by Linda Alexander

Created on: July 10, 2008

This article was written in 2007.

Taylor Hicks is all about the music. About the emotion from which the music arises. For the 2006 winner of Fox TV's wildly popular "American Idol," a bit of a current version of the "Ted Mack Amateur Hour," everything else in Hicks' life is little more than fluff. He doesn't seem taken with himself, nor does he spend much time thinking about his newfound fame. It also appears that he doesn't suffer fools well, and dismisses the hoopla surrounding the "American Idol" hysteria. He doesn't knock it, but for him, it was a means to an end, not the "Big Deal."

The "old soul" soul singer was born Taylor Reuben Hicks on October 7, 1976. A child of the deep southhis birthplace is Birmingham, Alabamahe grew up listening to rhythm and blues, soul, deep southern gospel. From an early age, he knew what he wanted to be "when he grew up."

"Ya know," he told this reporter, "I had a vision a long time ago, of trying to bring soul music back, and I've carried through with that vision."

Indeed he has. His followers, strictly dedicated to their man, call themselves the "Soul Patrol." This title started amongst his internet fans, and then Hicks himself encouraged it as the movement grew with each week he remained on the 2006 "American Idol" run. Every performance, as he moved nearer to the crowning of the new Idol, would end with an upraised fist roiling around in the air, and in a loud, proud, heavily-accented southerntinged voice, he would chant through a lopsided smile, "Soul Patrol! Soul Patrol! Soul Patrol!"

The crowds went nuts every time. He sold himself from the first moment he opened his mouth, and crowds are still going nuts. He has been solo touring the United States for the last year. With a voice that evokes images of Michael McDonald, or Bob Dylan, or even Van Morrison, being compared to other artists isn't something that sits well with Hicks. When asked who he would compare himself to, he impatiently replied, "Taylor Hicks."

But this is the crux of who this young man is. In many ways old beyond his 30 years, the silver-haired entertainer evokes a being who has somehow seen, and deeply understands, a world in which he's never lived, an era that had just ended about the time he was born. This is part of his appeal, a definite piece to the intriguing puzzle which is Taylor Hicks.

Hicks is addicted to soul . . . soul music, soul in his music, soul as a way of movement to his music. Soul is his overriding lifestyle, and soul music has brought

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