster.

Tomorrow: “A New Journey” In a twist of fate that would reshape his life…

~~~

Join us this week for "Taylor Hicks ~~ Biography: The Journey" in seven parts.

Sources: taylorhicks.com 2006, Heart Full of Soul by Taylor Hicks with David Wild for Random House, MTV.com, Highway 61 by Gene Santoro, broadway.com, Syracuse.com, New York Post, Music Maven, media interviews.

(Compiled and written by San; updated April, 2011. Thank you for not reposting content. “Taylor Hicks Biography ~~ The Journey” is published in its entirety on The Taylor Hicks Community at: http://www.thetaylorhickscommunity.com/journey.html )