Some Things You Might Not Know About James Taylor

James Taylor was born almost exactly sixty-six years ago, on March 12th in Boston, MA - but he was raised in the Triangle's very own Carborro. I'm sure it's a well-known in our area that James Taylor has given us the unofficial NC Theme song, "Carolina In My Mind," and has had an extremely successful music career as a five-time Grammy Award winner. Behind his wildly successful career though, Taylor is quite the interesting guy. Here are a few obscure facts about this triangle native...

I'm a huge Beatles fan, so this was particularly interesting to me: Paul McCartney plays the bass and George Harrison sings back up for our state's beloved song, "Carolina In My Mind." Take a listen to it here...

Paul McCartney is actually largely responsible for discovering James Taylor. Taylor was the first non-British artist to sign to the Beatle's record label, Apple Records. According to this article on solobeatles.com, the song references growing up in North Carolina as well as recording with the infamous Beatles in the UK.

Another surprising fact about Taylor is that he was admitted into a mental hospital at the early age of seventeen years old due to severe depression. Throughout his life he also struggled with heroin addiction. Watch him discuss these issues in a feature on youtube.

And lastly, James Taylor's parents were interesting as well and very involved in the Chapel Hill Community. According to the Chapel Hill Museum site, Taylor's father was the dean of UNC Chapel Hill Medical School. His mother was musically talented and Lyrics Freak's article states that she was actually an Opera Singer. It's clear where James Taylor's musical inclination came from.

Taylor is an iconic musician - definitely a source of pride for North Carolina and the Triangle.