Chad Taylor reminisces about Live, Facebook posts Options

[dangum]

Chad Taylor has been posting anecdotes and memories of Live's history on Facebook.

His page is located here: https://www.facebook.com/chad.taylor.live

But for those who don't use Facebook, I'm also posting them here.

[dangum]

Chad Taylor
June 24, 2026

February 15, 1995 — MTV Unplugged.

LIVE had never played Throwing Copper acoustically before MTV invited us to record Unplugged at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
We arrived from Europe with almost no preparation. The rehearsal never really happened. The taping became the first full performance of the entire set.
No overdubs. No second takes. No safety net.
Just four musicians trusting their instincts and the songs.

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1025164033358697

Chad Taylor
June 26, 2026

Happy 71st Birthday to Mick Jones.

Long before LIVE found its audience, I had the privilege of touring with Big Audio Dynamite and watching one of my musical heroes work every night.

Mick’s career reminds us that being pushed out of one chapter doesn’t mean the story is over. After The Clash, he didn’t chase yesterday—he created something new. That spirit of resilience and reinvention has always resonated with me.

Happy Birthday, Mick. Thanks for the music and the example
https://www.facebook.com/chad.taylor.live/p...P8G9HsbsSb2VX9l

Chad Taylor
June 29, 2026

It’s here. It never leaves. That little boy.

I yearned to be held in the same light as when my father spoke about The Beatles and his musical heroes. If I could become a songwriter and performer like them, maybe I could be someone’s hero too. Those dreams held fast to a young teenager.

I’ll never forget receiving my very first gold album. It wasn’t the plaque that moved me. It was what it represented. My songs now carried the same little gold seal I’d dreamed about as a kid. To that little boy, it was validation that his art mattered.

I was so honored that I bought replica awards for the family members who had believed in me long before anyone knew our name.

An avalanche of gold and platinum awards followed. Yet not a single plaque hangs in our home.

That was intentional.

I wanted my daughters to know me as Dad. I wanted my wife to be the hero of our home, not live surrounded by my trophies. Fame belonged outside our front door, not inside it.
Maybe one day I’ll go find that first gold album and hang it up for my future grandkids.
I’ll probably make up a few tall tales about how I earned it.

https://www.facebook.com/chad.taylor.live/p...bCP5V5R1HQcXvtl?

Chad Taylor is with patrickdahlheimer and thechadgracey.

July 1, 2026

Looking back, I realize there were moments when I should have paid closer attention to fundamental differences in how we viewed the band.

I’ve always believed that a great band is a collective body. Every member brings something irreplaceable. The chemistry comes from everyone listening, challenging, supporting, and inspiring one another. That’s true whether you’re talking about The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, R.E.M., The Smiths, or LIVE.

None of us were perfect. I certainly wasn’t. But I never believed LIVE was one person, or even two. I believed it was four musicians whose individual strengths became something far greater than the sum of their parts.

When we reunited for the 2017 tour, I chose optimism. I hoped time, experience, and life had given all of us a renewed appreciation for what had made the quartet so special in the first place. I believed we could honor our history while building something new.
Looking back, I can see that we weren’t rebuilding from the same foundation. My belief never changed: the music reached its fullest potential only when every member was respected as an essential part of the whole.

I believed it then. I believe it now.

https://www.facebook.com/reel/2053205865584325

Chad Taylor is with patrickdahlheimer and thechadgracey.
July 7, 2026

LIVE circa 1987 - Newberry Street Garage, York, PA (Public Affection era)
L to R: Taylor-Kowalczyk-Gracey-Dahlheimer

https://www.facebook.com/chad.taylor.live/p...5MgThTXy4bZz1gl

Chad Taylor is with Patrick Dahlheimer and Chad Gracey.
July 11, 2026

With Bon Jovi returning to the stage, I’ve been thinking about one of the more unexpected moments of my career.
Around 1999, Jon Bon Jovi reached out to Patrick Dahlheimer, Chad Gracey and me with an unexpected question: would we be interested in serving as his studio band for a solo session?

I have to admit, the idea excited me. As musicians, we spend so much of our lives building our own identity that it’s easy to forget how rewarding it can be to step into someone else’s world and simply serve the songs. I would have loved the challenge.
Ed’s response: “No way. These are my guys.”

By then, the politics inside LIVE had already become too fractured. I don’t think he could have handled me producing outside projects, let alone working with Jon.
Our connection with Bon Jovi actually started years earlier. When “Keep the Faith” was released, every one of us looked at each other. We all heard echoes of “Pain Lies on the Riverside.”

It felt less like coincidence and more like a tip of the hat from one band to another. We took it as a genuine compliment.

Life has a funny way of coming full circle.
Instead of making a record together, LIVE ended up joining Bon Jovi on a massive European stadium tour. Night after night we played to more than 80,000 people before finishing with an unforgettable finale in London’s Hyde Park.
What I’ll remember most wasn’t the size of the crowds.

Richie Sambora personally walked us to the stage almost every night to wish us well. Jon, Tico and Bryan were every bit as gracious and supportive. There was a genuine band-of-brothers feeling between a band from Pennsylvania and one from New Jersey.
As a kid, I never imagined we’d have anything in common beyond a love of music. Funny how music does that.

Welcome back, Bon Jovi.

And whether you’re a lifelong fan or not, you owe yourself the experience of hearing “Livin’ on a Prayer” in a packed stadium at least once. I promise you… it’s one of those songs that doesn’t just fill the air.
It rains down joy

https://www.facebook.com/chad.taylor.live/p...PeR6w8BK61ozgPl