The band Live have had a long, twisty, contentious history, and it's only getting twistier and more contentious. It's a pretty depressing story! Live started out as four high-school friends in the backwater town of York, Pennsylvania, and they found huge success when their 1994 album Throwing Copper sold eight million copies. For years, though, frontman Ed Kowalczyk and his three former bandmates have been in a series of legal disputes over the band name. The latest of those disputes is erupting right now, as Kowalczyk's three ex-bandmates are all pursuing legal action against him.
On Thursday, two former live members, guitarist Chad Taylor and drummer Chad Gracey, claimed that they've removed Ed Kowalczyk from the board of Action Front Unlimited, Inc., the company that controls Live's intellectual property. They also say that they've terminated Kowalczyk's rights to use the name Live. Chad Taylor posted an image of his cease-and-desist letter to Kowalczyk, writing in the Instagram caption that he, Taylor, was never fired from Live because Kowalczyk didn't have the authority to fire him. Here's what he wrote:
To the LIVE fans —
I was not “fired.”
Ed never had the authority to remove me.I remain a founding shareholder and director of Action Front Unlimited, Inc. — the company that owns the LIVE name and trademarks.
As of Feb 16, 2026, his rights to use the LIVE brand were revoked by AFU.
I won’t fight this in public. The courts will handle it.
Thank you for the support while we work toward properly restoring LIVE.
— Chad
At the same time Chad Gracey, the other Chad in the band, posted the same cease-and-desist letter with the words "YOUR LICENSE IS REVOKED..." written over it.
There's a lot of backstory here. Ed Kowalczyk left Live in 2008. In 2012, Action Front Unlimited sued Kowalczyk for touring as "Ed Kowalczyk of Live." At the same time, Kowalczyk's ex-bandmates launched a revival of Live with new singer Chris Shinn. All four original members of Live reunited for a hometown show on New Year's Eve 2016, and they toured together for a few years. In 2022, Kowalczyk got rid of the other original Live members, effectively seizing control of the band.
After splitting with the other former Live members, Ed Kowalczyk launched a new tour under the Live name, bringing in a new set of musicians (guitarist Zak Loy, bassist Chris Heerlein, keyboardist Nick Jay, and drummer Robin Diaz). Around the same time, Chad Gracey sued Chad Taylor and original bassist Patrick Dahlheimer over money. Also, the band's former business manager Bill Hynes sued all three ex-members, also for money reasons. Later on, Hynes sued Taylor for defamation over comments that he made in a 2023 Rolling Stone article. Those suits were settled last year.
Now, Kowalczyk's ex-bandmates have evidently gotten on the same page and they're trying to take control of Live back. It's amazing that this story is still going on, but sometimes the drama lasts longer than the selling.
