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Taylor's album sales were still far better than most recording artists ever get to see, and were with very little help from TPTB. No videos were released, he wasn't promoted to radio stations, he didn't get much help at all... even with being an AI winner, that's just not enough anymore. His tour, though, was highly successful and usually always sold out. He's best experienced as a live act rather than a recorded one. The reason for it was primarily due to a lack of cooperation with 19E not the label itself -- they absolutely hate Taylor Hicks because he was a thorn in their side, up to and including costing them a crapload of money when he refused the first "coronation" song they gave him. That's why he and Katharine sang different songs. He's said several times that he had certain songs cleared but was told by producers that the song "didn't fit" the theme and was given something else instead. For example, during "love song" week he was set to do "Try a little tenderness" -- but at the last minute, Nigel pulled the plug and made him do something else. He got to do it a bit later, but at that point the damage was kind of done, and he and the producers were butting heads a lot.

He's not hurting, though. He's about to release two CDs, one of older songs of his and another of all new ones. He's doing just fine, and he's far happier.

That being said, there's a rumor going about that he's going to be on the show in the next week or two. Considering how much 19E hates him, it's hard to believe they're actually going to do that short of somehow being contractually obligated to let him appear. He was an extremely popular performer for them, though...so they're really stupid not to have him.

The label didn't hate him, but they were working in conjunction with 19 who did hate him, so he was pretty much stonewalled, and if he had continued on the same contract, he wouldn't have been able to put out the music he really wanted to. I certainly don't blame him.