Taylor Tuesday

Taylor Hicks Opens for Earth, Wind and Fire at the Jones Beach Amphitheater

Sunday night I got a call on my cell phone. When I answered it, I could hear the muffled sound of Taylor Hicks singing "Gonna Move". Brian's exquisite sax solo was next and then Taylor's voice finished it off. A loud roar erupted from the crowd.

"Caryl?", my brother-in-law, Bruce, yelled into the phone, "did you hear that?"

Oh, yeah, I heard it, alright. The grin on my face was proof of that.

"Here, say 'hi' to your sister", he continued, as the crowd quieted down.

"Hi, Caryl!" Cathy said. I could hear Taylor's voice in the background, but I couldn't make out what he was saying. "I'll talk to you later," Cathy added, obviously pre-occupied. Then the phone went dead.

Well, that was fun, I thought. Nice of them to call. I'm so happy that they seem to be having a good time. Damn! I wish I was there.

I bought Cathy and Bruce tickets to see Earth, Wind and Fire for their 25th wedding anniversary. I told my sister that Taylor was the opening act, but we kept that fact a secret from Bruce. He'd been giving me a hard time about being a TH fan: "He's like Neil Sedaka! Only not as good!" It didn't matter what I said in return. I knew he'd have to experience Taylor live to see how wrong he was.

I spoke to Bruce after Taylor's set and his voice held the sound of a smile. "Yeah, he puts on a good show," he said, "and the women love him."

Cathy sent me an e-mail the next day with some more details:

"Thanks again for the tickets. We really enjoyed the show. Taylor was very entertaining. He always seems like he's enjoying himself. The women around us were SO into him. They were on their feet, dancing, clapping, singing and shrieking when he wiggled his butt. PS At one point he tripped over a wire and almost fell but he didn't miss a beat!

Interesting thing happened... As we were walking through the parking lot toward the theater a group of women asked us to take their pictures. Taylor music was blaring out of their stereo and 3 cameras were thrust into our hands.."take another picture, take another, thanks alot, enjoy the show." As we finally made it to our seats I spotted someone from work (pretty remarkable, considering the place has thousands of seats.)

Tom and his wife were seated in our row, a few seats away. His wife was talking to one of the picture women from the parking lot. Turns out the picture women had won a backstage pass to see Taylor. After awhile the other women from the parking lot showed up and at least one other of them had also won a backstage pass.

I'll see if I can ask Tom about the pictures, if they have a website or something where you can see them.

Thanks again, Love Cathy"

I guess Cathy means that the women won meet and greet passes. You wanna hear something that's enough to make a grown TH fan cry? Remember, I bought the tickets for my sister? Well, I WON A MEET AND GREET, but I couldn't go. The show was in NY and I live in Texas. Oh well, I'll live. I meeted and greeted Taylor a couple of times out by his bus, so I'm not TOO bitter.

Here is a segment of "Big Boss Man" from the Jones Beach show, shot by Diane from HQ. Watch how he flirts with the camera...I mean with YOU. Enjoy!