Тейлор Хикс: Өмір жолы мен музыкалық мансабы

American musician

Taylor Hicks was born in Birmingham, Alabama, on October 7, 1976, to Bradley Hicks and Pamela Dickinson. He and his family moved to the suburb of Hoover when he was eight years old. His hair started turning gray by the time he was 14. His parents divorced, and stepmother Linda shared custody of their son until he came of age. Hicks has suggested his difficult childhood as the reason for his turning to soul and blues music for solace. He has a younger half brother, Sean, who later convinced him to audition for American Idol. He bought his first harmonica when he was 16, for $2 at a flea market in Bessemer, Alabama, Hicks was 18 when he wrote his first song, "In Your Time", and he taught himself to play electric guitar and the church organ when he was 19. When he was in college, he played in a Widespread Panic cover band. Hicks graduated from Hoover High School in 1995. He played varsity baseball, soccer, and basketball while studying in Hoover. He then pursued a major in business and journalism at Auburn University.

While in college, Hicks was part of a band called Passing Through, which he later quit to start his own band. In 1997, he independently recorded In Your Time, an album which included both studio and live tracks. In 2000, he moved to pursue a music career in Nashville, Tennessee, where he worked with Nashville veterans Billy Earl McClelland and Percy Sledge to record 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 Widespread Panic, James Brown, Tom Petty, Jackson Browne, Drive By Truckers, Robert Randolph, Snoop Dogg and Keb Mo. He also performed in the huge infield of Talladega Superspeedway in 2004 during a NASCAR race weekend. 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 has authorized the Internet Archive to create a section for fans to upload and share their recordings. The Archive does not accept the upload of concerts recorded after January 1, 2006, due to the terms of his American Idol contract.

Hicks signed a recording contract with 19 Recordings Limited/Arista Records, managed by American Idol creator Simon Fuller, in May 2006. Hicks's 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 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 accompanied at times by the other Idols, such as Elliott Yamin, Chris Daughtry, Ace Young, and Bucky Covington. In August 2006, Hicks's lawyers sued a producer with whom he worked in Nashville, for redistributing without permission songs that Hicks had copyrighted in 1997. The lawsuit was dropped when the masters were handed over to Hicks. Hicks received a US$750,000 deal to write his memoir. Titled Heart Full of Soul: An Inspirational Memoir About Finding Your Voice and Finding Your Way and ghostwritten by Rolling Stone writer David Wild, the book was released in July 2007 by Random House. On June 6, 2008, Hicks joined the cast of the Broadway musical Grease in the Brooks Atkinson Theatre. He played the role of "Teen Angel". Once his 18 month tour in the traveling Broadway show 'Grease' ended, Hicks performed in over 20 live shows.

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. Arista Records confirmed in January 2008 that it had dropped Hicks from its roster. Hicks had, at that stage, the lowest selling American Idol winner's album. In 2008, Hicks signed a distribution deal with Vanguard/Welk records to distribute a compilation album Early Works. He also starred in Grease in the national tour as the Teen Angel after playing the role on Broadway. Early Works was released on August 12, 2008.