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Taylor Reuben Hicks (born October 7, 1976) is an American singer-songwriter. Hicks got his start as a professional musician in his late teens and performed around the Southeastern United States for well over the span of a decade, during which he also released two independent albums. He rose to prominence in the year 2006 as the winner of the fifth season of American Idol. Upon winning the music competition, he was signed to Arista Records, under which his self-titled major label debut was released on December 12, 2006. His energetic stage performances and influences derived from classic soul, blues, and R&B music have earned him a following of devout fans, who are dubbed as the "Soul Patrol".
Taylor Hicks was born at St. Vincent's Hospital in Birmingham, Alabama, on October 7, 1976, to Bradley Hicks and Pamela Dickinson Hicks. As an infant, he had blond hair. His hair color turned dark brown/black as an adolescent and started turning gray by the time he was 13. He and his family moved to suburban Hoover when he was eight years old. His parents divorced when he was eight, and his father Brad, a dentist, and stepmother Linda shared custody until he became of age. Hicks attributed his difficult childhood as the reason for him to find solace in soul and blues music. He has a younger half-brother, Sean, who would later convince him to audition for American Idol.
When Hicks was five years old, he would sing to random strangers the music of The Tubes or Mister Mister. He bought his first harmonica when he was 16, for $2 at a flea market in Bessemer, Alabama, and taught himself to play blues harp. He discovered that he possessed absolute pitch when he was able to recognize the pitches of ordinary noises and mimic them on the harmonica. Hicks was 18 when he wrote his first song, "In Your Time", and he taught himself to play guitar when he was 19.
Hicks was a former student of W.A. Berry High School and graduated from its successor Hoover High School in 1995. He played varsity baseball, soccer, and basketball while studying in Hoover. He then majored in business and journalism at Auburn University, but lost interest and dropped out after three years.
While in college, Hicks was part of a band called Passing Through, which he later quit to start his own band. He recorded In Your Time, an album which included both studio and live tracks, independently in 1997. He moved to Nashville, Tennessee, in 2000 to pursue a music career. There, he worked with Nashville veterans Billy Earl McClelland and Percy Sledge and recorded a three-track demo but was unable to find a label that would sign him. He left Nashville after a year due to what he called the "oversaturation of the market". Hicks returned to Alabama and launched a professional music career, performing at various venues and parties mostly around the Southeastern United States, including The War Eagle Supper Club (a popular college bar) in Auburn, Alabama. Hicks has performed with the likes of James Brown, Tom Petty, Jackson Browne, Drive-By Truckers, Robert Randolph, and Keb Mo. He also performed in the huge infield of Talladega Superspeedway in 2004 during a NASCAR race weekend. After Hicks won Idol, driver David Stremme said that he hoped Hicks would come back for the October race weekend there.
He recorded, produced, and released a second album, Under the Radar, in 2005. Despite releasing two albums prior to appearing on American Idol, he did not violate their requirements for contestants, as he had never held a recording contract.
Hicks has allowed audience members to record his concerts for personal, non-commercial use, and went so far as to authorize the Internet Archive to create a section for fans to upload and share their recordings, but it was unclear whether his American Idol contract would allow this to continue, so the Archive will not accept the upload of concerts recorded after January 1, 2006.
Hicks auditioned for American Idol in Las Vegas, Nevada, on October 10, 2005. He had originally wanted to try out in Memphis, Tennessee, but auditions in that city were canceled to accommodate relief efforts for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. On the night before Hurricane Katrina hit, he had been in New Orleans, Louisiana to attend the wedding of a good friend he met while at Auburn University. His Southwest Airlines flight out of New Orleans had been canceled, and he had been offered a travel voucher to use at a later date. He used the ticket voucher to fly to Las Vegas. Hicks passed the audition by the approval of judges Randy Jackson and Paula Abdul, but not Simon Cowell, who said that Hicks would never make it to the final round. On Hicks' first performance for the voting public, Cowell called back to this quote, admitting he was wrong.
On the May 10, 2006, results show, Hicks along with Katharine McPhee and Elliott Yamin, were announced as the Top 3 finalists. On May 12, Idol producers brought Hicks to Birmingham for a weekend of promotional events including television interviews for the local FOX affiliate, a downtown parade, concerts, and an audience with Governor Bob Riley. May 12 was proclaimed "Taylor Hicks Day" and Hicks was given the key to the city. Also on May 12, Gov. Riley issued a proclamation making May 16 "Taylor Hicks Day".
Hicks was named the new American Idol on May 24, 2006, winning the title over McPhee, with over 63.4 million votes cast in total. The proclamation was aired to a worldwide audience of 200 million television viewers. With his win at age 29, Hicks became the oldest person to win American Idol. He is the fifth Southerner to win American Idol, the second winner from Birmingham, Alabama after season 2 winner Ruben Studdard, as well as the fourth finalist with Birmingham ties. He is the third winner to have never landed in the bottom two or three, after Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood.
In June 2006, Ford Motor Company, the show's major sponsor, signed Hicks to promote Ford's "Drive on Us" year-end sales event. He was also named Hottest Bachelor by People magazine for 2006, appearing on the magazine's cover.
Hicks signed a recording contract with Arista Records, managed by American Idol creator Simon Fuller, in May 2006. Hicks' debut single "Do I Make You Proud" debuted on the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100 and was subsequently certified gold by the RIAA.
Hicks made guest appearances in concerts by Snoop Dogg, Widespread Panic, and Willie Nelson, among others. Hicks also joined his fellow Top 10 Idol finalists on the American Idols LIVE! Tour which ran from July to September. The members of the former Taylor Hicks Band, formed by Hicks two years prior, regrouped as the Little Memphis Blues Orchestra and shadowed the Idols' tour route. Hicks occasionally appeared as a "special guest" when circumstances permitted, and was even accompanied at times by the other Idols, such as Elliott Yamin, Chris Daughtry, Ace Young, and Bucky Covington.
In August, it was announced that Hicks received a $750,000 (USD) deal to write a memoir of his life, which is expected to be released in spring 2007 by Random House. The book will be ghostwritten by Rolling Stone writer David Wild. In the same month, Hicks' lawyers sued a producer with whom he worked in Nashville, for redistributing songs, which were copyrighted in 1997, without permission. The charges were dropped when the masters were handed over to Hicks.
Studio recording sessions for the eponymous major label debut Taylor Hicks ran in Calabasas, California between October and November 2006, and took six weeks in total. The album was released on December 12, 2006 and debuted at the number two spot on the Billboard 200 charts. It was certified as a platinum album by the RIAA on January 17, 2007. Hicks embarked on a three-month US promotional tour for his album that started on February 21 in Jacksonville, Florida, and ended in Seattle, Washington on May 12.
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