Does Clive Miss Taylor Hicks Already?

Seems Clive can't shut the door completely on our Taylor! A spokeman from Arista/J came out today and threw this little bone out there.

"We have an understanding with Taylor Hicks that he will come back to us to play music once he’s finished writing his new material." Source: EW.

This statement comes in an announcement that 2nd place runner-up Katharine McPhee has also parted ways with $Clive$. Good for her.

I'm not quite sure I know how to interpret this. According to Ken Barnes at Idol Chatter, he explains it like this:

This is a way of not completely slamming the door shut; if Arista is captivated by Taylor's new songs, it can arrive at an agreement to release an album of them. Not unprecedented in the complicated world of artist/label relations, and an interesting development.

In my opinion, Taylor, you need to run away as fast as you can from this RCA/Arista/J label. They have done nothing for you, career wise, and there's no reason to think they will do anything for you in the future. They had their chance and blew it. Time to say a final farewell, I say, especially if the following statment is true:

"Mr. Hicks was not dropped by his label, as has been widely reported over the past couple of days. His lawyers were able to get him removed from his contract for a variety of reasons, including breach of contract and failure to comply with promised promotion, among other things. Mr. Hicks has agreed not to reveal the terms of the separation for a specific period of time. In other words, J Records/RCA didn't give Hicks what they promised, he wants more artistic freedom and better promotion, he was able to get out of his contract and he has agreed not to reveal any details at this time. Bear in mind that the new season of American Idol is coming up, and they can't afford more negative publicity - look how badly their treatment of Mr. Hicks impacted last season's show."

Posted by: fromtheinside on 01/08/2008 06:38 AM
http://music.hollyscoop.com/american-idol/taylor-hicks-splits-from-arista_268.aspx

Taylor Hicks Splits From Arista! Hallelujah!

Nice, fair reporting from Billboard Magazine. Supposedly, Taylor is preparing his own statement on the matter. As soon as we hear anything, we'll print it. Stay tuned!

'Idol' Champ Hicks Splits With Arista
Taylor Hicks
January 07, 2008, 4:45 PM ET
Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.

2006 "American Idol" winner Taylor Hicks has split with Arista, which released his self-titled major-label debut in late '06. The set has sold 699,000 units in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

"Taylor is going to record on his own for the next album," says a source close to the situation, who declined further comment.

Hicks told Billboard last year that he had signed a three-album deal with the label following his "Idol" victory, and that "We all knew what we were getting into when we signed the contracts."

"Everybody signs the deal at the top 24 period," he said. "You know, by that point, you take anything you can get. That's the way I've always been. I've tried to hustle gigs my whole life, and I'm still hustling gigs, believe it or not."

The artist, whose inspirational memoir, "Heart Full of Soul," was released last July, added, "You could write a pretty good book" on the intricacies of the contracts "Idol" contestants sign.

In a post on his MySpace.com site just before Christmas, Hicks said he was planning on releasing a new album and DVD in 2008, as well as touring, but did not provide further details.

Source: Billboard