Live frontman Ed Kowalczyk has released a statement after the band’s former guitarist, Chad Taylor, issued a cease and desist over Kowalczyk’s use of the band name.
Kowalczyk has been touring as Live without the band’s other three founding members — Taylor, bassist Patrick Dahlheimer and drummer Chad Gracey — since 2022. In filing the cease and desist, Taylor claims that Kowalczyk did not have the authority to fire him from the band as Kowalczyk said he did in 2022, and that he’s revoking Kowalczyk’s right to use the Live name as a founding shareholder of the company that owns the brand.
“The assertions contained in the recently circulated ‘cease and desist’ letter from certain former members of LIVE are without merit,” reads a statement from Kowalczyk’s lawyer, Mitchell Schuster of Meister Seelig & Fein, PLLC.
“Ed Kowalczyk has served as the band’s frontman since its founding and remains in that role,” the statement continues. “The claims made do not alter that reality. We intend to address this matter through the appropriate legal channels and are confident it will be resolved in Ed’s favor in court.”
Kowalczyk did leave Live 2009 and faced legal proceedings from the other members of the band over use of the Live name in relation to his solo shows. He reunited with Live in 2016.
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