He bought his first harmonica when he was 16, for $2 at a flea market in Bessemer, Alabama, and taught himself to play blues harp. He discovered that he possessed absolute pitch when he was able to recognize the pitches of ordinary noises and mimic them on the harmonica. Hicks was 18 when he wrote his first song, “In Your Time”, and he taught himself to play guitar when he was 19. While in college, Hicks was part of a band called Passing Through, which he later quit to start his own band. He recorded In Your Time, an album which included both studio and live tracks, independently in 1997. He moved to Nashville, Tennessee, in 2000 to pursue a music career. There, he worked with Nashville veterans Billy Earl McClelland and Percy Sledge and recorded a three-track demo but was unable to find a label that would sign him. He left Nashville after a year due to what he called the “oversaturation of the market”. Hicks returned to Alabama and launched a professional music career, performing at various venues and parties, mostly around the Southeastern United States. He recorded, produced, and released a second album, Under the Radar, in 2005. Despite releasing two albums prior to appearing on American Idol, he did not violate their requirements for contestants, as he had never held a recording contract. Studio recording sessions for the eponymous major label debut Taylor Hicks ran in Calabasas, California between October and November 2006, and took six weeks in total. The album was produced by Matt Serletic, who has produced for Collective Soul, matchbox twenty, and Rob Thomas. The album was released on December 12, 2006 and debuted at the number two spot on the Billboard 200 charts. It was certified as a platinum album by the RIAA on January 17, 2007. On February 21, 2007, Hicks launched a a three-month US promotional tour for his album, followed almost immediately by a summer tour. One of the high energy shows was captured on film and appeared on HDNet under the title “Whomp At The Warfield.” |
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