Alternative Nation recently interviewed frontman Ed Kowalczyk and guitarist Chad Taylor of the newly reunited Live, covering the band’s extensive past, present, and future. You can read our full interview with Ed and Chad later this week, but check out an excerpt below where Chad Taylor recounts a funny run-in with Nirvana in a motel lobby, circa 1991.
“There’s such a sense of excitement and gratitude as we’ve gotten to [reunite], not only with our age, but being a band for so long,” Ed told me. “You can just look at that stuff and go, ‘wow, what an amazing history we have’, and what’s on our plate to make even more with some of these shows that we are doing. Pretty freaking exciting.”
Chad remembered a prophetic memory from very early in the band’s career and laughed. “Doug, I think it was the early 90’s, ’91 or ’92, we were on tour and had a date in San Francisco. We were staying in a shoddy motel, that was the level the band was at. The guys from Nirvana were staying in the same motel. MTV was debuting our ‘Operation Spirit’ video. We shoved all the guys from Nirvana and Live in the motel lobby because that was the only television in the motel that had cable. [everyone laughs] We were telling those guys, ‘listen, you guys are gonna be huge! Like, so huge!'”
I noted how surreal that must be in hindsight. Chad continued, “They were telling us that we were going great, but we told them, ‘You guys are going to be the biggest band in the world.’ We knew so little. Really, honestly. Especially Nirvana. You couldn’t imagine how iconic they would become. It’s memories like those that really stand out. I’m trying to explain that to my kids and they can’t even really relate!”
Nirvana’s Nevermind of course set off the alternative rock explosion of 91-92. Live’s Throwing Copper was certified at least 8x platinum by the RIAA and produced several alternative radio staples like “Lightning Crashes”, “All Over You”, and “I Alone”.
