‘American Idol’ winner Taylor Hicks, who took on the nickname "Gray Charles" during his ‘Idol’ tenure, was given special permission to use Ray Charles’ facility for one track on his upcoming album.

"The people at Ray Charles, they said that Ray would have loved the hell out of me, so they're going to let me record a song in there," he said.

That hasn't been the only highlight of the last few weeks in Hicks' life. He also crossed paths with a couple of his heroes.

"I met Slash," Hicks said. "It was really cool to meet him. And I met my favorite baseball player, Bernie Williams from the New York Yankees. I'm just as star-struck as the average person would be. I respect them for what they do and [am a] fan just like everybody else is." Takes one to know one, yeah?