{"id":58551,"date":"2026-02-20T17:15:32","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T17:15:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/20\/90s-band-ex-members-send-singer-cease-desist-before-live-tour\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T17:15:32","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T17:15:32","slug":"90s-band-ex-members-send-singer-cease-desist-before-live-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/20\/90s-band-ex-members-send-singer-cease-desist-before-live-tour\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8217;90s Band Ex-Members Send Singer Cease + Desist Before Live Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Founding former members of <a href=\"https:\/\/loudwire.com\/tags\/live\" target=\"_blank\">Live<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 guitarist Chad Taylor and drummer Chad Gracey \u2014 shared images on\u00a0social media showing a cease-and-desist letter sent to lead singer <a href=\"https:\/\/loudwire.com\/tags\/ed-kowalczyk\/\" target=\"_blank\">Ed Kowalczck <\/a>regarding the use of the band&#8217;s name.<\/p>\n<p>The letter alleges the termination of the license to use any trademarks\u00a0associated with Live for both Kowalczyk and The Fifth Veda,<span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">\u00a0a record label founded by the singer.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Action Front Unlimited is listed in the letter as the &#8220;exclusive owner&#8221; of trademarks and intellectual property associated with Live. Members of the band originally formed the entity.<\/p>\n<h3>What the Emails Sent to Ed Kowalczyk Said<\/h3>\n<p>The publicly shared letter comes with an added comment from Taylor, who claims that Kowalczyk &#8220;never had the authority to remove me. I remain a founding shareholder and director of Action Front Unlimited, Inc. \u2013 the company that owns the Live name and trademarks.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Live announced a\u00a0planned two-year hiatus in 2009 and in 2011, the band was reformed by Taylor, Gracey and bassist Patrick Dahlheimer, but without Kowalczyk. A new singer was brought in the following year, leading to disputes between both sides. Meanwhile, Kowalczyk toured as\u00a0Ed\u00a0Kowalczyk of Live. <a href=\"https:\/\/stereogum.com\/2489800\/live-legal-drama-reignites-with-cease-and-desist-to-ed-kowalczyk\/news?fbclid=IwY2xjawQFS6NleHRuA2FlbQIxMABzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEey0oxQlfLK5wFj7ieble4jhwG9d97_3Vm8JvfI_1Sff-bqAdZvXPM_mP3Jms_aem_8FxBwHIM3DyXfKjsdWMP7A\" target=\"_blank\">Stereogum<\/a> notes that Kowalczyk&#8217;s former bandmates\u00a0were also touring as Live during this time, leading to a lawsuit between the two sides.<\/p>\n<p>Kowalczyk eventually rejoined the band in 2016 until things fell apart in 2022. Kowalczyk asserts he &#8220;fired&#8221; the rest of the band and, since then, he has toured under the name Live as its only original member.<\/p>\n<p>The email can be seen in the social media post below. Taylor says, &#8220;I won&#8217;t fight this in public. The courts will handle it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Kowalczyk has yet to respond publicly to the cease-and-desist letter or claims over the rightful ownership of the Live trademark.<\/p>\n<p>Loudwire has reached out to a representative for Live.<\/p>\n<h3>Live Trademark Battle Ensues Before Start of Tour<\/h3>\n<p>The cease-and-desist comes just as\u00a0Kowalczyk is set to begin a tour of Canada under the Live band name. The tour begins Feb. 23 in Abbotsford, British Columbia.<\/p>\n<p>The band played a pair of dates in Las Vegas in January. Those two shows have been the only ones scheduled so far in the U.S. for 2026.<\/p>\n<h3>Live 2026 Tour Dates<\/h3>\n<p>Feb. 23 \u2013 Abbotsford, British Columbia @ Abbotsford Centre<br \/>Feb. 24 \u2013\u00a0 Kelowna, British Columbia @ Prospera Place<br \/>Feb. 26 \u2013 Tsuut&#8217;ina, Alberta @ Grey Eagle Event Centre<br \/>Feb. 27 \u2013 Edmonton, Alberta @ Rogers Place<br \/>March 1 \u2013 Saskatoon, Saskatchewan @ Saktel Centre<br \/>March 2 \u2013 Winnipeg, Manitoba @ Canada Life Centre<br \/>March 5 \u2013 Hamilton, Ontario @ TD Coliseum<br \/>March 6 \u2013 Ottawa, Ontario @ Canadian Tire Centre<br \/>March 7 \u2013 London, Ontario @ Canada Life Place<br \/>March 9 \u2013 Oshawa, Ontario @ Tribute Communities Centre<br \/>March 10 \u2013 Laval, Quebec @ Place Bell<br \/>March 11 \u2013 Quebec City, Quebec @ Centre Videotron<br \/>March 13 \u2013 Moncton, New Brunswick @ Avenir Centre<br \/>March 14 \u2013 Halifax, Nova Scotia @ Scotiabank Centre<\/p>\n<p>Live achieved significant commercial success in 1994 with the album <em>Throwing Copper<\/em>.\u00a0Kowalczyk&#8217;s unmistakable voice made him one of the more underrated alternative rock singers from that era.<\/p>\n<p>Here is a look at other alt-rockers in the conversation about who is the most underrated voice from the <a href=\"https:\/\/loudwire.com\/tags\/1990s\/\" target=\"_blank\">1990s<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"photogallery-wrapper blog-photogallery \">\n<h2 class=\"photogallery-title\">The 5 Most Underrated Alt-Rock Singers of the \u201890s<\/h2>\n<div class=\"photogallery-description\">\n<p>If you remember the song but not the singer, this list is for you!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"photogallery-credit\">Gallery Credit: <a href=\"https:\/\/loudwire.com\/author\/sydneytaylor\/\" target=\"_blank\">Sydney Taylor<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><script src=\"https:\/\/diffuser.fm\/rest\/carbon\/api\/scripts.js?mver=27&#038;gver=9&#038;bid=443&#038;urls[]=https%3A%2F%2Fplatform.twitter.com%2Fwidgets.js&#038;urls[]=https%3A%2F%2Fapis.google.com%2Fjs%2Fplatform.js&#038;urls[]=https%3A%2F%2Fconnect.facebook.net%2Fen_US%2Fsdk.js&#038;urls[]=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.pinterest.com%2Fjs%2Fpinit.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\" async defer data-osano=\"ESSENTIAL\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/diffuser.fm\/ixp\/366\/p\/live-band-name-cease-desist\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Founding former members of Live\u00a0\u2014 guitarist Chad Taylor and drummer Chad Gracey \u2014 shared images on\u00a0social media showing a cease-and-desist letter sent to lead&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":58552,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-at","article","has-excerpt","has-avatar","has-author","has-date","has-comment-count","has-category-meta","has-read-more","thumbnail-"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}