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.
On sale now! Pick your copy today!

Friday, December 12, 2008

WXMI (Fox West Michigan) Interview With Taylor Hicks!

Here's a VERY cool interview that WXMI-Fox TV conducted with Taylor Hicks in Michigan yesterday (12/11/08). In Part 1 he talks about his role in Grease, in Part 2 the talk is about American Idol and the most interesting one, Part 3, Taylor talks about his new album ("The Distance") and how incredible it will be with all those A-List studio musicians - basically Eric Clapton's backing band! Thanks to Sturgess on the Boogie for finding these gems! Enjoy!
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Why does Taylor Hicks get top billing in the musical Grease if he's only in one bit of the show? Because he's an American Idol after all.

I had a chance to talk with Taylor, and see the show at the Wharton center in East Lansing, and I left both of them feeling pretty good.
Hicks, who reprises his Broadway role of Teen Angel does a solid job following in the footsteps of legends like Donny Most and Eddie Mekka. He plays it with some self-deprecating humor and a swagger that lets the audience know that he's in on the joke.

I have to give a shout out to the cast as a whole, especially the actors who played the roles of Doody and Rump. Although neither would be mistaken for the leader of the T Birds, they both had surprisingly good singing voices, and had some of the more memorable moments as far as I'm concerned.

As far as Taylor off stage goes, I appreciated that he embraces his Idol roots, and stays true to his blues styling in his music.
And he's a big golf nut, so we had plenty to talk about off-camera. Although he's a performer comfortable with being in front of millions on TV, when he plays in some of the big celebrity golf events, or PGA pro-ams, he still gets nervous and shaky. Cool to hear him admit that, rather than putting on the brave face saying "yeah, that doesn't bother me..."

Here's to hoping the tour comes to west Michigan sometime in the spring/summer so we can try and go "On the Tee".


Part 1


Part 2


Part 3

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cool videos. Tim did a great job promoting Taylor.
My new Taylor calendar has Feb. 10 marked for the release date of "The Distance". I hope that date doesn't change. We have all waited long enough.

pboyers said...

Very cool!!!! Thanks for posting this. I got it in my Google atert! Great promotion and I really liked that Tim talked a lot about Taylor's new album. Exciting times. Soul Patrol!

Anonymous said...

Great interview!!! Now we know..it's a wig!!

I love it when the person interviewing likes Taylor. He is continually getting great reviews. I only wish he was coming to a town closer to me.

I can't wait for February.

Anonymous said...

I'm glad you posted these great interviews, but it bugs me a bit to see how surprised they are that Taylor's first album went Platinum, and how they are almost amazed that big time musicians would want to record with him. Look what the AI media has done to his reputation. As Taylor said, it's all about recreating his image, and the 2nd CD is key. He's a bonafide true musician that mainstream A players are not above being on a recording with him. I think this show covered him because they are FOX and AI is on the way, but They are basically saying, "This guy is still a winner, and he's great!"
This is the start of a New Day for Taylor Hicks..... And he almost got through the interview without saying "Daughtry".