Letting Bygones Be Bygones And Doing It All For The Music

"People say, 'Don't you get tired of playing Lightning Crashes?'" Live vocalist Ed Kowalczyk shares. "And I say, 'No, never.' Everyone has their own unique relationship with that song, and it's a beautiful feeling to stand there on stage and watch the crowd get into it."

Listening back over Live's back catalogue is a musical reunion in itself for the fans. Check your old mixtapes for classics I Alone, All Over You and The Dolphin's Cry, and see if you don't find yourself lost in emotional air guitar jams. "I feel the same," says Kowalczyk. "We had a long break, but being reunited feels like riding an old bike, but a brand new one. It feels like this natural thing we can do it in our sleep, but there's a new freshness that's really charming and wonderful to be part of."

Not wanting to dredge up tales of bad blood, Kowalczyk's happy to shed the past and move right on. "I think all of us are still pleasantly overwhelmed and surprised that we got back together, I don't think anyone expected it, it's been a miraculous reconnect, and a beautiful thing," he says. "About a year and a half ago, after all the negativity had settled down, we really just started to miss each other, which makes sense since we've been friends since we were 13-years-old."

Kowalczyk brings it straight back to the ultimate reason why any band does what they do - for the love of rock'n'roll. "At the end of the day, our love for the music kept us together before, and has reunited us now," Kowalczyk says, philosophically. "What's beyond everything is our passion for this music."

Live recently joined forces with another bunch of shock reunitees, Guns 'N' Roses. "We got a text saying the guys from Guns 'N' Roses wanted to do some shows," he says. "We were putting our band together in the late '80s when Guns N' Roses were breaking, and they're a band we don't really reference as an influence. I always talk about REM, The Cult, U2, but if you were at any of our high school parties or rehearsals, you would have heard us do a bad Welcome To The Jungle."

Kowalcyzk is super stoked about Live's Australian shows in November and promises to bring their A game. "We always want to come to Australia, and the timing is perfect for where the band is and the excitement level we have at the moment," he says. "We're bringing our best version of the band yet for all the people who've seen us - and for all those who haven't seen us, well, you're going to get a good one."