The Review

Issue date: 2/19/08 Section: Mosaic

Media Credit: John Taylor

At the Season Six finale of "American Idol," Jordin Sparks belted out "This Is My Now," the latest all-original tune to become the "Idol's" first single once the competition ended. "This Is My Now" was the winner of a nation-wide songwriter competition, yielding 40,000 entries.

John "Iggy" Taylor, a Hockessin resident who entered his own song into the competition, thought his tune was seemingly lost in the musical abyss of "American Idol." However, little did he know that "Idol" producers had plans for his musical genius and that of several more of the overlooked entries.

"I kind of forgot about it," Taylor says, "but then several months later I was contacted by a publisher in Hollywood that they heard my music and wanted to put it on an album, and I said, 'Sure.' "

The 10-song album titled Hits They Missed! was released early this winter, featuring Taylor's foot-tapping tune, "My Turn This Time," a country-sounding song about pushing forward in "a world that often says no."

Taylor, who is in his 50s, has been playing piano, organ and bass guitar since he was a teenager, when he attended Claymont High School. Since then, he has made five albums under the one-man band of Bad Betsy.

Taylor says many people think Bad Betsy is a multi-person band when, in fact, it's just him. The band name is the result of a sudden inspiration.

"I had this stupid little doll sitting next to my amplifier so I named her Betsy," Taylor says. "Every time I would hit a note she would fall over for some reason, so I just yelled at her one day. I yelled, 'Bad Betsy!' and then I was like, 'Whoa, I need to name my band this.' "

Even more interesting, the origins for his nickname, "Iggy," go back to when he was a baby.

"My father named me Iggy before I was even born," Taylor says. "He didn't like everyone referring to me as 'it' so he named me Iggy."

Taylor's parents were especially influential to his music career. He first started writing music because they were diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Taylor says dealing with their illnesses was difficult and to cope with his frustration and grief he turned to his high school love of music.

"To put it bluntly, I was going crazy dealing with different stuff every single day," Taylor says.

During this time, a friend decided to upload Taylor's music to the Internet, where his songs became popular and "the phone started ringing." Taylor says in the beginning, he was hesitant to distribute his music.

Continued...

Page 1 of 2 next >

Article Tools