Fans of the '90s band Live can catch them performing these days, but typically at smaller venues in smaller markets, writes Andy Greene at Rolling Stone. Lead singer Ed Kowalczyk still fronts the group, though guitarist Chad Taylor, bassist Patrick Dahlheimer, and drummer Chad Gracey were fired by Kowalczyk last year. Greene does a deep dive into the breakup of the original lineup, and it's a doozy. "This is hardly the first time in music history that a band has melted down due to personality conflicts, clashes over money, and legal battles," writes Greene. But Live's story has particularly nasty feel to it, including allegations by Taylor that a man he describes as a con artist named Bill Hynes played a central role in the breakup. “I was a sucker,” Taylor says. “I have people that depend on me, and I trusted a person that hurt us."
Hynes, for his part, calls Taylor a "crazy drunk," while Gracey calls Taylor a "raving, pathological narcissist." The story tracks all this, starting with the band's rise to stardom from Pennsylvania. The song "Lightning Crashes" in particular cemented them as stars. "When it comes to Nineties alt-rock bands, Live falls somewhere between Matchbox 20 and Creed on the cool meter," writes Greene. Critics generally dismissed the band, though its members were millionaires "several times over" by the start of the millennium. The band split amicably at one point, and the former bandmates' mutual attorney introduced them to Hynes as they explored different ventures. "The story from this point varies wildly depending on who is speaking," writes Greene. Read it in full here—it includes assault allegations against Hynes involving an ex to which he pleaded no contest. (More Longform stories.)
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