I never watched “American Idol” until Alabama’s own Taylor Hicks made it into the finals in 2006 and then won at the age of 29! In our “youth worshiping” culture that was quite a feat.

I liked his good looks (especially his gray hair) Southern manners and the exuberance he exhibited on state. The joy he felt was obvious and each time I saw him perform, he made me smile. His tour schedule is taking him across the country and he is making live appearances — all signs of success for any musician.

I would love to hear him do some blues with just drums, guitar, bass and his harmonica. I might as well confess — as a former blues bass player, I would love to play music with him just once. There is nothing like being on stage and part of a music unit when there is a sense of joy and fun among the musicians. It’s a wonderful feeling.

Over the years I’ve had the opportunity to talk to or interview some of the greatest musicians in the blues and country music genres. Each person I interviewed was gracious and generous with their time. Hicks has all of the best attributes of those seasoned performers.

Kathy Mattea spent about a hour on the telephone with me. She said it was a cold day and she had a fire going in her cabin in the mountains and was just “hanging out.” She talked about her Italian heritage and about her admiration for the Scottish musicians with whom she had been working on an album.

Billy Joe Royal talked about hating the word “comeback” and how he had “never left.” He had several hit songs (who could forget “Down in the Boondocks” and “Tell It like It Is”?) and he had another song that was sure to be a hit. “Burned Like a Rocket” was climbing the charts when the Challenger tragedy happened and radio stations wouldn’t play the song.

After that the Georgia native said he had to move in with his mother. He played clubs large and small all across the state. “I didn’t make a ‘comeback’ because I never quit performing,” he told me. He made me laugh when he told me that to get those gigs, he had to drive an old pickup with a broken accelarator pedal. “I had to stick a pencil under it to keep it up,” he said.

Today, Royal is still performing, although now he is playing to larger crowds in big clubs all over the country.

Magic Slim (Torrance Holt) is a masterful Chicago blues musician whose soulful voice and true blues guitar work made for an exciting performance at the Sebastian Beach Inn in the early 1990s.

After the show, I sat and talked with him and when he discovered that I was not only from Mississippi but had traveled many of the red clay and gravel roads that wind through the “hills” before descending to the flat Mississippi Delta, he grinned and relaxed. As the waves of the Atlantic washed onto the beach below us, we talked about our home state and his life in Chicago. It was an unforgettable, magic night.

Tanya Tucker performed at the Jimmie Rodgers Festival and we talked on her tour bus. She was “real” and so much fun to talk with that after a few minutes on the bus, I felt like we were old friends. There was nothing of the prima donna about Tanya, but she was certainly a professional. She took the time to do a thorough sound check in the theater and her performance was all any fan could have wished for — despite the fact she was eight months pregnant at the time!

Maybe someday, I’ll have the chance to meet and talk with Hicks — when he too is an old pro.

Barbara Grider is staff writer for The Independent. Contact her at bgrider@gulfcoastnewspapers.com.