And The End

I didn't plan for my days following Taylor around to end immediately after I met him, but it worked out that way. A poignant end, if nothing else. The rest of life got in the way after that, which is something I didn't see coming when I walked away from the last show I went to on his Spring 2007 tour. I never walked away thinking it would be the last, or the last for several years, but life's funny that way. While I did desperately want to meet him in person, it was not my reason for going to show after show.

I was in the library at The University of Alabama studying for a German test when I got the email from Taylor Hicks HQ telling me I'd won a meet and greet pass for the concert I was attending that weekend. I immediately left the library and went to the mall to find something to wear, because, of course, that was the most important thing.

The whole thing was rather anticlimactic, a lot of build up for not much deliverance. I don't know what exactly I had in mind, but it was more exciting that what I actually experienced. In fact, I barely remember the big moment at all. We were herded into a room, pushed through a line and given about .5 seconds to talk to Taylor and get a picture snapped. All I remember is Taylor telling me he liked my name, though I don't remember telling him my name. It's all a fog, and it's gotten hazier over the past couple of years.

Whatever happened that day, it was not at all the big bang ending my story deserved. The middle is much more interesting.

My Days Chasing Taylor: The Beginning

Back when I was young and impressionable (ahem...4 years ago), I had a massive crush, both musically and otherwise, on Taylor Hicks. It was right after his American Idol win, so he was pretty much the most talked-about guy in the country, and I wanted in on the action. We don't get a lot of celebrities around here in Alabama, and not only was he a celebrity, but he was OUR celebrity. He was from right here where I'm from. He walked the same humble streets I walk and went about his life in the same places I do. This probably had a great deal to do with why my obsession with him took over my life. He was accessible.
But I'm not talking about Taylor Hicks 4 years later because he was the first famous person I ever met. I met Chris Daughtry, too, and I couldn't care less about that now. My silly, fangirly infatuation was the beginning of my education about, appreciation of and devotion to music.
Well, that's not entirely true, because I've been listening to The Beatles since I was a fetus and I know the back story behind every Bruce Springsteen song, so I've always had an appreciation for music in general. But I had never delved into the world of music, specifically music born and bred in Alabama, and in the months and years that followed Taylor's Idol win, I really delved in. This time in my life, when I first listened, really listened to Taylor's music and the music of the talented musicians he surrounded himself with, is when my interest was sparked.
I went to stand in the scorching-hot Alabama sun, packed in tight between the buildings of downtown Birmingham with several hundred of my closest friends and fellow Taylor fans, to see the man himself perform his first post-Idol live show. He was backed by Little Memphis Blues Orchestra, who I would be seeing plenty more of in the coming years, and he played a fairly short set at City Stages. I, like most everyone else there, had only seen the Taylor from the hit TV show. We had no idea who he really was, but he started showing us that day. All I knew when I walked away was that I wanted more. Lots more. And I set out to get it. My obsession was born.