Gray interviews Taylor

The following interview appeared on graycharles.com in June, 2006:

Taylor Hicks Interview – Part One

Clarification: The Interview with Taylor is complete, done, finito. We talked twice last night. The first time is related below, we talked again about two hours later. Thanks for all the “please ask Taylor this” responses but I already took my shot.

I returned home from work on Friday evening to find the following e-mail in my inbox

Wondering if by chance you have heard from Taylor recently.
AND
What is your cell phone #?

from a person that I know to be a close to Taylor. As I mentioned in my “last” post I’ve been working the official interview angles for almost three weeks now and, while things seemed to be progressing they were doing so at quite the glacial paste for someone who is used to the think/type/publish routine that I have established here. A few minutes later I received an e-mail from Taylor’s publicist saying that, although today was looking good for awhile, we were going to have to push things back to Tuesday.

I’ve tried very hard to never take advantage of any of the personal relationships I have established over the last few months. I’ve never asked anyone to “hook me up” with Taylor or push for a connection via personal channels. Why? I suppose I wanted to maintain some sense of professional (?!) integrity here and I really wanted to come about naturally, if at all.

I did what I could to prepare, got my thoughts together, made sure the cell phone and the computer were charged and tried to relax. Given what I know of Taylor’s schedule I had every expectation that it wouldn’t happen at all, not for lack of desire on his part but simply for scheduling reasons.

At 7:15 my cell phone rang and lists an unfamiliar area code.

Me: Hello?
Caller: Is this Gray?
Me: Yes it is.
Caller: Hey there, it’s Taylor Hicks.

At this point I’m thinking, I’m glad Taylor identified himself because I never would have guessed who would have called me on a Friday night with a smooth southern accent and a voice that we’ve all been hearing through our speakers and television sets constantly for the last six months.

Me: Hey Taylor, how you doing buddy? (yikes, awfully familiar of me don’t you think) What’s up?
Taylor: I’m just out here in Burbank rehearsing for the American Idol tour.

(so my first interview question is weak – gotta work on that)

Taylor: “I just wanted to call and thank you for building an artistic, intelligent website for fans to gather in that was about the music as much as anything else. It was great,” he adds, “because it didn’t have much fluff”. I laugh and say yeah, “I always tried to do without the fluff”.

Taylor: “For me, it’s so much about the music and I see that it is for you too. We could probably talk for hours about music.”

“YES”, I say (I probably did say that in ALL CAPS)

I say that my website and it’s readers first came to him via the music and while we loved the competition and showmanship of the whole American Idol thing we were looking forward to him getting past the American Idol “experience” and getting back to performing HIS music.

“I tell you what, I’ve just finished the first full rehearsal of my part of the Idol show and I can tell you that it IS my music right now. I hear you’re shutting the website down and I wanted to know if you want to setup an exit interview with me”.

Nice to see the man booking his own publicity. Really nice.

“Absolutely”, I say, “I just need a break from all this madness.”

We share a laugh at this and Taylor says, “I’m sure you do, you’ve put an amazing amount of work into this thing.”

I offer that perhaps Taylor could use a break too and I get my first indication of what is to become a constant theme throughout the conversation. Taylor is deeply respectful of where he is right now and deadly serious about making the most of the opportunities that are in front of him.

“I’m happy to be here and I’m just going to keep going,” he says, “those that don’t have the stamina and determination to do this weren’t going to win anyway. You really have to have the drive to make it happen and I’m not going to slow down now.”

I ask if he was prepared for this eventuality way back in the audition phase or if the realization of how it was going to go grew on him slowly.

“That’s a really great question – is this the interview now?”

We both laugh – “I suppose it is”, I say, “but we can set this up formally if you’d like.”

Taylor shares his schedule with me and says he has some open spots in the next 3 days in the early evening. Eager to take advantage of the opportunity, we agree that Taylor will call me back later this evening.

The amount of free time he has now is roughly equal to what he had during the show and he was able to do some websurfing and e-mailing so he wasn’t entirely cutoff from the world.

Oh, and the infamous “Post #80”? Yes, that was him.

“I’m sorry that I misspelled your name”, Taylor apologizes, “but I was in a bit of a hurry that day.” So even Taylor refers to me as greyGray within the context of my own website.

To be continued . . .

I know you’re all anxious to read this so I’ll get it out in pieces. I reserve the right to correct/edit as I see fit later on. Please link to this post with, at most, a one-paragraph excerpt. It really irks me when someone reposts the entire thing somewhere else.

Me: I honored this request for almost two years, but now that GC is completely gone (including the archives), I think it’s okay to share it, especially since I am making no claims that I wrote any portion of it. This is ALL Gray and Taylor.

Taylor Hicks Interview – Part Two

What does one do to prepare for an interview like this? I had my questions but mostly figured I would wing it. That general idea served me well because mostly, Taylor called up to do what we journalist types referred to professionally as “shoot the shit”.

I considered structuring the rest of the interview for you by topic but I thought I’d simply keep it chronological to give you a sense of the rambling nature of it all rather than try to package it up neatly.

Cell phone charged, check. Laptop charged, check? I didn’t figure I needed anything else.

At the pre-appointed time the phone rang again. Frankly, I had just about convinced myself that some sort of “scheduling difficulty” would rear its ugly head but luck seemed to be on my side.

My first question, “Is anything off limits? Anything I should stay away from at all?” Taylor, “nope, I’ve got no secrets”. Pretty good, pretty pretty good I’m thinking to myself.

So – “Taylor, I’ve watched your public persona for almost five months now and I’ve gotta say – you’re good at this. Performer, Musician, Commercial spokesperson, interview subject. It all seems rather easy. How did this happen”?

“I’ve been doing this all my life. People have been wondering about me for a long time. Hell man, people have been watching me for a long time, studying me and observing me, even when I was 15 or 16 years old. You get good at being observed. I hired a sideman when I was 17 years old. A guitar player named Billy Earl McClelland who was Delbert Clinton’s old guitar player. We worked together when I was at Auburn, he told him that I was a natural entertainer and I
shouldn’t worry about putting on a show. I should just be the person I was and that was entertainment enough. I had never thought about it that way until he told me that. I was able to loosen up and just by me.

When you’re being observed all the time you begin to understand what people want to see when they watch you. After fourteen or fifteen years of doing that it becomes second nature.”

I wanted to talk about the “energy level” I felt at the American Idol shows and get Taylor’s perspective on it. I’ve always attributed it to the fact that you’re seeing entertainers who are on television in front of fifty million people and the producers have tried hard to create, for want of a better word, a sense of “love” from the audience. I felt like it was this adulation that drove the excitement, Taylor, however, had a different take on it.

“The reason that energy level is there is because they are incorporating the competition into the music. The stakes are higher than at any other concert regardless of the bands talent or energy level. I’d say its music meets college football. It’s Auburn vs. Alabama with guitars and keyboards and drums. I’m used to that type of energy and excitement and I thrive in the
environment. American Idol is closer to college football than anything else.”

“Talk to me about strategy. Did you have a strategy in all of this or was it more of a week-to week-how do I progress sort of of thing?”

Big pause from Taylor as he prepares to blow me out of the water on this one.

“For me, this competition was all about strategy. This was my opportunity, this was my shot and I wasn’t going to go into it unprepared. It was so hard for years when everyone around you is making ends meet, having kids, starting up 401k’s and I’m out there playing in bars on Tuesdays and Wednesdays’ with no one there to see you and then packing up for the weekend to hope that enough people would show up for you to afford the money to pay for the trip.

When you see an opportunity like this . . . there was no other time to think about anything but that. EVERYTHING was premeditated, songs, clothes, performance. Everything including everything I’m doing now.

American Idol was the perfect scenario for me, I don’t think it could have been scripted any better. I had been trying to get a record deal through my recorded music for so long and it wasn’t going anywhere. Visual performance was the key, when people were able to see me perform they connected and became fans. I was always in conflict. I had to try put food on the table and get a record deal at the same time. Any time I spent to stroke ego’s at a record label meant maybe I wouldn’t get enough to eat that week.”

Taylor Hicks Interview – Part Three

A short piece in which I decide that as much as I like and respect Taylor – now we’re seeing totally eye to eye.

The one very specific question I have for Taylor surrounds his choice of “Trouble” by Ray LaMontagne. I suggested to Taylor that this might have been his “riskiest” choice of the competition. Why did he choose to sing a song by an obscure artist in front of a pop culture audience of fifty million people?

“I’ve been listening to that record forever and just loving it. I consider Ray a modern day Van
Morrison/Astral Weeks kind of guy. I wanted to hone in on the songwriting aspect of the modern performance because I think that Ray is just an amazing songwriter and performer.

I had fallen in love with that album and thought, what a great way to bring that music and that point of view to that many people. I wanted to say – Here’s a Fucking SONG.

I’m such a lucky person, I don’t know what you call it to be honest. My whole goal is to let people see about that music that’s real and not to let it slip. Before Idol I had a really small capacity to do that but now I can do that on a worldwide stage – it’s great!”

When I mentioned that readers of graycharles.com had nominated Ray LaMontagne as one of the top artists that fans of Taylor would also like, Taylor simply laughed. “Good music is good music and good people know it when they hear it.”

Taylor had never heard the Nigel interview where he whined about Taylor standing on stage singing “Trouble, Trouble, Trouble, Worry, Worry, Worry” and saying it wasn’t “happy”. When I recounted the story to him his reply was – “Nigel and Simon don’t know crap about American music. They’ve been submersed in pop culture for so longer that they only care about what sells.”

to be continued . . .

Me: There was controversy raised by this portion. Ridiculous, I know. There was also a lot of celebration over that last bit (about Nigel and Simon). People still quote that.

The overly sensitive and the trolls led to the following addendum:

Taylor Hicks Interview – Part Three – Addendum

There has been some small controversy surrounding Taylor’s use of the F-Bomb during our conversation about Ray LaMontagne. While many who read the piece responded very positively to this “real” view of Taylor, a few others (mostly at other sites to be fair) were offended.

Taylor has chosen this interview to connect with his fan base and, as you might be aware, he’s been following the “action” both here and elsewhere as folks respond to his thoughts about American Idol, his new career and his musicianship.

Long story short, I just got off the phone with Taylor and he wanted to offer an apology to anyone who was offended by his choice of words. Here is what he had to say:

“I’m sincerely sorry if anyone was offended by the language I used in describing my thoughts surrounding the Ray LaMontage song. While I stick by the emotion I was trying to convey I’m sure I could have chosen different words to describe what I was feeling. It came from a positive emotional connection to an artist and his music but I understand that it might have been considered inappropriate. I’m not a person who typically curses in day-to-day conversation so I feel badly for anyone who was bothered by this.”

So there you have it. I can tell you from the tone of Taylor’s voice that he really didn’t mean to offend and he was even apologetic about asking me to go through the steps to post this. Personally, I don’t notice the odd curse word here and there in typical conversations but for those of you who do, here’s hoping you can be accepting. Taylor’s trying to reach out.

more interview stuff on the way . . .

I’m turning off comments on this one – I think we’ve said all there is to say.

Me: Predictably, people did NOT stop commenting on it.

Taylor Hicks Interview – Part Four; June 24th, 2006

I ask Taylor, “We’ve heard about your musical tastes from the past. Sam Cooke, Ray Charles and the more recent past – Bob Seger for example – but who are you listening to that’s putting out music now.”

Taylor says, “It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to just sit down and listen to music, almost eight months. It’s been rough”. Taylor does take some time to list a few folks that he admires.

John Mayer, John Legend. I’ve just been listening to a guy called Anthony Hamilton doing “Ain’t Nobody Worrying” which is just incredibly awesome. Otherwise, I really need to get back to some new stuff.”

Taylor then does me a great favor and says “Send me some stuff, send me some MP3’s man, I’m anxious to know what’s out there that I’m missing.”

After a quick check to see if he has heard them you’ll be happy to know both the Ray LaMontagne and Gnarls Barkley versions of “Crazy” are now sitting in Taylor’s inbox. Right on, dude.

Taylor continues, “I have my ear to the ground. I’m observing people and musicians all the time. It’s kind of the ‘back at ya’ approach. If they’re looking at me well I’m going to look at them and figure our what I can learn. My sax player says that I’m a “Seer” and a quick judge of people and personalities. To be a musician and a writer you have to move to the same beat as people around you.”

Now we move onto the upcoming American Idol Tour. Here’s what I can tell you.

There will be a live band, some reports early on were suggesting that all the music would be recorded, Taylor was surprised to hear that. He considers the band pretty hot and says “Don’t mess with the drummer or the bass player.”

Taylor says that he’ll be doing some raw and edgy covers – not necessarily stuff he played on the show, and he thinks people will be excited. Other than specifics what he can share is that the sound of his music on the show is his own.

I ask him a simple question here – “Why? Why are they letting you run the show here?”

His response, “Because I can. I’m not going into this to try and sound shitty or let that happen. I’ve gone in busting, I’m serious about that music, you can’t argue with work. They know that I’m a serious musician who worked his ass off to get here. You don’t screw with the musicality of someone who you know is competent. They’re not idiots either. They never had somebody get into the game like this and use it for what it was to be used for.

All the other kids come in and sing their songs, I come in and do six or seven songs and it’s different. The band and the producers are siding with me musically.”

Well folks, sounds like Taylor is raising the possibility that the AI tour may not be the typical cheesefest that we might expect – especially where Taylor is concerned.

to be continued . . .

Me: And more controversy on the previous portion. Shocking, eh?

Taylor Hicks Interview – Part Five

At this point, we’ve been talking for quite some time so I apologize if things get a bit “rambling” but hey, that’s how it goes. I’ve tried hard not to sugar-coat or over-structure the flow of our conversation because I’m sure that my regular readers would rather hear it as it happened.

I ask Taylor about the “stars” that appear on the show. For example,”how much interaction do you have with them and was there much, if any, valuable advice given?”

Taylor replies, “Look, we’re only with these folks for two or three minutes apiece. There simply isn’t enough time for any valuable interaction to occur.”

I ask if there were any exceptions to that rule and Taylor says, “One – Barry Manilow”. We talk for a bit about how Barry Manilow was never within 100 feet of either his playlist or mine but surprisingly he seemed to care about the contestants and shared his knowledge of musical structure and arrangement. Not surprisingly, this doesn’t seem like a very interesting topic so we move on.

“I’m wondering what your perception of your own fan base is? Who are they, what are they like, what’s the demographic?”

Admittedly, it’s a loaded question. I’m not really sure what I’m aiming at here but I certainly wonder what vibe Taylor is picking up on. I want to know how he feels about folks who might be fans based on a physical attraction rather than a musical one and whether or not that bothers him.

Good news, Taylor sees it as a loaded question and deftly sidesteps the whole thing. “My fans are good old-fashioned people who like good old-fashioned music. I just want to be a good working musician and I think the right people will pick up on that.”

Taylor senses that this last exchange was a bit different than the rest. He goes out of his way to let me know that he’s not attempting to recite “a line” by stating, “Whatever you see is what you’re going to get. You might think that I’m saying some of the same shit to you that I would say if was sitting in the chair with Leno and in some cases I am. That doesn’t mean that it isn’t real. I’ve been around some real shit in my life and at this point I’ve got no reason to do anything that isn’t real.”

We move onto playing club music given the rumors that we’re all aware what might happen during the tour. Taylor, as expected refuses to validate anything or drop any hints so I pursue it a from a different direction. I ask, “If you were able to bring some of the idol finalists on stage with you who would you choose?”

Democratically Taylor suggests that he might “Rotate them in and out.”

In response to a couple of questions from self appointed ‘Harmonica Geeks’ I ask Taylor what he plays – the answer “A Hohner Special 20”. I wonder if he has ever played a Lee Oskar or a Kay
and Taylor says that he has tried almost everything. He thought that playing a Lee Oskar was cool but that eventually he just got tired of changing his own reeds. “It sounded cool at the time but it wasn’t worth it at the end.”

Admittedly, I dropped these questions in on request, Harmonica’s are not my forte but I will say that Taylor’s excitement level rises a notch when he gets to talk about his craft. We talked about feedback and distortion techniques and the Jimi Hendrix-like effects he can coax out of a harp and an amp. It’s not news that Taylor is deservedly proud about him own musical abilities.

To be continued . . .

Me: This was my favorite part if only for the Jimi Hendrix mention. Jimi is the only artist I have heard who makes me feel the same way as when I hear Taylor.

Taylor Hicks Interview – Part Six

So if the “spotlight is shining” on Taylor so strongly now, why haven’t we heard more “stories”. It seems that in today’s culture anyone will sell a story with the “we knew him when” angle if they think they can make a buck.

So far, we’ve had Brooke and Brooke’s mom here at GrayCharles, both of whom have had nothing but glowing remarks, well wishes and not a trace of jealousy. I was afraid that I would start to hear from folks coming out of the woodwork with what they considered to be juicy gossip – but it never happened. I ask Taylor why this is.

He says, “I never associated with people who would do anything like that. My whole life I’ve been taking mental notes on people. I was learning to play guitar and play the kind of music I wanted to play and hoping that surely, God will let me share this talent. All the while I was very aware of my surroundings and the people I came into contact with and I shied away from folks I didn’t trust completely.”

I say that the viewing audience has been painted a picture of a guy who was at the end of his rope before the American Idol audition. “I want to know”, I say, “if this is the real story or one that plays well and was presented to us as the truth?”

Without hesitation Taylor answers, “I really was at the end of my rope, It was my last straw. I wavered on setting the age limit for my own success for years. I told myself I needed to “make” it before I was thirty one, then thirty four, then thirty two. I would throw those numbers around and say that that’s when I needed to stop. If I’m not reliably making a couple of hundred bucks a week by the time. It’s a tough damn way to live, a tough road, you have to fight with your own emotions and you still have to play and make someone else feel good at the same time. You’re playing to all these people and trying to make them happy and you have to figure that I’m going home tonight and I’ll have to worry about where my next paycheck is coming from?”

Onto one of our favorite topics, Simon. We chat for a bit and I sense that both Taylor and I are a bit tired of this Simon thing. After a few minutes of discussion we came to an understanding and I offered to Taylor that I would summarize what I thought he had said and he could simply respond as to whether or not my analysis was correct. I think you might be surprised where we ended up.

This is me talking.

“So Taylor, here is what I’m hearing you say. You planned your songs, your performances, your clothes, everything, we’ve pretty much established that correct?”

Taylor, “Yes”

Me, “So your JOB, as it were, was to perform, correct?”

Taylor, “Yes”

Me, “The way you see it, Simon had a job as well and his job was also to perform correct?”

Taylor, “Yes”

Me, “During the entire run of the American Idol show, did you ever change your performance style, song selection or anything else based on Simon’s commentary or criticism?”

Taylor, “Nope, never.”

To be continued . . .

Taylor Hicks Interview – Part Seven

So now we’re pretty up to date on the past and it’s time to talk about the present. “How in the world are you dealing with all of this?”

Taylor: “I was fairly prepared for what I thought might happen but it just seemed to keep coming at me. Wave after wave of things, first the press tour, then People Magazine, the Ford Commercial and then the Billboard thing. Wave after wave after wave of information was hitting me but it seems to have subsided for now. I’m glad the waves are over so that I can get into my album, get onto the road and just be Taylor Hicks.”

Naturally, I follow-up with, “So tell me about the album then” leaving Taylor with an open-ended question and hoping he’ll run with it. For the first time this evening Taylor keeps it close to the chest.

“I think it’s going to be really amazing,” Taylor says, “some great folks have stepped up and said that they’d like to work with me on this. Some really amazing collaborations are in the works. A few aren’t solid yet, so I’m not ready to talk about them. I’ve been so out in the open for so many months that I’d like to keep some secrets here, I’d like people to be surprised. It’s going to be my music done the way I want to do it but within that framework I’m open to
anything.”

I ask, “Will you re-record something from ‘Under The Radar’ or ‘In Your Time’?” Taylor responds, “Anything is possible; Nothing is final yet. I’m writing songs, I’ve got some great ideas. It’s still in the early stages but I’m really satisfied with the direction things are going right now. I’m looking forward to being the artist, the guy who writes the music, the guy who collaborates with others, plays, writes and performs. I want to be that guy. Open up your eyes, open up your ears, that’s my goal as a musician.”

We circle back to American Idol and the bigger picture of Taylor’s involvement both from the business and the music perspective.

Taylor acknowledges, “There is a ton of pressure on me musically. Yes, I ‘Danced with the Devil’ of American Idol. My fans are pretty keen about that. The “Pay The Devil” hat was exactly what you thought it was.”

Taylor reveals that he was at the Van Morrison show at the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles on March 4th of this year and picked up the hat at that show.

Still, it’s clear that Taylor has grown to respect American Idol for many aspects of the multi-faceted Beelzebub. “If it wasn’t for American Idol opening up their cameras I wouldn’t be talking to you. The show is powerful, it is dancing with the devil but it can also create positive reinforcements for society. The show features real music, music that can be appreciated across generations, music that mothers and daughters can agree on. It showcases music and
performers that can bring families together. It’s a music lesson, wildly popular and wildly positive.

It’s amazing that you can entertain a six or seven year old kid and open them up to artists like Sam Cooke and songs like ‘You Send Me’. The show can be the greatest music lesson in 30 years if people approach it correctly. Part of the reason American Idol is so popular is that it helps replace things that for whatever reason are missing in today’s culture. It has the capability of being a shared music lesson among families.”

“I’m VERY grateful to have been given this opportunity.” he continues, “I can teach kids about
music. The ‘Devil’ is on the business side.”

I’m cognizant enough not to ask for the details of any “business deal” but I do ask “Do you feel constricted in any way, artistically or otherwise, by the deal you have?”

Taylor muses a bit and then says, “All in all it’s a pretty fair handshake. They are providing me with some great opportunities, opportunities I wouldn’t have had otherwise. The bottom line for me, and the one I was most concerned about, was the music. The music is the bottom line for me.”

To be continued . . . (one more small segment and then a final wrap).

Taylor Hicks Interview – Part Eight – The Last One

So what does the immediate future look like for Taylor outside of the American Idol tour and his upcoming CD?

Clearly, part of Taylor’s focus is on the Internet and it’s role in building the fan-base that he has today. Taylor tells me, “I am aware of many of the different fan sites and I appreciate all the hard work it takes to run these. You folks have created a fantastic vehicle to keep track of me and each other and for me to understand what you’re thinking and feeling. My own website at TaylorHicks.com will be up soon and will use the best techniques available for interaction
today. It will have chat rooms, message boards and whatever else we find entertaining that we can throw at it. I’ll make appearances and interact with everyone. I’m big on interacting. It’s what keeps people together. It’s easy way to talk, communicate and be in touch in a no stress environment.”

I laugh and ask him if he thinks we can get it to “crash” on a regular basis just like the good old days of graycharles.com?

“I’ve got big companies behind it and it’s scaled appropriately (editors note, “scaled appropriately”? NICE). I know I created a big monster out there. I think I’ve shed some light on good music and helped to open up the minds of some people who hadn’t been touched by it in the past. I’ll be stopping by, I like to keep my ear to the ground.”

With that we said our goodbyes. I thanked Taylor from all of you out there and let him know exactly how appreciative we were that he took the time to share a bit of himself with his fans. Over the last few days I’ve freely posted links to this series of talks on quite a few of the Taylor/Idol messages boards. Feel free to do the same. I’ve posted some responses and
corrections on a few places and tried not to stir up too much undeserved muck but I may be prone to do that from time to time.

If you have anything you’d like clarification on please ask in this thread. I’ll try to do my best, I
won’t put words in Taylor’s mouth or try to read his mind but perhaps I can shed a bit more light on something you might have questions about. Please limit questions to topics that appeared in the interviews – I can’t answer questions about things we didn’t cover.

I hope to followup with a summation from my perspective later today. I’d like to thank everyone
for stopping by with kinds words, analysis and the occasional WTF? It’s all good.

- Gray

Finito

In conclusion . . .

Wow! This has taken a lot out of me and I’m a bit drained. This switch from being a creative writer with “Pop Culture Tourettes ™” to “journalist” has not been easy. I tried to do right by Taylor and be as fair and professional as possilble. Perhaps someone with more experience would have played it another way – I wouldn’t know, I never consulted anyone about it.

The picture of Taylor that emerged for me was certainly different than the one I started with – how could it not be? Mostly I got a picture of a person who really wanted the music to be the “bottom line”. I’ve read comments elsewhere that from time to time Taylor came off as arrogant . I firmly believe that this is a misread of what Taylor said and where he’s come from. He’s been a working musician for almost 15 years. Now that he has a chance to create and to perform music on the world stage do you really think he should roll over and play dead? Should he humbly subvert himself to the production team and say – do what you want with me? If Clive and other members of the production team are going to force compromises on Taylor isn’t the optimal outcome for him obtained by starting from the strongest possible position?

I believe Taylor is making his stand here and saying – I’m going to do this thing the way I want to do it. I’ve worked at this my whole life and now that I have the chance I’m going to use everything at my disposal to make it happen the way I want it to happen. You may read that as arrogant; I call it proud.

Perhaps regular readers have detected a note of cynicism in my words and my persona over the last few months (What? No? Say it isn’t so). Cynicism about “The Machine” that is American Idol. Cynicism over the manipulation of contestants and performances and anything else necessary to hook and entertain us. I can say without reservation that any residual cynicism
about AI that fell onto Taylor has now been lifted. Here’s a guy who has worked all his life to obtain something and now, perhaps, it’s within his reach. Great art is not achieved by being kind and pleasant to everyone around you. Does Taylor have a prickly side? Yes, I think so; I wouldn’t trust anyone who didn’t and I don’t fault him for it.

So I say to Taylor and to all of you, “You Are The Boogie” so “Keep Making It Do What It Do” and finally, I’ll leave you once again with the Dave Eggers quote that has been my own guiding light throughout this great journey.

What matters is not the perception, nor the fashion, not who’s up and who’s down, but what someone has done and if they meant it. What matters is that you want to see and make and do, on as grand a scale as you want, regardless of what the tiny voices of tiny people say. Do not be critics, you people, I beg you. I was a critic and I wish I could take it all back because it
came from a smelly and ignorant place in me, and spoke with a voice that was all rage and envy. Do not dismiss a book until you have written one, and do not dismiss a movie until you have made one, and do not dismiss a person until you have met them. It is a fuckload of work to be open-minded and generous and understanding and forgiving and accepting, but Christ,
that is what matters. What matters is saying yes.

Say yes,

- Gray