Tay at 4H fair

Monday night Season 5 winner Taylor Hicks took the stage at the Elkhart County 4-H Fair.

Fans from all over Michiana crowded into the grandstand.

Devoted fans packed into the Elkhart County Grandstand, fully equipped with their signs and cheers, all for “American Idol” winner, Taylor Hicks.

Fans say, “We listened to him all the way here. We heard the CD four times, 4 times of the way here.”

Another fan adds, “I only have seen him on “American Idol” and stuff so it’s good to see him actually live.”

And as devoted as these fans are, nothing compares to these fans, call the Diva’s who follow Taylor all over the country.

Eileen Dominick says, “We’ve been all over. We’ve been to the south, we’ve been to the east. We’ve been all over.”

Eileen Dominick has been following Taylor Hicks career from his very first performance on “American Idol”.

Dominick says, “He’s got something extra, hes got heart soul and heart. It’s wonderful to see someone whose really going back to the old school of music.”

It’s what she says, drives her and these women from all over the world to Taylor’s concerts.

Lydia Bower says, “Taylor has made a huge impact in people’s lives. People’s lives have changed for the better because of Taylor and his music and it’s something you can’t explain. It’s something you feel.”

And for Taylor Hicks, having fans like this, is a dream come true.

Taylor Hicks says, “Everyday I pinch myself. You have to pinch yourself everyday and I do. I’m very blessed.”

A blessing that he’s clearly passing on to others through his music. And Monday night, for these Taylor Hicks fans, no place could be more right than this.

It’s been a long time a comin’..

Sorry i haven’t been posting for about 2 weeks. I have been on vacation with no access to a computer. I didn’t get home untill about 2:30 this morning and i’ve got a lot to catch up on! Thanks-MTH

The Soul Patrol Community

A community is like a tapestry. The most beautiful tapestries have many hues, woven together to make unique textures and designs. A community includes many different people, people of different abilities as well as people of different cultures and backgrounds. Everyone deserves to be an integral part of the fabric of life and to have the opportunity to live life without limits.

The community of Taylor Hicks fans called the Soul Patrol is like any other community in which we live, work, develop friendships and find comfort and love in family. We must do everything possible to bring our community together for each individual, particularly those that need a helping hand.

Taylor Hicks has certainly displayed his desire to lead us all in these efforts. His never ending desire to please his loyal and devoted community is evident in all he says and does. But his compassionate spirit is never more evident than when he encounters people who have disabilities. I have read numerous articles on his interactions with them and how he goes the extra mile to accommodate their desires and wishes.

Most recently, I interviewed a fan who had witnessed a wonderfully inspiring encounter between Taylor and a young boy who had a disability. She relayed her story to me in this manner:

Everyone was waiting outside Taylor’s dressing room for him to sign autographs. When he came out, I was standing on the side of a little boy who was in a wheelchair and was accompanied by his father. Taylor came out and immediately went over to the little boy and signed the CD his dad was holding. Then Taylor said to the child, “Hey, buddy, how are doing? You know what? I have a present for you so hold on a second.” Taylor turned around and asked someone to get his harmonica. He signed it and gave it to the boy, then retrieved the case from his pocket. Taylor then said, “Here you go… here is the case so you can play it.” Both Taylor and the child were smiling. Taylor appeared to be very happy to have made that impression on the little boy.

I have read and heard many such accounts of Taylor’s compassion like the one described above and have also had the opportunity to personally witness this kindness on several occasions.

I work for an organization that serves children with disabilities and provides services to one little girl who is a huge fan of Taylor’s. At a meet and greet that I had won, I took her picture and showed it to Taylor while I told him about her disability and her love for him. He immediately responded by asking her name and personalizing the items I had brought for him to sign. Additionally, he said he wanted her to have a picture of him, so he walked into another room, obtained a photograph and also personalized a message to this five year old child. Needless to say, when I returned to work and presented her Taylor’s gift, she was overjoyed!

I have been at several concerts during which Taylor made a pointed effort to acknowledge those in attendance with disabilities. At an American Idol concert, there was a young man in a wheel chair who was paralyzed from the neck down and who also needed a respirator to breathe. Security pushed him close to the stage so he could better see. When Taylor spotted him from the stage, he immediately went over to him and pointed, smiled and sang to him for a few moments, giving him his own private mini-concert. Also, during Taylor’s solo tour at The Tabernacle in Atlanta, Georgia, the handicapped seating section was to the right of the stage. After performing and prior to leaving the stage, Taylor walked over to that section and made sure he shook everyone’s hand. Perhaps the most poignant moment for me occurred quite unexpectedly in Joliet, Illinois. Immediately after the final chord of the encore resounded, Taylor walked from the front of the stage directly into the audience and handed his harmonica to a small boy who had cerebral palsy and was seated in a wheelchair. I observed many people with tears in their eyes as they watched an American Idol acknowledge this precious child in such a manner. And then, once again at Birmingham’s Alabama Adventure in June, 2007, Taylor made a young woman in a wheelchair very happy when he again left the stage to hand her his harmonica. I observed that this woman required the assistance of a caregiver to eat or drink and spoke with the use of a communication device. Yet, though her lips were silent, the smile on her face spoke volumes.

Many people do not quite know how to interact with people with disabilities. Some speak loudly assuming they are hard of hearing while others simply look the other way. Taylor Hicks seems to have an innate ability to relate to them on a very personal level. In his book, Heart Full of Soul, Taylor talks openly of his troubled childhood and about his feeling of not fitting in, of feeling like an outsider and his feelings of being different. Those feelings led to loneliness and depression. Perhaps it is from those life experiences that Taylor Hicks has drawn character and pledged to give what he could to others that obviously feel “different”. Only Taylor knows the real inspiration behind why he treats those with disabilities so warmly and compassionately. But whatever the reasons, it is apparent that Taylor realizes these individuals have special gifts and deserve to be an integral part of the fabric of life.

Just as Taylor was given an opportunity of a lifetime through American Idol, an opportunity for which he longed for years, he knows that if given the right opportunity the struggles encountered by persons with disabilities become a limitless avenue by which their great abilities are revealed and the tapestry of our community invariably strengthened.

Taylor Hicks’ life has inspired others to dream of a life without limits. While his autobiography may be entitled “Heart Full of Soul”, Taylor’s life may also be characterized as a “Soul Full of Heart”. Indeed, his soul is filled with a heart of limitless compassion and caring for others.

found at taylorsangels

Heart Full of Soul

Taylor tells us the lessons hes learned over a long career, including how he defied all predictions and won the American Idol competition. Before American Idol, Hickss love of music took him on the notorious Chitlin circuit, a series of down-home, greasy Southern clubs that in the past have featured the likes of Ray Charles and Ike and Tina Turner. Playing that circuit for a decade, Taylor learned a simple rule that would eventually help him to win the biggest reality show in history: you either entertain or you go home.HEART FULL OF SOUL takes us back to how Hicks decided to audition for Idol, what he felt and thought as he waited on line in Las Vegas for his audition. Facing thirty, he was nearly too old to be eligible as a contestant. He knew his clock was ticking and that the Idol tryout was most likely his last shot at breaking into the big time. Hicks also reveals that he was strategizing long before any of the other contestants.

Throughout HEART FULL OF SOUL, Hicks opens up about his family life, about how he found music, about his pitfalls as he tries to discover himself and get himself discovered, and about life after American Idol. He reveals who he really is and ultimately provides valuable advice for anyone striving against long odds.

Taylor Hicks – Here Comes the Sun – Waukegan #11

Taylor helps with cancer

Sunday’s Loudoun Summer Music Fest concert highlights a tale of two Taylor’s. One is a grown man, with a sultry smile and salt-and-pepper hair who wowed television audiences with his smooth voice. “American Idol” winner Taylor Hicks will perform on the Belmont stage Sunday night. The other Taylor is a 2-year-old from Loudoun County. She’s not a celebrity, nor does she have the voice that would make others swoon except for those whose lives are sweetened by the sound of a child’s innocence.

Every day of a child’s life is a blessing to all parents, but for Taylor Love’s parents, every moment of time spent with their daughter is a miracle.

Taylor Love was diagnosed with neuroblastoma cancer last December. She just turned two years old last month, and already she has undergone more hardship and suffering than most can attest to in a lifetime. Her story has touched many in the community, including The Loudoun Foundation President and LSMF founder Tracey Parent, who read Taylor’s story in the newspapers last week and was compelled to do something to help her.

Heart Full of Soul

Heart Full of Soul: An Inspirational Memoir About Finding Your Voice and Finding Your Way

 

For the longest time, during some rough boyhood years in Alabama and the grind of performing on the road, the odds against me were discouraging. But there was always a voice inside telling me it was going to get better.

Mom and Dad certainly started out with good intentions, but early on, as their marriage went south and I went in whatever direction was necessary to avoid the fallout, I realized my life was going to be up to me.

Thinking back, my first step toward singing for a living was stealing an Otis Redding album when I was nine. What I heard on that platter was life-changing, and pretty soon I was learning to play the harmonica, which, I can assure you, didn’t attract many female fans—in fact, any fans at all.

I eventually decided that not being taken seriously can be a good thing. It stokes the fires. Maybe the reason I like soul music so much is that it inspires with its pain. The best artists, like Ray Charles, reach out and say, “You’re not alone, brother.”

In all my years on the road—trying to make it in Nashville and those Southern honky-tonks known as the “Chitlin Circuit”—I never thought it would take an act of God to push my destiny into the right groove. But as you’ll hear, it was nearly getting washed away by Hurricane Katrina that led to my Idol tryout. And what happened next was a little bit like when Alice dropped down that rabbit hole—just substitute Simon Cowell for the Mad Hatter.

In Heart Full of Soul, I share some life stories that will hopefully inspire you—give you a sense of my philosophy and how it drove me. For example, I talk about my good friend who died in a tragic accident and the prediction he made that tugged at my thoughts throughout Idol’s qualifying rounds. I also discuss what it was like when I realized Eminem has it right: when you only have one shot, you’d better lose yourself in the music.

A lot of great fans lined up behind me the night of the Idol finale. This book is about the strange path that led me to that pop-culture moment, and the sharp directional changes that occurred after that phenomenal night, including touring America, producing an album, and experiencing that two-sided gig known as American celebrity.

I hope that some of the lessons I’ve learned along the way will help you, especially if the shot you’ve been yearning for is just around the corner.-Taylor Hicks

Available in stores Tuesday, July 10, 2007