I’ve been giving a lot of thought to a couple specific issues regarding the Taylor Hicks fan base lately, but I’ve been hesitant to address them here before now. Each of us views Taylor and our place within his fan base differently, and that’s as it should be. So I don’t want anyone reading this to misinterpret my opinions to be what I believe the “party line” should be. I just feel the need to get some things off my chest.The catalyst of my decision to finally share these thoughts was a random post on a message board. The fan who wrote it and the board it was posted on will remain nameless. I have no desire to point fingers, but I found it interesting because her thoughts seemed to be mirrored by many other folks within the fan base, though all to a differing degree. In essence, she confessed that she was losing her enthusiasm and interest in all things Taylor. She pointed to his lack of consistent communication with the fans, as well as her doubts about his desire to move beyond small venues and the Southern club circuit, as the reasons for her growing lack of interest.

“Where is he?” she asked. “What is he doing? And why didn’t he introduce any new material towards the end of the summer tour? Where is his drive?”

For the sake of discussion, let’s call the emotions she expressed to be those of curiosity and anticipation. Fans who share her feelings often wonder why Taylor doesn’t do regular blogs on the HQ or release statements in a timely manner when the press picks up on something going on with him that they consider newsworthy. They are anxious to know what he’s doing, what kind of music he’s working on, what in-roads he’s making on his path to success.

I understand these emotions. I’ve experienced them myself. But I don’t expend any real energy on them. Because I realize on some deep level that it’s ultimately none of my business. The decisions about how Taylor chooses to direct his musical, artistic and creative career are his to make, not mine.

I know well enough from the music he’s been making since the release of In Your Time – and all that I’ve been lucky enough to hear since – that Taylor is the real deal. From the initial promise of Somehow to the magical, heartrending tags he inserted into The Maze on tour last year, his ability to continue to surprise and delight me is not in question. Not in my mind, anyway. He continues to be my personal pied-piper, my Shaman of Soul, and I’ll happily follow him wherever he chooses to take me.

It’s not up to me to decide how many CDs sold are enough, or whether his songs are being played on the radio, or if he’s reached millionaire status or not. I don’t care if he attends industry functions or networks behind the scenes with powerful folks or gets his name and face out there.

It’s not my place to declare when Taylor has reached a desired level of success. That call is his and his alone. He admitted early on in the American Idol process that he was just there in the hopes of getting some gigs. He’s spoken of being content if he could be guaranteed a couple hundred bucks a week. This is a man who simply wants to be able to make music his way and still be able to pay his bills. If, ultimately, he can do that by working a regional circuit of small clubs and theaters and playing to packed houses while occasionally cutting an album, who are we to tell him he’s not doing enough? Not enough for whom? Us or Taylor?

So that covers the anticipation part. Let’s talk about the curiosity factor for a minute.

I don’t need to hear from him on a regular or even semi-regular basis. Sure, the blogs he does are nice, like a postcard from an old friend, but they’re not necessary. I don’t need them to sustain my interest. And I don’t think we’re owed them, either. We’ve become so spoiled by the instant information available to us through the internet that we’ve begun to expect something we’ve really no right to.

Taylor shouldn’t be expected to check in with us. What gives us the right to demand he do so? He owes us nothing. That’s important, so I’m going to repeat it: He owes us nothing.

The most we have the right to expect is getting our money’s worth when we attend a show he’s doing or purchase an album of his. That’s it. And if he doesn’t deliver in a way that’s pleasing to us, we have the right to walk away and spend our money, time, and effort elsewhere. There is no contractual obligation on either of our parts. Both parties came into this venture freely and both are just as free to leave it.

That’s right, folks: Taylor has the right to fall off the face of the earth without telling us first. Or checking in with us while he’s there. So be grateful when he does, but don’t ever feel like he has to in order to make you happy. That’s your problem, not his.

It’s this devilish sense of entitlement to know that led to the creation and proliferation of what’s become known within the fan base as “the hate blogs.”

I’ll grant you that the entities behind these blogs are as far from being fans of Taylor’s as you can get, but the blame for them still being out there falls squarely into our collective laps. If we weren’t so damned curious about Taylor, we wouldn’t be tempted to peek in and read the latest, would we? Despite feeling the need to shower with a brillo pad afterwards, how many folks reading this can say in all honesty that they’ve never visited one of these hate blogs? I can’t. I’ve been there and done that and I hate myself a little each time I do it.

But it’s folks like me who keep the traffic on these sites high enough that the owners find ways to continue to weave their webs of hatred and contempt and pull us further in.

So what’s the solution? I haven’t a clue.

Perhaps the best thing we can do is put ourselves in Taylor’s shoes. Try to imagine what it might be like to suddenly have thousands of relative strangers demanding to know what we’re doing at any given moment. Imagine being second-guessed about the decisions concerning your career path, the way you spend your free time, or the intimate details of your love life. It would be rather oppressive, wouldn’t it? Not to mention down-right rude on the part of the questioner.

So why is it that Taylor deserves less of a right to privacy when it comes to living his life than we’ve come to expect in our own? Isn’t what he’s given us through the music enough?

If you can’t honestly answer that question in the affirmative, then perhaps it’s time for you to step away a bit. Take a look around at your life and concentrate as much energy on living it to the fullest as you do worrying about what Taylor is doing.

Or, to paraphrase something he once told Gray Charles, maybe you should go rake some fucking leaves.

Over and out …