If you came of age in the mid-’90s, there’s a decent chance Live soundtracked at least one pivotal moment in your adolescence. The band’s 1994 breakout, Throwing Copper, moved eight million copies and turned four friends from Pennsylvania into unlikely alt-rock standard-bearers. For a minute there, it felt like they might last forever.
Instead, they’ve lasted in court.
Live’s history has always had a frayed edge, but in recent years it’s become less of a band saga and more of a corporate thriller. At the center, as always, is frontman Ed Kowalczyk and his long-running battle with his former bandmates over who actually gets to steer the ship, and, more crucially, who owns the name on the hull.
This week’s chapter is a doozy. Guitarist Chad Taylor and drummer Chad Gracey announced that they’ve removed Kowalczyk from the board of Action Front Unlimited, Inc., the company that controls Live’s intellectual property. According to them, Kowalczyk’s rights to use the band’s name have been terminated. Taylor posted a cease-and-desist letter to Instagram, pointedly noting that he was never legitimately fired from the band because, in his view, Kowalczyk never had the authority to fire him in the first place. Gracey followed with the same letter, emblazoned with a blunt message: “YOUR LICENSE IS REVOKED…”
If this feels like déjà vu, that’s because it is.
Kowalczyk first exited Live in 2008. By 2012, Action Front Unlimited was suing him for touring under the banner “Ed Kowalczyk of Live.” Meanwhile, the remaining members attempted their own revival with a new singer, Chris Shinn, effectively running a parallel version of the band. In a twist that briefly suggested healing, all four original members reunited for a hometown New Year’s Eve show in 2016 and toured together for a few years after that.
But peace in the Live camp has always been temporary. In 2022, Kowalczyk parted ways with the other original members and moved forward with a new lineup, including guitarist Zak Loy, bassist Chris Heerlein, keyboardist Nick Jay, and drummer Robin Diaz. Around the same time, Gracey sued Taylor and original bassist Patrick Dahlheimer over financial disputes. Former business manager Bill Hynes also filed suits against the ex-members over money, and later sued Taylor for defamation tied to comments in a 2023 Rolling Stone article. Those cases were settled last year, but any sense of closure was short-lived.
Now, with Kowalczyk’s former bandmates seemingly aligned, they’re making a fresh push to reclaim the name and the reins. It’s remarkable that this saga is still unfolding, but in rock history, grudges can have a longer shelf life than platinum records.
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