Problem: Background: Taylor Hicks was born in Birmingham, Alabama on October 7, 1976, to Bradley Hicks and Pamela Dickinson. He and his family moved to the suburb of Hoover when he was eight years old. His hair started turning gray by the time he was 14. His parents divorced, and stepmother Linda shared custody of their son until he became of age.
Context: While in college, Hicks was part of a band called Passing Through, which he later quit to start his own band. In 1997, he independently recorded In Your Time, an album which included both studio and live tracks. In 2000, he moved to pursue a music career in Nashville, Tennessee, where he worked with Nashville veterans Billy Earl McClelland and Percy Sledge to record a three-track demo but was unable to find a label that would sign him. He left Nashville after a year due to what he called the "oversaturation of the market". Hicks returned to Alabama and launched a professional music career, performing at various venues and parties mostly around the Southeastern United States, including The War Eagle Supper Club (a popular college bar) in Auburn, Alabama. Hicks has performed with the likes of Widespread Panic, James Brown, Tom Petty, Jackson Browne, Drive-By Truckers, Robert Randolph, Snoop Dogg and Keb Mo. He also performed in the huge infield of Talladega Superspeedway in 2004 during a NASCAR race weekend. He recorded, produced, and released a second album, Under the Radar, in 2005. Despite releasing two albums prior to appearing on American Idol, he did not violate their requirements for contestants, as he had never held a recording contract. Hicks has allowed audience members to record his concerts for personal, non-commercial use, and has authorized the Internet Archive to create a section for fans to upload and share their recordings. The Archive does not accept the upload of concerts recorded after January 1, 2006 due to the terms of his "American Idol" contract.
Question: Did he do any other music?
Answer: In 2000, he moved to pursue a music career in Nashville, Tennessee, where he worked with Nashville veterans Billy Earl McClelland and Percy Sledge to record a three-track demo

Problem: Background: Vasco da Gama was born in 1460 or 1469 in Sines, on the southwest coast of Portugal, probably in a house near the church of Nossa Senhora das Salas. Sines, one of the few seaports on the Alentejo coast, consisted of little more than a cluster of whitewashed, red-tiled cottages, occupied chiefly by fisherfolk. Vasco da Gama's father was Estevao da Gama, who had served in the 1460s as a knight of the household of Infante Ferdinand, Duke of Viseu. He rose in the ranks of the military Order of Santiago.
Context: In December 1499, King Manuel I of Portugal rewarded Vasco da Gama with the town of Sines as a hereditary fief (the town his father, Estevao, had once held as a commenda). This turned out to be a complicated affair, for Sines still belonged to the Order of Santiago. The master of the Order, Jorge de Lencastre, might have endorsed the reward - after all, da Gama was a Santiago knight, one of their own, and a close associate of Lencastre himself. But the fact that Sines was awarded by the king provoked Lencastre to refuse out of principle, lest it encourage the king to make other donations of the Order's properties. Da Gama would spend the next few years attempting to take hold of Sines, an effort that would estrange him from Lencastre and eventually prompt da Gama to abandon his beloved Order of Santiago, switching over to the rival Order of Christ in 1507. In the meantime, da Gama made do with a substantial hereditary royal pension of 300,000 reis. He was awarded the noble title of Dom (lord) in perpetuity for himself, his siblings and their descendants. On 30 January 1502, da Gama was awarded the title of Almirante dos mares de Arabia, Persia, India e de todo o Oriente ("Admiral of the Seas of Arabia, Persia, India and all the Orient") - an overwrought title reminiscent of the ornate Castilian title borne by Christopher Columbus (evidently, Manuel must have reckoned that if Castile had an 'Admiral of the Ocean Seas', then surely Portugal should have one too). Another royal letter, dated October 1501, gave da Gama the personal right to intervene and exercise a determining role on any future India-bound fleet. Around 1501, Vasco da Gama married Catarina de Ataide, daughter of Alvaro de Ataide, the alcaide-mor of Alvor (Algarve), and a prominent nobleman connected by kinship with the powerful Almeida family (Catarina was a first cousin of D. Francisco de Almeida).
Question: Was da Gama rich?
Answer:
In the meantime, da Gama made do with a substantial hereditary royal pension of 300,000 reis.