The Distance Between Us Will Fade

Last Friday and Saturday night, I watched Taylor Hicks give two of the best performances I have seen him give in all the time I have followed him. These nights were made much more special because I had the privilege of joining forces with SOS, NFF and TOSP to bring Workplay to our members who couldn’t be there via a new type of cellcert. We pulled it off, albeit with a couple of false starts and some glitches along the way … we will do it better next time, but for less than a week of coordination, we did ok.

It isn’t the cellcert I am proud of, although I am really glad we didn’t flop! It is the admin/owners from the 4 boards, boards with different members, different philosophies and definitely different opinions, putting all that aside to bring fans together to celebrate Taylor. It is the members of the four boards who embraced the idea and supported it from the word go. It is the SPIRIT I saw in everyone who participated. There wasn’t concern over what board would get credit for anything, efforts were made to share media with everyone at the cellcert as it came in, and the members interacted with people from other boards as if they were old friends. It was all the right things a fan base can be.

I got a lot of feedback from people about how great they thought it was that the boards were working together and that it was TIME. I think it’s past time, and I hope we can keep that spirit alive going into 2010.

I want to thank everyone who participated in the cellcerts, the people who expressed encouragement and offered kind words, and especially the admin teams from the other boards, as well as my own. I am proud to have been a small part of such a dedicated and enthusiastic group. I think we were all reminded how much fun it is to share the magic that is Taylor Hicks…. And Taylor was right, the distance between us DID fade away.

Taylor Hicks on the phone in the cone...

“Hello, hello…is this thing on?”

Who would have thought the malt shop cone could cause such a twitter.

All of Taylorland is twittering about the sweet tweets from the cone—Easter greetings from the cone…wobbly tweets while the cone is moving…

Holy Smokes! What if the cone opens and he’s twittering!

This is Taylor Hicks taking connections to a new high…high above the “Grease” stage as he waits in the chocolate-covered cone through the opening scene of Act Two. This is time management to the max. Taylor connects with fans from the phone in the cone—actually the latest Blackberry hooked into the social phenomenon, twitter.com—for the few minutes he is caught in the cone waiting for Frenchy to dream her Teen Angel onto stage.

Since Taylor is a perpetual motion machine on stage, one can only imagine his chagrin at being stuck in the small confining confection. So, it may ease his stay in the sugary prison to reach out to the far corners of fandom and anywhere else that anyone is curious enough to investigate a tweet from a phone in a cone. It’s only flying fingers on the keyboard, but it is motion for the moment. After all, he can’t roam in the ice cream cone.

Will the phone ever make it out of the cone—a tweet from the trolley? From the golf course, would it be a tweetie bird or a birdie tweet? The cone phone could travel like the gnomes with tweets from Tuscaloosa and Talladega. He could tweet from stage as Frenchy swoons, “I’m all atwitter!” On the concert stage—next to the water—a quick tweet, “Flown the cone and lovin’ to roam!”

Taylor Hicks tweeting from the cone just hammers home what he has said before. “The best is yet to come.” We ain’t seen nothing yet from the man who tweets from a cone and is prone to surprising us all!

Along with the phone, there’s a genius in the cone!

I’m off to twitter…or is it tweet? Or…off to tweet on twitter?

I think I’ll just have some ice cream…while I try to figure out all this tweeting and twittering…

If you understand any of this, you can follow the phone in the cone at taylorrhicks@twitter.com

~~The cone is still in San Fran this weekend...read the latest from the cone.

If you want to see what happens to this twitterer…or tweeter, I’m at san_tthc@twitter.com


Photo "Taylor at Roxy's" by san. Please do not repost without permission.

Taylor Hicks--across four Januaries...

January 17 has been a good day for Taylor Hicks.

January 17, 2006~~American Idol Season 5 premiered with a two hour special. Unknown to the rest of the world at the time, Taylor Hicks, struggling to make his voice heard, had in his hand the golden ticket to Hollywood and the competition that would change his life forever. It was a year that would change many of our lives.

January 17, 2007~~“Taylor Hicks,” his first post-Idol album, was certified platinum by RIAA. With a grueling American Idol tour behind him, “Taylor Hicks” on the street, and his first Modern Whomp Solo Tour ahead, this platinum-certified artist and his fans prepared for travel, travel and more travel. This year was headed out on tour with Taylor Hicks, who set a new standard for touring musicians that said never phone it in, and you can still sing your heart out when you are sick. It was a year that few of us will ever forget!

January 17, 2008~~ A relaxed and smiling, Taylor Hicks played a respectable game of golf in the Bob Hope Classic in Palm Springs. The beautiful day in Southern California was the calm before the storm. Broadway was waiting! This year was going to sparkle on the Broadway stage. 2008 was indeed another memorable year!

Today, January 17, 2009, Taylor will do what he loves most…entertaining people with his music. After his Grease performances, Taylor will take the stage at Martyr’s in Chicago where it is presumed that he will perform for the first time his new single release, “What’s Right is Right.” If anyone can warm up a cold Chicago, it is Taylor!

As Taylor proudly brings to Martyr’s his new music, this year promises a new journey paved with Taylor’s own incredible music, more travel, and more amazing memories.

Not bad for four Januaries!

Congratulations, Taylor! You’ve come a long way in three short years. Revel in this day at Martyr’s with a new song for another exciting journey!

It’s a good day!

“What’s Right is Right” impacts radio play on Tuesday, January 20. “The Distance” released on Taylor’s own record label, Modern Whomp Records, will hit music stands on March 10. Taylor Hicks—still making his voice heard!