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It’s a taste of chicken soup from a cop’s soul.

When Joe Stephen Taylor, a warrant officer with the Blount County Sheriff’s Office, is not hunting down a wanted fugitive, he is writing heartwarming short stories about his life experiences.

He may seem tough ... because he is. He has a 100 percent success rate when it comes to tracking down criminals upon the sheriff or chief deputy’s request.

But there is another side to the no-nonsense officer who knows over 100 ways to track down just about anybody. He is artistic. He sings. He writes. He has memorized the New Testament of the Bible. He is a husband, father and grandfather.

He said he doesn’t give up easily on anything — whether it be nabbing a criminal or writing a book.

“My wife gets onto me because when I get on an idea, I’ll write it over and over and over until I’m happy,” Taylor said.

So far, Taylor, 55, has written about 25 short stories, and hopes to write 35 to publish in a book, along with some of his poetry. He is hoping to someday publish his book to share his experiences with others. He said his inspiration is, “just walking through life.”

“That’s all I can say because it’s not all cop stuff, believe it or not,” Taylor said. “You just see things that make you think of things you’ve been involved with. It just hits you to write about it.”

Some of Taylor’s stories are about experiences as a cop, he said, but there are also several about his family and friends.

“It’s all short stories and poetry that anybody can get something out of,” Taylor said. “I want for somebody to read a story and it affect them.”

He said he hopes the stories will help readers who may be having a hard time in a similar situation that he wrote about.

“And I write about some of the hard times I’ve had and tell them how I got through them and how they can get through them,” he said. “And I try to inspire people to be the best you that you can be.”

His miracle

The first short story that Taylor wrote was “Miracle on 441.” He said he was inspired to write the story after an accident he had in the late 1990s while working for the Knox County Sheriff’s Office.

He said he was on his way to roll call when he spotted a car driving erratically on U.S. 441. While Taylor was pursuing the car, another vehicle pulled out in front of him, causing him to wreck. In his short story, he talks about how he miraculously escaped the wreck alive that day, and how his late mother, Jennie Taylor, joined him in spirit that night.

“I will never forget the night that mom took a moment from Heaven, stepped out onto the carpet of time, and started down the stairway of stars to an accident scene on Highway 441 in South Knox County, to once again pick up her little boy, who had fallen down,” Taylor wrote.

After writing that short story, Taylor said other stories just “kept coming” to him. He has been writing them down ever since.

Taylor said he took after his father, who was constantly writing things down. He said his dad would write down even the smallest details, such as the weather on a particular day.

“So I just kind of picked up keeping little notes on stuff like that from him,” he said.

Warrior poet

Taylor said he has written poetry his whole life, which started with writing music. Taylor comes from a musical family, and pursued a music career for many years.

“My mother, she was a blues singer,” Taylor said. “She said when I was in her womb, I used to kick and keep time with it when she was practicing. She got me, I guess, into music.”

Taylor’s father, Vic Taylor, was a football coach in Knoxville. He said his father and mother both played instruments, and he was playing 13 different instruments by the time he was 20. He said he has passed his love of music onto his son, who can pick up any instrument and play better than he can.

Taylor went to college at Cleveland State Junior College, University of Tennessee at Martin and University of Tennessee at Knoxville, where he was a member of UT singers.

After college, Taylor toured around the country with a “gospel and patriotic” singing group, Re’Generation. He was the minister of music at Beech Grove Baptist Church in Louisville in the late 1970s and was the music minister and associate pastor at Trinity Baptist Church in Renton, Wash. for a few years to follow.

In 1981, Taylor was asked by staff at Walt Disney World in Florida to sing with the “Voices of Liberty” at the Epcot theme park. Two years later, he began a solo concert tour throughout the U.S.

“I guess by the time I was 21 or 22 years old, I got to do things people their whole life don’t get to do,” Taylor said. “I was very fortunate.”

Taylor moved back to Knoxville in 1984 and began looking for a job. He said the minister of his church told him, “you’ll never be able to help people or understand people until you get out among them and work with them.

“I was just very well taken care of,” he said. “I didn’t even know domestic violence existed because I just grew up in a great family life. Most of the people I knew were that way.”

Taylor said he grew up knowing most of the cops in town because they worked at his father’s games. He decided to give being a cop a shot and stayed 16 years at the Knox County Sheriff’s Office — working patrol and felony warrants.

In 2000, he worked as a bounty hunter at Fugitive Recovery for a group of bonding companies in Knoxville. He said he had met Blount County Sheriff’s deputies over his years in law enforcement and had a lot of respect for them and Sheriff James Berrong.

A year later, he began working as a criminal warrants officer in Blount County. He also fills in as a court officer when needed.

Taylor and his wife Mona have three children — Kristyn, 26, Olivia, 20, and Bradley, 19. They have a granddaughter, Brianna, and two more grandchildren on the way.