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him through some hard times. It seems, in some ways, to have become his best friend. He gets into the music, he breathes in the music, he challenges himself to become the musicand little else matters to him.

So it is no surprise that when he was asked about his new book, on sale July 10th and titled, of course, "Heart Full of Soul," he explained, "It's about beating the odds, and finding your own voice. Those things . . . can happen with heart and determination. I feel like I'm a good example . . . and I wanted to share that. . . ."

His book promises to explain a young man who, on stage, is open and energetic, almost frenetic, yet, one-on-one, he's shy, introverted, a bit difficult to draw out. His parents had a rocky marriage and early on, they divorced. He "went in whatever direction was necessary to avoid the fallout," and, as he put it, realized "life was going to be up to me."

Hicks puts everything he is, and everything he has, into his performance, as if all that could ever mean anything depends on how he expresses himself with his music. He promises his audiences "high-impact soul aerobics," and lets people know him through his art. Any effort to understand who he is off the stage is nearly impossible without watching him perform on the stage.

When it was suggested that he is "unique" in his style, he replied with passion, "Everybody is. Everybody is!"

Asked his thoughts about the entertainment industry's need to categorize an artist, their rigid determination to put each performer into a defined niche, Taylor's voice gained even more animation.

"That's something that could be said to be a fault of our society nowadays, that we try to pigeonhole, try to categorize things too much, you know? . . . Doesn't leave much in the way of individuality. . . . Radio, for example, is a great example of society trying to pigeonhole or categorize in that way. There's not much in the way of individuality nowadays on modern radio.

"It's hard, these genres of music . . . I wish we could get back to the old days of where an artist is an artist."

It's important to remember that these words were spoken by a 30-year old. That many of us would believe he hasn't lived long enough to talk about "the old days." That many older than he would believe he couldn't have enough life experience to say anything specific about "our society nowadays."

It's even more important to see that Taylor Hicks, winner of the '06 season of American Idol, product of a broken marriage and self-directed adolescence, a man sure enough of himself after gaining national recognition to stand up to the national recording industry and refuse to allow his music to be categorized . . . this young man truly is an old soul.

Learn more about this author, Linda Alexander.
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