The Taylor Hicks Interview Drinking Game: Questions We've All Heard Before, Again

Taylor Hicks was interviewed by Kate McCaffrey regarding his current career prospects, past history and his on-going tour with "Grease". She praises Taylor Hicks' performance as the Teen Angel, saying, 'he put his heart and soul' into the show. Wait is she a member of the Soul Patrol?

Of course we've heard the term, "heart and soul" ad nauseum, directed at Mr. Hicks and hey, last week at Half Price Books, I saw a stack fifteen books high of his book, written with help by another writer, with similar title. And lest we forget, silly me, he has a song called, "Heart and Soul".
"Heart and Soul", Taylor Hicks, video taken on his 'Asian Tour' aka Shopping Mall Tour. Video courtesy of Gerry Alanguilan.

I'm hearing Las Vegas lounge act, especially at the ending. Interesting in Ms. McCaffrey's interview she refers to the Asian shopping malls as "Asian arenas" I must have lost something in the translation between 'mall' and 'arena' or I've been shopping at the StoneBriar Arena in Frisco... all this time. Who knew?

Ms. McCaffrey's piece opens with, "From Alabama bars to Asian arenas, mall Easter Bunny to Broadway, unknown to mocking "Saturday Night Live" skits,"

Wait, 'unknown to mocking Saturday Live Night skits' Shouldn't that read, 'known to have been mocked in Saturday Night Live skits', since he was during the show... ?

..."Taylor Hicks, that gray-haired, harmonica player of fickle "American Idol" fame, has had an unlikely ride."

Nothing like a nice trite introduction to get the interest fanned, especially the 'ride' part. No I've never heard 'ride' used to describe the course of one's life or career path, never. Well, at least she avoided the word, 'journey'. Too, in her third paragraph she refers to Gram Parsons, spells it correctly unlike that MTV hack, eliminating my need to rant as I previously did about the difference between Gram the musician and sweet crackers.

If we were playing the Taylor Hicks Interview Drinking Game devised at It's All Grey we'd be hammered soundly by the end of this one.

Example, first question, asked 9,900,900,900 times: " How many days out of the year are you on the road?" (that's worth a shot) That opens up the floor for Hicks to say, "Let's not talk days, let's talk years." (that's worth a beer)

Next question, "How does that affect your songwriting? blah, blah, blah," (that's another shot)
Hick's answer, "You have to be disciplined. You have to just, you know, find that creative outlet. And, to a certain degree, I've had a blast building the character of Teen Angel and the role. Thinking of things that could work and you know, just having the discipline to have a creative outlet." I'm thinking, 'darn he left out the Muse part' which would have been two shots...

His response was something similar to the rhetoric we hear from politicians on the campaign trail. Taking say, the border issue, and the manner in which Hicks answered that previous interview question, let's pretend we've asked Mr. Hicks his view on the Texas borders; likely we'd hear something like, "Borders, yes, the borders, isn't the Texas Valley beautiful in the Spring time? Have you ever had fresh grapefruit right off the trees? Incredible."

Evasive answer equals slamming two shots.

Kate then asks Mr. Hicks, "Performing in a musical like "Grease," does it take a different kind of discipline and stamina than performing with a band?"

Now considering this question's only been asked 900,900 times we can pass on it... but Taylor's response, "I spent two years of performing music for an hour and 45 minutes five nights a week.' earns us half a beer.

I'm feeling a little on the happy side at this point.

Question, "If five years ago, before you won "American Idol", if someone told you you'd be touring with "Grease", what would you have said?"
I took some editing liberties and moved the commas around a bit to make it more correct, but this answer gives us a full to the brim shot of Jack Daniels.

Skipping down a bit we come to the most asked question in the history of Taylor Hicks since "American Idol", "When were you the Easter Bunny?" Yes The Easter Bunny question, it's hugely worthy of a shot AND a beer.

Then the, "Will you do more in the future?", question regarding whether Hicks will or would become a serial Broadway musical actor, we get another beer.

The eternal, is there another album in future plan question, "Music wise, do you have anything new in the works?" (Two shots.)

And the answer worth a shot and another beer, "I do actually. I'm planning on working on a record during the Summer of this year. And hopefully releasing it soon." Meaning, he's not actually got anything working yet, but since you asked yes of course he's going to get around, one day to putting out more music. Of course.

Hiccup.

I must give Ms. McCaffrey props on coming up with a novel way to approach the 'lessons learned from time of American Idol' question so we'll pass on a drink here. That said, Taylor's answer, "To stay in the business, you know, work and tour as much as you can. ... Make sure you tour. That's the thing. You have to be out there and tour and be with the people. People want to know that you're tangible." "Tangible"? Okay, pass on the beverages again...

Then the last question from the interviewer, "So some people would say that participating in "American Idol" discredits musicians and their work. Do you think people take your music less seriously than they would have maybe had you not won "American Idol"?"

Hicks final response, "Um ... yeah, I think ... it does. ... The thing that I was always taught by older musicians is not how you get there, it's if you get there. And I think when you get there is ... the most important part is what you do with it when you get there. Does that make sense? And I think any way that you can get there is the way that you should get there. I think ... you gotta find a way to expose yourself. You can't just sit in your house and be a great musician. You have to get out there."

So, let's see, Yes, No, Yes, Maybe, just get there and who cares?

Aargh sound bite  Tim Allen sound bites

And for my sitting here dissecting this interview and actually writing about it, let's just finish the bottle. Cheers.