James Taylor’s music is universal.

Universal to the human condition.

It resonates with us – the joy, the pain, the angst, the fear, we all have experienced.

His brilliance – he puts all those feelings into music.

But not only does he put them to music, he has experienced them.

Taylor is one of the best selling musicians of all times – having sold more than 100 million records.

He is a six-time Grammy Award winner and in 2000 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

As a child Taylor took cello lessons, later graduating to guitar.

When he was age 14 he wrote his first piece of music.

Soon after he and a friend started playing their music in coffeehouses around Martha’s Vineyard.

Early on in life he had to deal with emotional trauma, in college he became depressed, eventually checking himself into a psychiatric hospital.

Eventually Taylor ended up in New York, formed a band and became a heroin addict.

His life was a roller coaster – staying clean, writing music, recording music, moving to London, back to New York, back to becoming an addict.

Married three times, once to the singer Carly Simon, Taylor never managed to stay put in any of his marriages.

He once said:

“I believe musicians have a duty, a responsibility to reach out, to share your love or pain with others.”

And he sure has done that.