Woman's Gotta Have It
Filmed at The Workplay Theater in Birmingham, AL 9-26-09 with Ona Watson.
Song available on Taylor's new album, The Distance.
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Thursday, January 31, 2008

Censorship On Taylor's Official Website

As we all know by now, Taylor was given a 60 sec sound bite on the Howard Stern Radio show (you can listen to it in the side bar) on Tuesday. After seeing the reaction to it on some of his fansites, and in fact, his own official site, I was shocked by the censorship some of his egocentric fans imposed on one-another.

You know the type of fan I’m talking about - the holier than thou moral church attendee - the ones who are on a life mission to protect Taylor from all vices in the cold cruel world. The ones that continue to place him on some fantasized pre-conceived high pedestal and thinks he should be first in line for sainthood. The ones who refuse to listen to him utter an off-color comment/joke/word, i.e, “fuck” (like he’s done at least ½ dozen times in song lyrics), watch him shake his ass around like a horny dude on stage, or listen to him utter the words “smelly genitals” like he did on the Howard Stern show. Oh my, how that riled up some of his more conservative, older fans. You’d think by listening to this bit it would have stunted their growth and make them go blind. It seems like certain people feel a warped sense of “I know what’s best for my son” syndrome – you know, the ones over 35 years of age who constitute a large portion of the fanbase.

These highly conservative self-righteous women have absolutely convinced themselves that Taylor lives (or should live) the same way they do. In other words, delusional fans who think he’s a choir boy who spends a majority of his time helping old women and sick children because he lends his name to charities. And while I have no doubt he believes in these endorsements (aside from the fact they’re probably paying him to do those), it in no way excludes the fact that he’s a 31 year old stogie puffing, cigarette smoking, alcohol drinking, sexually active dude, who likes to listen to Howard Stern (and talk about ‘smelly genitals’) and who’s lived most of his life in dirty bars seeing and doing it all.

I was shocked to learn that a moderator on Taylor’s own official website banned and refused to put up any information and/or discussion of Taylor’s 60 sec sound bite on Howard Stern’s radio show because it might be ‘offensive to young and older members” who might be reading the message boards. Can you fucking believe that? Here you have Taylor endorsing this guy, saying he would “love to” be on the show and yet the only moderator over on his website injected her own conservative personal bias attitude into this “decision” because SHE deemed the content "inappropriate". Exactly who is this person to tell us what we should and should not be entitled to read on his PAID site about a subject (Howard Stern) that Taylor said he likes, for God's sake!! It’s censorship at its fucking worst.

A plea to Taylor: Please get on Howard's radio show as fast as you can and crack open this "image" some have of you. Develop a new, progessive fan contigent - a contigent who will not have a tissue handy every time you blow your nose.

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

may i just say rah, rah, rah!! i for one am glad he is a typical male. reminds me a lot of my two sons, who are gentlemen (i should know, i raised them), but who are not "pure as the driven snow", so to speak. and for that matter, neither am i, i like a little raunchy talk now and then, and i'm an 80 year old 'SWEET LITTLE OLE LADY' !!

JOJOSIE said...

I'm glad you said "some" of the elderly fan as I'm another one who thinks he should go on Howard's show if he gets a chance. I don't listen to him myself but if I had a problem with those that do I have to include some of my kids and grand kids. I like the R rated version of Hollywood Nights best myself. I'm 75 will be 76 next month. I'm growing old but I don't plan on growing up anytime soon.

soulthing said...

3 cheers for the progressive fanbase of Taylors! Gosh, I feel like I'm part of the presidential debates LOL!

Anonymous said...

I Love this site! You rock Soul Thing!

Hell yes, bring on the other side of Taylor. He's human and a REAL man.

I went to 3 concerts this last spring and there were hundreds of drunk, foul-mouthed, pushy women who were all over the man.

I know for a fact that these are the same women who are deleting the Howard Stern subject from Taylor fansites.

What a hipocritical bunch of bullshit!

soulthing said...

yep anon - there's a LOT of two-faced BS going on. But what I especially hate are those who impose their morality on me. I get very nasty when I see stuff like that - and it happened on Taylor's HQ site by the only moderator there. I won't say her name, but I bet you know who it is. How dare she stiffle a conversation about a radio show Taylor likes and wants to appear on. Urgh...

Anonymous said...

Yeah Soul Thing - it seems that she's pissed alot of fans off. I used to chat on Taylor's HQ and there were alot of disgruntled members saying the same thing as you regarding this particular moderator.

Needless to say, the HQ's chat is totally dead now. In fact, that whole site is a real snoozer. Too bad - Taylor deserves better.

However, the only reason I remain a member to HQ's is to support Taylor.

Anonymous said...

Hey at least Taylor said "smelly genitals" he could have worded it a whole lot worse.

I've never understood why people think that their opinion, beliefs, etc are the only correct ones.

I would rather hang with a stogie puffing, cigarette smoking, alcohol drinking, sexual, cussing guy, then some boring straight laced conservative.

Keep it real Taylor... most of us prefer you that way.

Thanks again for such a great blog..

Anonymous said...

Hey Griz! You said a MOUTHFUL, and oh what a truthful mouthful it was......

I have been thinking about some of what you posted for a long time now. Thank you for saying it so much better than I would have!

LOVE YOUR BLOG! and as always, Thanks for "Keepin It Real".......

Candy :-)

soulthing said...

trixi/skeeter - yep, the interview could have been a lot of worse (or better, depending on how you look at it LOL!!).... the point is that Taylor needed freedom from not only J Records and Clive, he needs freedom from the strangle hold his over the top fan base has on him.

And as far as that THHQ site, Taylor really does need to hire professional moderators over there. Over the top fans who can't separate personal bias with the job over there is only making the message boards boring and stale and is doing Taylor no good in the long run imo. He really deserves better.

Anonymous said...

Afternoon soulthing -- glad to FINALLY hear that clip ~~~ all I can say is "What is the big deal"? I think its a case of "do what I say not what I do" with those comments. Everybody enjoys Taylor with his "bad-ass self" -- and as I said on one of the boards -- they need to "lighten up". Guys will be guys and believe me, I'm sure Taylor has said much worse than that on occasion!

Keep the fire lit, girl -- you're smoking!!!

juliegr

soulthing said...

Totally agree juliegr. As it turned out, the clip was not even a big deal (at least not to me). But like I said before, I can overlook many things amongst Taylor's fanbase, but the one thing I can't deal with is moral superiority and censorship, especially when it showed it's ugly head on a site I paid money to join - THHQ.

And as it turns out, that site is going off a cliff in more ways than one regardless of what the mod says. He gets about 1 new member every week or two. That can't be good news. Taylor needs to shake things up over there, no denying that.

But hey! Let's get that view count up to 10 million over on Taylor's myspace soooon!!! Fireworks are a-coming! :)

Anonymous said...

Lighten up everyone and grow up. This is a business and Taylor's career. It is imature to get all hot under the collar just because his business people are being smart about the official image he projects to the world. Smile to yourself and enjoy the freedom to talk about whatever you want on your own websites and let others run their websites as they want to. (and Griz... if they try to fuck with you here - then I'll fight with you!!) A man is a man, yes, but a Southern Gentleman knows how far to push and when to put on a chessire grin and pretend to be innocent. It's part of their charm.

Anonymous said...

Pamela... so what do you think if Taylor actually appears on Howard Stern? Will his people not let it be known? Or will they act like it never happened? Just curious how you think it would be handled?

Anonymous said...

Eureka, I finally found the clip. Interesing that Taylor has the courage and self confidence to go on Howard's show. It can be a tough snarky interview. Thanks for posting the clip.

Anonymous said...

You know I didn't even KNOW about the soundbite! If I hadn't come here and heard it, I never would have known it existed! Now I am a Christian who tries not to curse, and I really don't like Howard Stern, but I DO like Taylor Hicks, and if he's going to be on a radio show, I want to hear it! I understand that Taylor has played in bars, I understand that he curses/drinks/etc. And I don't judge him for that- that's who he is. I'd rather see the real man then a fake front. Now I appreciate him keeping his shows clean, especially when children attend- I think that's the decent thing to do. BUT again, the fact remains that I didn't even KNOW about the soundbite! That in itself is a shame!

soulthing said...

Lubiana - that's exactly what I mean. I think adults should be able to make up their own minds about they want to hear and don't want to hear WITHOUT some self-appointed censor making that decision for us.

Anonymous said...

Why couldn't they put a warning on the intro to the thread? "Warning..this thread may have content not suitable for squares"

Anonymous said...

"Why couldn't they put a warning on the intro to the thread? "Warning..this thread may have content not suitable for squares?"

BINGO! Exactly!

soulthing said...

I think all the fucking squares went home after they heard Taylor was on the Howard Stern Show. They heard hearing such language would stunt their growth .... hmm@!

Anonymous said...

Griz - you don't know what a breath of fresh air it is to hear your point of view. I'm sick to death of people imposing their self-righteous viewpoints on others, gentle reminders or otherwise!

Anonymous said...

We need to band together as a united front and email musictoday in droves to get rid of that mod on HQ once and for all.