Hailed as the quintessential singer-songwriter, James Taylor has sold over 40 million albums worldwide and won countless accolades, including five Grammys.
But he has, thankfully, none of that holier-than-thou attitude that one might associate with a legend.
His warmth and sincerity can be felt throughout his half-hour interview with Life! recently over the phone from The Ritz-Carlton New York.
The 59-year-old American is there to promote his new live album, One Man Band, with appearances on TV shows like NBC's Today show and a signing at a Starbucks cafe.
Yes, coffee and music do mix. His latest album was released in the United States on Nov 13 by Hear Music, a Starbucks entertainment company whose artistes also include Paul McCartney and Joni Mitchell.
'I've come to realise that traditional record companies may not necessarily be the best partners to get your music to the public,' explains the man who recently performed in Kuala Lumpur as part of the celebrations of the country's 50 years of independence.
'Hear Music handles very few artistes and rolls out one project at a time. Starbucks outlets are also good places to have your records displayed for sale.'
Peppering his answers with 'you know', he addresses the journalist regularly by the first name and pauses occasionally to think before expounding his replies.
'A strange coincidence is that I started out playing in coffee houses in Philadelphia, Boston and Martha's Vineyard,' he points out. 'People would get together to perform folk music, blues and jazz in small intimate settings.'
Even as he is speaking, there is no mistaking his distinctive voice, which is smooth and reassuring, just like his easy-on-the-ears baritone that has charmed legions of fans over the years on classics like Fire And Rain and his version of the Carole King song, You've Got A Friend.
Both songs, together with another 17 tracks, are compiled on One Man Band, recorded over two nights in July at the Colonial Theatre near his home in the Berkshires, a picturesque western region of Massachusetts.
The accompanying DVD provides video versions of the same track listing, complete with anecdotal comments by Taylor and special multimedia features.
'On this album, I'm once again playing folk music, with a little blues and jazz, in a small intimate venue,' he says. 'For many songs, this allowed me to return to their true original versions as they were first played.'
Four decades and counting
HE GOT his first break in 1968 when he moved to London and released his self-titled debut album under the Beatles' Apple Records.
He then returned to the US where he enjoyed a long-standing career marked by best-selling greatest-hits releases and successful albums like Sweet Baby James (1970), New Moon Shine (1991) and Hourglass (1997).
He played in Singapore in 1995, as part of an Asian tour.
'I would very much like to come back and play in these same places,' he says. 'I remember we had a great time, as the audiences were very glad to see us then.'
As a musician, he still enjoys hitting the road to play gigs. Recently, he toured Europe and the US for 1 1/2 years as a solo act in small venues, accompanied on stage at times by jazz pianist Larry Goldings and a huge sculptural drum machine (non-digital, mind you) that he built himself.
He also made use of projected images (or 'illustrations to the songs' as he called them) and pre-recorded choruses to create what he termed 'interesting dynamics' for his shows.
'There's something very basic working this way in a small space, with just the piano and guitar. It feels almost like a theatre piece,' he says.
'It's a lot more intimate, and after being on the stage for two hours, you feel a personal connection to your audience.'
But he emphasises that he does not intend for One Man Band to be a retrospective: 'It's not a summing up of my life or a finished statement.'
After all, he is not about to retire. Instead, he promises new material next summer - an album of cover versions of tunes he has played through the years, one which he describes as 'a big-band party album'.
And he is also planning a new studio album for 2009 or 2010.
Taylor timeline
1948: James Vernon Taylor is born in Belmont, Massachusetts
1968: Signs to the Beatles' Apple Records and releases eponymous debut album
1970: Releases the more successful second album, Sweet Baby James (above), this time under Warner Bros Records
1971: Third album, Mud Slide Slim And The Blue Horizon, spawns No. 1 single, a cover of Carole King's You've Got A Friend. The song also earns him his first Grammy award
1972: Marries singer-songwriter Carly Simon
1976: His best-selling album, Greatest Hits, is released. More than 11 million copies have been sold
1977: Wins his second Grammy for another cover, Handy Man, originally by 1950s rock 'n' roll band The Sparks Of Rhythm
1983: Divorces Simon
1985: Marries second wife, actress Kathryn Walker, and quits drugs
1991: Thirteenth album, New Moon Shine, goes platinum
1995: Divorces Walker
1998: Wins Best Pop Album Grammy for Hourglass
2001: Marries third wife, Caroline Smedvig
2004: Releases James Taylor: A Christmas Album through Hallmark Cards
2006: The MusiCares Foundation, which helps musicians in need, names him Person of the Year. Fellow artistes such as Carole King, Bruce Springsteen, Sting, Jackson Browne, David Crosby, Dixie Chicks and Alison Krauss stage a tribute show at the ceremony
2007: Releases first live album in 13 years, One Man Band, through coffee chain Starbucks' Hear Music label
Eddino Abdul Hadi
A troubled past
LIFE is good for him now as he lives with his wife, Caroline Smedvig, a former Boston Symphony Orchestra executive, and their twin sons.
But he has weathered some hard times in the past.
In his youth, he suffered from depression, for which he was once committed to hospital, and persistent drug addictions.
He also underwent two divorces, having been married in the past to fellow singer-songwriter Carly Simon (with whom he has two grown-up children) and actress Kathryn Walker.
Yet he still finds relevance in crooning a ballad like Fire And Rain, on which he declares: 'I've seen fire and I've seen rain... I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend...'
'I'll probably not play it by myself at home,' he admits. 'But it's amazing how when you perform a song in front of an audience, you often get great energy coming back from them.'
He adds: 'I'd bump into people on the streets and they'd say to me they had a hard time in college and how this or that song really helped them through it. Or they'd say, 'I had an addiction problem when I was young and your example of keeping clean and sober really helped me'.'
While the word 'Jesus' crops up on Fire And Rain and another song, Country Road, compiled on One Man Band, Taylor says that his experience with Christianity has been mostly cultural.
Raised in Carrboro, North Carolina, by parents who were free thinkers, he says his family never went to church but celebrated Christmas as a tradition.
It was only when he went away to study at Milton Academy, a preparatory school in Massachusetts, that he would go to chapels and churches, where he picked up a lot of his musical skills, singing and playing hymns.
He would eventually drop out of Milton to pursue his musical interests.
'Fire And Rain depicts how profound desperation can affect even people who are not religious,' he explains. 'I remember a saying that there are no atheists in a foxhole. Likewise, there were times of extreme hardship in my life where I felt the need to pray and turn my troubles over.'
With his songs touching more on personal or spiritual themes, he says he doesn't often write overtly political lyrics that highlight his social concerns and advocate change.
One exception is Slap Leather, also contained on One Man Band, which makes a veiled reference to former US president Ronald Reagan, and speaks out against the country's narrow-minded views concerning the first Gulf War.
When asked if his calm and reassuring voice has helped to provide a sense of comfort to a confused world still searching for peace and healing, he seems almost overwhelmed by the flattery.
'It's very nice to think that's true. All I can say is that I write and sing songs which in many cases make me feel at peace and help me pass through difficult straits.'
He may have come a long way since he was a struggling musician playing in coffee houses. But he brushes aside talk that he might be considered a harbinger of the singer-songwriter trend, alongside peers like Don McLean and Jackson Browne, or for that matter, any attempts to label his genre of music.
'I don't mind what people need to say to assert their views and positions in terms of pop culture. I'm also not offended if people describe my music as 'middle of the road',' he says.
'I've been called folk, soft rock, contemporary pop - and they're all true to a certain extent. But there are also a lot of blues, Brazilian and Latin influences, and Irish and Scottish folk music in my songs. African music is another huge influence in my life.'
He adds: 'I think that any attempt to categorise my music reduces it. As one of the most direct forms of communication, music connects us to the world. You can't really analyse it in an abstract and cerebral way. You should just try to listen.'
One Man Band will be available here later this month.
'I don't mind what people need to say to assert their views and positions in terms of pop culture. I'm also not offended if people describe my music as 'middle of the road''
