James Taylor (character)

James Taylor is an American singer and songwriter.

History
While Homer Simpson and fellow astronauts and Race Banyon were on a space shuttle mission, James Taylor visited Mission Control and sang to them. Aldrin protested that it wasn't a very good time for music, as they were dealing with an emergency on board: Specifically, sand and ants from a broken ant farm getting into everything and causing controls and equipment to malfunction. Taylor, however, insisted on singing anyway, beginning with "You've Got a Friend".

Taylor did relent somewhat when he sang "Fire and Rain". When he sang the line about "Sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the ground", he paused, apparently realizing how inappropriate the lyrics were under those circumstances. Then he backed up in the song and sang the phrase again, changing the lyrics to "Sweet dreams and flying machines flying safely through the air".

Even though Taylor's insistence on singing interfered with the emergency situation on the shuttle, he redeemed himself when he came up with an idea that resolved the crisis. Taylor suggested opening the shuttle's hatch to blow all of the ants and sand into space. The crew did so, and Taylor's suggestion proved to be a total success, even though Homer was nearly blown out into space and ended up accidentally breaking the hatch handle as Aldrin pulled him back into the shuttle.

The Simpson family spent days working on a giant jigsaw puzzle, and were nearly finished when they found that a piece with a singer's head was missing. The family searched the house for the piece and Marge found it and put it into the puzzle, revealing the singer to be James Taylor.

When Patty's hair was destroyed, Homer first thought to kill her and put her in the car with a James Taylor CD, to make it look like suicide.