From the Saw's Juke Joint parking lot, you can smell smoke, char, and something sweet. It's 10 a.m. on a Monday, and inside the restaurant, deliveries are unloaded and staff prep tables. Taylor Hicks, unhurried and genuinely warm, greets me like an old friend.
For the photo shoot, he didn’t bring a guitar. He brought a harmonica — the same instrument that first made people stop and stare twenty years ago. He plays to the camera the way he plays to a crowd: totally unguarded, fully committed.
At one point, two women approach and ask if he works there. “Yeah, how can I help?” he says. It takes him saying his name out loud for the connection to click. He doesn’t seem to mind. If anything, he seems to prefer it that way.
Twenty years ago, Hicks won Season 5 of American Idol in front of 200 million viewers, becoming the show’s unlikeliest champion — a soulful, gray-haired kid from Hoover whom Simon Cowell said would never make the final round. He proved Cowell wrong, went platinum, played Broadway, and enjoyed a long-term residency in Las Vegas.
These days, Hicks splits his time between Nashville and Birmingham, making it back to his hometown at least once a month — usually to play golf at Shoal Creek, eat at Bottega or Hot and Hot, and check in at the restaurant he opened in 2012 with the late Mike Wilson. Hicks is quick to credit managing member Jennifer Wilson with the restaurant’s continued success: “She’s done an amazing job making sure the brand and the barbecue stays as strong as it’s ever been,” he says.
Tonight is the Saw’s Juke Joint Jamboree, his annual party with John Daly on the eve of the Regions Tradition Celebrity Pro-Am. We sat down before the lunch rush and talked about Ray Charles, Bob Seger, Snoop Dogg, and life since Idol.
What’s your Saw’s order?
I think our wings are the best in the South—fried catfish and greens. The sweet tea fried chicken sandwich cut into fourths — they become bite-sized, which is nice. Fried okra is a summer staple. You really can’t go wrong. It’s Mike Wilson’s vision and his flair for Alabama barbecue. Saw’s is very Alabama-centric, and that’s what I love about it.
And to drink?
You can’t go wrong with one, and only one, bushwhacker.
With a floater?
With the floater. The bushwhacker with a Skrewball Peanut Butter Whiskey floater is like a frozen Reese’s. The sweetness is what kills you.
Why a restaurant? How did the Juke Joint come about?
One of my first gigs was playing the Flora-Bama at 18. Being around longtime owners Pat McClellan and Joe Gilchrist taught me a lot about the service industry. When the bar would close at the end of the night, they would clean up the tables themselves. That’s the TLC you need to make sure people enjoy their experience. So I always felt like owning a restaurant was a natural next step for me as an entertainer: music and food. Mike Wilson and I were close. He had started Saw’s in Homewood, and we got together and decided a juke joint would be great because we both loved live music and good food. It was a really great match — his menu and my music.
You’ve said Birmingham’s food scene dwarfs Nashville.
I believe it. As much as Nashville has grown, it doesn’t come close. The culinary scene here is extraordinary. Between Frank and Pardis Stitt, Chris Hastings, and newer additions like Little Betty, it’s worth a trip just to eat.
You hosted a food-and-travel show covering all 50 states. Most underrated food state?
Maine. Fresh lobster for $10. Homemade blueberry pies at roadside stands. Mostly organic, very earthy, and absolutely gorgeous.
What was the first music that really impacted you?
Ray Charles was the root of my musical tree. When I was really young, I had bad environmental allergies — bad conjunctivitis. I couldn’t see well, couldn’t really be outside in the spring. And I stumbled upon Ray Charles. There was empathy there, growing up the way he did, wanting to be outside but really not able to. Not seeing well sharpened my listening ear. So the music was just a calling from an early age. I studied the Stax Soul Revue, and looking back on it now, a nine or ten-year-old kid doing that — there were signs. And then buying my first harmonica at the flea market in Bessemer for two dollars.
I learned harmonica, then guitar; started writing; went to Auburn; played in bands. Once you put all those pieces together, you kind of know God has a plan. You just have to stick to it and trust. Sometimes that’s hard — pursuing the vision of being a successful entertainer is like finding a needle in a haystack. But catching that break in Las Vegas [with American Idol] was a blessing.
You grew up playing at the Open Door, the Flora-Bama. There’s a version of your life where American Idol never happened.
I was playing the Open Door when I was 22. As a kid in Center Point, I used to do homework at Reese’s Hot Dogs — a little hot dog stand. I’ve just always been around this world. Idol was a chapter, but this — the music, the restaurant, being here — this was always the life. But I can’t understate how Idol changed my life — I went from playing Marty’s and Oasis to touring Southeast Asia in the span of six months. "Do I Make You Proud” is still making the rounds on Indonesian airwaves. Twenty years later.
You play a lot of Bob Seger. What’s your favorite song of his?
“You’ll Accomp’ny Me.” Hands down.
And your favorite to perform?
“Fire Lake.” But I do it reggae-style.
You once performed with Snoop Dogg. How does that even happen?
Back when Birmingham had City Stages, Snoop and I had the same manager. He was in town to perform, and I asked him if he’d ever thought about having a blues harmonica on “Gin and Juice.” There was a rite of passage involved that I won’t get into, but we did perform “Gin and Juice” together. One of my favorite collaborations, for sure.
Who would you still like to collaborate with?
Tyler Childers — I would love to write with him. I love his music. And Ella Langley. Willie Nelson, absolutely. Van Morrison — I actually got bumped for Van Morrison on Regis and Kelly once, so I got to meet him briefly. And Ray Charles, obviously, if that were still possible. He's always been the one. There's also a really great writer and singer named Laci Kaye Booth — she’s got a song called "Luck of the Draw," and I think she's just tremendous. Not enough people know her yet.
Bucket list venues?
The Gorge Amphitheatre in Washington. The Colosseum in Rome. And Bethel Woods up in Woodstock, New York.
What’s it like playing the Grand Ole Opry?
I live in Germantown, about ten minutes away. I can be in my pajamas, throw on some stage clothes, drive over, and perform. They kind of have me on speed dial — if someone has to cancel, they know I’m close. And I always learn something musically every time I'm there.
You played Charlie Anderson in Shenandoah at Serenbe Playhouse in Georgia — your first serious dramatic lead role.
A lot of people don't know that, and I'm really proud of it. Taking that role seriously, being able to do that — it's allowed me to audition for film and television in a more serious space.
Tell us about your new music.
My new single, "The Mirror," comes out May 4th. We recorded at Southern Ground, Zac Brown's studio in Nashville. And I'll be releasing singles from the new album throughout the coming year — I want each one to have its moment. And the American Idol Season 5 reunion was just announced, twenty years after we all did it, which is pretty surreal.
What do the next twenty years look like?
More of this. More music, more Birmingham, more good food. I’ve got a show on July 3rd at American Village in Montevallo for the United States’ 250th birthday celebration. Playing the Flora-Bama on July 11th. And in December, a show at the Lyric to raise money for Toys for Tots. That one matters to me. But honestly? I just want to keep doing what I love, in the places I love, for the people I love. That’s the whole thing.