Dish Of Salt: Taylor Hicks Arrives! (November 6, 2006)

by Laura Saltman

The first thing I noticed when I sat down for an interview with Taylor Hicks about his new album was how good he looked and how thin he had gotten. So, it was no surprise to me when he agreed with me he had definitely thinned down over the past few months. So, how did this self professed “meat and potatoes lover” do it? Taylor shared his slim down secret with me, “A little bit of working out and exercising and touring. I mean that did it. Touring was a big part of it. You are on the move always. A lot of it has to do with diet for me. I was always a pretty healthy eater. I love salads and stuff, cutting the carbs out a little. Just walking and just trying to stay active.”

He’s been in the studio working 10 – 12 hour days, getting his upcoming album just right for the past month. So, I joked that maybe singing was helping burn the calories. He laughed and mentioned that many times he keeps a humidifier in the studio with him and it becomes like a sauna but he didn’t think he was burning calories. Convinced that it does, I put Access Hollywood’s crack Research staff on the case. Kudos to Researcher Eugene for finding out that singing actually burns 4 calories per minute. I knew it! Since I’m sitting here eating a bag of peanut butter M&M’s while I’m typing this. I think I’ll be singing along to the radio on my drive home to make up for it.

Taylor says for this album he wanted one thread throughout and to him that thread is “groovy.” I’m happy to report that it seems the salt & pepper haired singer, despite working on an album produced by the team behind “American Idol” (i.e. lots of cooks in the kitchen), has been able to keep his artistic integrity, “I think that there has to be a give and take between everybody working on this project because it’s such a big project. I have really screened the songs. I have watched all the music happen before my eyes. I have played some instruments on it. I have really taken it on myself to keep what you saw on the show and what I am as an artist and I have translated that on this album.”

After the interview I was handed a tape of some footage of Taylor actually recording in the studio. I watched it and got to listen to him working on two cuts, one fast, one slow. There is Taylor, sitting alone in the sound booth, surrounded by candles, head phones on. What struck me as funny, as he sang, was how even when he is recording in the studio, Taylor just cant keep that neck from popping and the hands from moving. His Taylor-isms still come through even though he has no audience.

Maybe there is a reason for that. You see, Taylor explains that for him making albums is just a means to an end, it’s getting out in front of a live audience where he comes alive, “I’m a live performer, I’ve always been a live performer. The last ten years I’ve always wanted my albums to lead the people from listening to the CD into the live format, into the performance, into the shows.”

“American Idol” just announced that season six will premiere January 16th and 17th on FOX with a two-night, four hour premiere. So, I wanted Taylor to take me back to the night last January when this unknown guy saw himself on the audition show for the first time, “It was pretty crazy. I think I was at home and it was surreal, you know, it’s like you see it and you see your audition. I was pretty scraggly looking. I had this old blue golf shirt on and of course as soon as you hit the airwaves your phone (starts ringing). I probably had like 500 people text message me ‘I saw you on TV’.”

What a difference 10 months can make in someone’s life. Now millions of people will be able to buy this former “scraggly looking” guy’s album.

It’s in stores December 5th.

Taylor Hicks’ New Sound