Taylor attended Manual High School in Denver, Colorado, but his education was cut short in 1966 when school officials demanded that he cut his hair or leave. When he refused to leave, he could no longer attend school, which caused him to become a dropout instead, disappointing his parents, who took him to a local barber shop for a haircut. “You had to have that James Brown haircut. You can have all you want on the top, but you had to be clean on the sides,” Taylor said in an interview with  CBS News Colorado. “The whole school district was coming down on people who didn’t look how they wanted you to look.”

Regardless, Taylor went on to become a well-recognized blues singer and is most known for his song, “Ten Million Slaves,” which has been featured in the 2009 film, Public Enemies, and FX’s television show Justified.

Since the school district’s rules have changed since Taylor was a student, administrators wanted to correct this wrongdoing, so they recently invited him back to walk the stage and honor him with the diploma he should’ve received decades ago. “Today is a day that we rectify the failures of the past,” Denver public school board’s vice president Auon’tai Anderson said, as The Guardian reported. “I know what Otis experienced along with others will no longer happen in the state of Colorado.”

Happy with how his life turned out, Taylor shared that he has no regrets about his decision. “The wrong happened a long time ago. So being a Black man in America, I’m going to deal with wrongs,” he said. “My kids went to college. My wife loves me and we’ve been married for 37 years. How can I regret?”

Taylor is still making music and his 15th studio album, Banjo, is available across all streaming platforms.