Note: This story first appeared June 18 in the Lede, a digital news publication delivered to our subscribers every morning. https://www.alabamalede.com/subscribe
“I’m blessed to say I’m coming up on almost two decades in show business and I’m excited about the future,” says Taylor Hicks. “I’ve never said ‘no,’ in this business, I don’t think I ever will. My first ‘no’ I never said was playing the 11 a.m. slot at the Flora-Bama on a Monday morning.”
Hicks, the “American Idol” winner who has parlayed his reality-show fame into a lasting career as an entertainer, has good reason to be thinking of the Flora-Bama. It’s one of a couple of places he’ll be performing in south Alabama over the next few weeks. It’ll also be his first appearance there since the death of co-owner Joe Gilchrist.
After Hicks hits the beach on Friday, June 24, he’ll headline the city of Semmes’ Independence Day celebration on Saturday, July 2. The event takes place from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Mary G. Montgomery High School’s football stadium and is free to the public. Hicks performs at 7 p.m. Other attractions include additional live entertainment, food trucks, children’s activities and arts and crafts vendors. A fireworks show will conclude the honor.
Hicks said it’s an honor to be asked to help celebrate July 4, and that the gig has some personal appeal as well.
“I’ve been able to do a lot of city festivals this years, thank goodness, outside festivals all over the county,” he said. “This one is really special because it’ll allow me to go down and see some friends and family.”
The same is true of the performance in the Flora-Bama’s Main Room at 9 p.m. on June 24, although the definition of “family” may be a little different.
“I feel like that that truly is one of a very few stages that I can call home,” said Hicks. As he’s said before, he thinks his prematurely gray hair might have helped him to an early start at the famed roadhouse.
“Well, I think I started going gray so I might have looked like I was about 30 at the time,” he said. “So I feel like I was able to get into the bar early and learn to entertain folks from all walks of life. That’s something very fortunate, to be able to learn that early to have a place that has all walks of life come through it, so you can entertain those folks.”
Gilchrist was famous for his love of music. Hicks said he and co-owner Pat McClellan definitely made an impression on his mindset and his career.
“When I was very young in the Flora-Bama, I would say probably about 25 years ago,” said Hicks, “a quarter of a century ago I was playing in the Flora-Bama and Joe and Pat taught me one of the very first early lessons of being a restaurateur and having a really successful restaurant, bar and music venue.”
The lesson was about hard work: “Joe and Pat would be cleaning up beer cans and 2:30 in the morning,” Hicks said.
“Joe was a little bit like the parent that would let you come over and have a few beers in high school,” he said. “It just so happened that Joe’s house was the Flora-Bama. And Pat and Joe, there was never a stranger that Pat and Joe met. Joe, he always made you feel welcome and warm and was very sincere about meeting you. I think it was really a beautiful combination that Joe and Pat had that made that bar successful.” Hick credited newer co-owners with carrying the torch passed along by Gilchrist and McClellan.
Time in Nashville has helped him appreciate the Flora-Bama’s impact on the music world, he said.
“Songs that were written in the little trailers at the Frank Brown International Songwriters Festival across the street from the Flora-Bama have touched the lives of people around the world,” he said.
Folks there knew how to beat a heat wave, too, he said. “I remember one stopover at the Flora-Bama, it was still 97 degrees, I remember seeing songwriters writing music in the freezers,” he said.
Hicks’ busy summer doesn’t stop there. He has a lot of irons in the fire, including his participation in closing ceremonies for the World Games in Birmingham on July 17.
His barbecue “side hustle,” Saw’s Juke Joint, is still a going concern. He’s auditioning for film and TV roles, and he’ll be a featured guest July 15 in the country musical “May We All,” being presented this summer in Nashville. And his traveling food TV series “State Plate” can be found on Amazon Prime.
Hicks continues to hint that a new album, recorded at Zac Brown’s Nashville studio, will be unveiled in the not-too-distant future.
“People who’ve heard it have said, ‘If Chris Stapleton and Zac Brown and Jackson Browne had a baby, this is what it would sound like,’” said Hicks. “It’s very soulful country.”
“I’m a roadhouse musician at heart,” he said. “That’s something that’s prevalent in my music. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.”
