After winning American Idol 20 years ago, Season 5 winner Taylor Hicks had his entire life changed. Now, he's reflecting back on his career since then.
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Speaking with People, the American Idol alum had a lot to say. He belongs to a special club.
"I guess when you see just how long the show's been running, you see the winners over the years, and you definitely start doing the math a little bit," Hicks says. "But at the same time, it's been a whirlwind since my win in show business. I mean, I'm coming up on almost 23 or 24 years in show business, and I wouldn't trade it for the world."
Hicks is still hard at work releasing new music. The show opened the door for him to step through.
"I mean, it was the greatest platform ... The dream that I had when I was a little boy, in making it and being an entertainer, was realized on American Idol and [with] that win," he says. "And I'm very nostalgic about going back on the show and seeing everybody."
'American Idol' Looking Back
Hicks confesses that he still keeps in contact with contestants from his season.
"I feel like I have most of the top 10 in my cell phone still, and I do keep up with everybody as much as we can," he told the outlet. "People learned how to actually text message on my season. I mean, literally, they learned how to text on their phones watching American Idol in 2006 on season 5."
Hicks says that he misses the communal aspect of his season of American Idol and the role that it played in pop culture.
He continued, "It was just when the communal aspect of social media was just forming. And that's what's really another nostalgic thing for me, is [that] we were a part of history. And I must say, we made for some great television."
As far as his personal life, it's been lifechanging.
"I went from playing to 50 people in my little bar called the Oasis in Birmingham to touring Southeast Asia in seven months," he recalls. "So that's the kind of impact that Idol made for me at that time."
