So, I’ve been thinking about relationships. Having been through several significant relationship changes in my personal life over the past few months got me thinking about the changes in relationships I’ve had with, oh let’s say…some musical artists that I was enamored with. Some relationships are healthier than others. Let’s compare these relationships to a marriage, or hell…just living together.
You hear a new artist and it’s love at first note. You buy their cd’s, know all their songs by heart. You see your own life reflected in the lyrics that they write. Then, you see them on tour. Maybe you get to meet them, maybe you’re cruelly taken out of the lottery for a meet and greet. Maybe you see them slurping soup in a restaurant, maybe you spill your drink all over their tour merchandise. Shit happens, people.
Anyway, you feel like you know them very well. Maybe too well. Maybe so well in fact that familiarity begins to breed contempt. Pretty soon, you find that you’ve entered the stage in the relationship where, figuratively speaking, you walk in the house..and the kids are running around in soggy diapers, he’s laying on the couch in boxers and a t shirt with his hand stuck down the front of his shorts, Cheetos and empty beer cans lying around. Instead of hearing some soul soothing melody you hear…”What’s for dinner, woman? Come give Daddy a kiss!” Ugh.
Think about another life, with a different artist. New music, new soul soothing melody. You know that he wouldn’t leave the kids with soggy diapers. Hell, he would probably make you homemade mac and cheese with a glass of red wine. The house would be clean, the kids bathed…and he would actually be dressed.
Is one relationship better than the other? Is there something to be said for blind loyalty? When does compromising stop being okay?
I guess my point is that we are all in different stages of our “relationship” with Taylor Hicks and his music. There’s nothing wrong with that. I may not be as enamored with him as I used to be, but my ears have been opened up to lots of different music thanks to the people I have met along this journey. Many of those people I still call friends. I’ve been called many things by certain factions of the Soul Patrol…and that’s okay. I can be a bad fan or I can be a bitch. I’m at a point in my life where the blips on the computer screen aren’t as important as they used to be. All this nonsense on Twitter regarding Taylor and his mama bears “protecting” him is pretty laughable. All it does is give credence to my opinions of some of the crazies out there. I try to keep this blog as sane as I can, which at times is pretty damn hard, especially when bullshit from other boards gets brought over here. I’m just going to try to keep it about the music…that’s really all Taylor has ever asked of us.
