Even when Taylor Hicks was a teenager in Hoover in the 1990s, music was a big part of his life.

Former classmates from Hoover High remember him as an outgoing guy who was always singing in the basketball locker room or playing his harmonica.

People who worked in the guidance counselor’s office recall him saying that his main goal was to be in a band one day.

Curt Posey, who now serves on the Hoover City Council, was in the same graduating class as Hicks — the class of 1995 and the first to graduate from Hoover High — and remembers Hicks being voted the most talented of the 432 seniors.

“He was very talented and played the harmonica and sang,” Posey said. “I never really saw him perform like he did (later) on ‘American Idol.’ … When you’re in high school, you don’t really get to see that side of a person at school.”

But Hicks, who became famous after winning the fifth season of the popular TV show in 2006, confirmed that music was in his blood from an early age. He remembers sneaking into a nearby sports bar after high school basketball games to hear music.

Even then, he had enough premature gray hair to blend into the crowd, despite being underage, he said.

“I knew music was going to be a part of what I’d do,” Hicks said. “I didn’t know to what level.”

‘American Idol’ finalist Taylor Hicks of Alabama reacts to the judges’ comments after finishing his third performance during the ‘American Idol’ Season 5 final performances May 23, 2006, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. (Vince Bucci / Getty Images)

Third album

Hicks, who is scheduled to perform at the Wright Center at Samford University on April 19 as a benefit for Alabama Game Changers, is preparing to release his third album since “American Idol.” It will be his first in 15 years. He has been working on it for about 10 years, he said.

In 2017, Hicks put out a single called “Six Strings and Diamond Rings,” and then in 2021, he performed a song called “Porch Swing” in the romantic comedy “Stars Fell on Alabama,” playing himself in the movie.

He officially released “Porch Swing” in February of last year and followed it up with another song, “Teach Me to Dance,” in June, in conjunction with Father’s Day weekend and his debut at the Grand Ole Opry.

“Porch Swing” was co-written by Runaway June’s Jennifer Wayne and Jason Deere (who has written songs for Little Big Town, Lady A and LeAnn Rimes) and was recorded at Zac Brown’s Southern Ground studio in Nashville.

The ballad marries the sounds of country and soul and expounds on the idea of John Anderson’s “Swingin,’” Hicks said.

The porch swing is an iconic part of American life, from lazy evenings to first kisses, he said. “A lot of things go on on a porch swing.”

“Teach Me to Dance,” written by Victoria Shaw and Candy Parton, is described by Hicks as “the perfect wedding song.” It can be either a first dance song or father-daughter dance song because it’s universal and can be looked at from different perspectives, he said.

The song had been on hold for a Garth Brooks album, but Hicks found it and was able to snatch it up, he said.

He hopes to have his full album ready for release by late spring or summer and has been trying to get all the ducks in a row from a marketing perspective, he said. In the meantime, he released his own version of “Jingle Bells” in October and said he might want to do a Christmas album sometime soon as well.

Hicks performs in June 2006 at City Stages, the annual Birmingham concert festival that ran from 1989 to 2009. (Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of The Birmingham News, photograph by Linda Stelter)

Post-‘Idol’ success

Hicks has been a busy man since winning “American Idol” 18 years ago. Soon after beating out Katharine McPhee, Chris Daughtry and Kellie Pickler in that season of the show, he was named the “Hottest Bachelor” of 2006 by People magazine.

The debut single on his first album release after the show, “Do I Make You Proud,” debuted in the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 and later was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America. The album debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart and later was certified platinum.

He landed a book deal with Random House for a memoir that came out in 2007, and in 2008 he joined the cast of the Broadway musical “Grease” to play the role of Teen Angel, continuing in the role for a national tour.

In 2009, Hicks released his second post-“Idol” album, called “The Distance,” on his own label, Modern Whomp Records, and the first single, “What’s Right is Right,” made it to No. 24 on the Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks.

In 2012, Hicks steered his Soul Patrol ship in a different direction, becoming the first “American Idol” alumnus to land a long-term gig in Las Vegas. He started out at the Bally’s Las Vegas Hotel & Casino in June 2012 and shifted to the Paris Las Vegas Hotel & Casino in January 2013 as part of a deal that allowed him to sing at other Caesar’s properties across the country the same year.

In 2019, Hicks stepped back onto the stage at the Serenbe Playhouse just outside Atlanta, taking on the lead role of Charlie Anderson in “Shenandoah.”

Hicks performs at the Schaeffer Eye Center CityFest in Birmingham. (Nik Layman / Alabama News Center)

Love for food

The singer and actor also has always had a passion for food, he said. While he was growing up, he enjoyed visiting mom-and-pop restaurants all over the state, and that love of cuisine continued as he traveled around the country performing, he said.

In 2011, he joined with several partners to open a restaurant in Birmingham called Ore Drink and Dine, which served upscale versions of Southern classic dishes. The restaurant was rebranded in 2012 as Saw’s Juke Joint in conjunction with Mike Wilson and Doug Smith of Saw’s BBQ. Hicks handles the marketing for all six locations of Saw’s.

“The brand is growing, and people walk out with barbecue sauce all over ’em,” he said. “That’s one thing we’re happy about.”

Hicks took his passion for food to the television screen from 2016 to 2018 in a series on the INSP channel called “State Plate” in which he served as host, traveling across the country to feature iconic dishes and ingredients from each state. One of his favorites is Maine lobster.

Hicks has stayed busy since winning “American Idol” 18 years ago. (Getty Images)

On the road

Hicks, who has lived off and on in Nashville for about 15 years, said he now spends a lot of time traveling back and forth among Nashville, Birmingham and the Gulf Coast. He probably comes to Birmingham two to three times a month, he said. He still has family in Hoover and the restaurant in Birmingham. On the Gulf Coast, he likes to perform at places such as the famed Flora-Bama and The Oasis Resort in Gulfport, Mississippi. He travels to perform in other places around the country as often as he can get gigs.

“My goal is to stay on the road as much as possible,” he said. “I love working, and I love performing and entertaining. I probably do eight to nine performances a month all over the country and in Canada.”

One of his favorite places to perform is the Crystal Ballroom in Portland, Oregon, which is an old ballroom built on springs, he said. “You can see people spring up and down on the floor,” he said. “It’s a magnificent place to play music and entertain people.”

Hicks loves music and performing. (Nik Layman / Alabama News Center)

Peaks and valleys

Show business is thrilling, but it comes with a price, Hicks said. “It’s a lot of hard work. I enjoy the challenges of the valleys just as much as I enjoy the peaks of my career.”

While “American Idol” was definitely a highlight that brought him into the national spotlight, the best part of his 25 years in show business is all the people who come to hear him play and perform, he said. He also has had a chance to perform with a lot of great musicians.

“Willie Nelson was my favorite,” Hicks said. He got to sing “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” with Nelson at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado and considers it the highlight of his career, he said.

He’s also had a lot of variety, noting he performed with Snoop Dogg at City Stages in Birmingham in 2006. He would love to perform with Van Morrison one day, “but I’ve got to get in line for that.”

The hardest thing he’s had to do in his career is learning how to act on the fly — diving headfirst into Broadway theater without any formal training, he said.

“It’s definitely a work in progress still. I have the utmost respect for the theater folks.”

Hicks said he would love to find a more serious acting role in film or TV to create some artistic credibility for himself as an actor — maybe take on something like Billy Flynn, a fictional character from “Chicago.”

“Something that catches people off guard,” he said. “That’s kind of the goal.”

He also would love to be a contestant on ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars.”

“That would be an awesome gig.”

Hicks noted how the famously mercurial and former “American Idol” judge Simon Cowell once told him he dances “like a drunk uncle at a wedding.”

But music remains his biggest passion, whether performing with a six-piece band or doing an acoustic gig by himself or with one or two others.

“My motto is ‘have guitar, will travel,’” he said. “Whatever combination they want.”

A version of this story originally appeared in the Hoover Sun.