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John Taylor has been performing since he was 9 years old, playing a key role as one of Fagan's boys in the musical Oliver! at the Theatre on the Lake in Chicago. That same year, he began playing piano, and at 11, he picked up guitar. "It was a cheap beater that my mom picked up for me when I asked for one for Christmas for the second year in a row. I played that thing every waking hour for two weeks straight, tearing the skin off of my fingertips, til I finally managed to buy a better guitar. But it didn't matter to me. I was obsessed with learning to play, getting good at it."
Through his teen years, he performed at school events and local bars. Though the bartenders realized he was underage, they'd let him play for drinks ("Coke, hold the rum and give me the dollar, please,") and tips. Back then, he'd play covers of John Denver, Harry Chapin, Gordon Lightfoot, and Cat Stevens, some of the artists he most admired.
By 16, he'd begun writing his own songs and playing colleges. Eventually, that road took him to Breckenridge, Colorado, where a magazine quoted him as saying "I write these songs because people don't let themselves feel enough. If I can bring them to do so, to laugh, or cry, feel nostalgia, whatever..."
At 19, he was offered a contract at Lawrence Welk's Rincon Music, the same publisher that had some of Elvis Presley's hits and all of the Air Supply tunes. Dean Kay recognized his abilities and made the offer right there on the spot.
Through the years, John has focused on many different things, exploring this vast world and life's potentials. Through it all, the music he writes, records and performs has been a constant companion. Through it, he takes us on the journey. Life and death, love and loss, ecstasy and tragedy, all part and parcel of his travels and adventures.
John has taken the paths less chosen, and his music lets us experience those byways, feel the choices he has made along the way.
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