next she took on the karaoke circuit, local country singer pat garrett ran the contests. >> she was poisedandled the crowd quite well for an 11-year-old. i said when i was 11, i couldn't even tie my shoes, now get out of here. she got better as she went along. and in the finals, she got to open the charlie daniels show. >> next up -- ♪ star spangled banner >> the national anthem at the philadelphia 76ers game. >> i think that probably gave her a little taste of what superstardom is like, looking around tens of thousands of people and thinking this is what i want to do with my life. >> taylor found an audience, but she struggled socially during her middle school years. >> i had this clique of girls that i used to hang out with and all of a sudden they didn't want to hang out with me anymore. i don't know if it was because every single weekend i was at songwriter acoustic nights, but all of a sudden the friends were gone. >> she poured her heart into her music and relentlessly lobbied her mother to take her to music row. >> when i was 11 i came to nashville and just kind of knocked on doors