James Taylor tells Jimmy Kimmel how The Beatles gave him his career-defining break in 1968
Legendary singer-songwriter James Taylor popped by Jimmy Kimmel Live on April 21st for a reflective conversation, including explaining how The Beatles transformed his career.
Back during the 1960s, Taylor found himself down on his luck and questioning what to do with his music career, which is when he decided to take a huge gamble that would pay off dramatically.
He explained to Kimmel, “After the band dissolved in New York City, I went home to North Carolina to recover and lick my wounds for a while, and then, not knowing what else to do, I talked my folks into buying me a plane ticket to visit a friend that lived in London, and I took my guitar, and some songs, I ran into some people who were enthusiastic about my music, and they convinced me to make a little demo.”
After Taylor had completed the recording, the next task at hand was finding people to get the demo heard by, and through a friend, the singer-songwriter was able to get in contact with Peter Asher, who ran the A&R department at Apple Records.
Despite Taylor being an unknown quantity as a singer-songwriter, he took a chance on him, explaining, “I went over to his house, I played through some songs I had, and as luck would have it, he had just taken on a job as head of A&R and was looking for new talent to sign to The Beatles’ new record label Apple Records.”
While Taylor couldn’t remember the financial intricacies of the contract he signed with Apple Records when probed by Kimmel, being aligned with The Beatles gave him a level of credibility that money couldn’t buy.
His debut album, released on Apple Records in 1968, didn’t become a chart-topper, but it was received well in the right circles, laying the foundations for commercial success and a major record deal in 1970 with Warner Records.
Taylor will be returning to the UK this summer for a series of headline shows. The run will begin in Scotland with a performance at Edinburgh Castle on July 14th, before Taylor heads down to Yorkshire for a show at The Piece Hall in Halifax.
The tour will then take a detour for a concert in Amsterdam at AFAS Live on July 21st, before resuming the UK leg at The O2 in London on July 23rd. Taylor will then close the leg on July 25th at the Open Air Theatre in Scarborough on July 25th.
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