Name Ed Kowalczyk of LIVE
Best known as The songwriter and singer of the ‘90s classic “Lightning Crashes” – making Placentas cool again.
More from Spin:
- Update: Eddie Vedder Leads All-Tom Petty Soundtrack To ‘Bad Monkey’
- Oso Oso Return to a Sweet Spot on ‘Life Till Bones’
- The Killers Unveil New Song Ahead Of Hometown Vegas Residency
Current city – Ridgefield, CT. Really want to be in Boston’s North End with a dozen cannolis from Mike’s Pastry to myself and hardcore munchies hitting simultaneously.
Excited about LIVE on tour with Stone Temple Pilots this summer and new LIVE music coming soon!
My current music collection has a lot of Dua Lipa.
Preferred format I still rock cassettes as much as I can. I think we threw that baby out with the bathwater when the interwebs took over everything…still shook about it honestly. Love the vinyl otherwise.
5 Albums I Can’t Live Without:
1
Lifes Rich Pageant, R.E.M.
This record lit up my hungry young mind and heart like a supernova when I was 16 or so. “Fall On Me” is one of the most beautiful songs I think I’ve ever heard.
2
To Bring You My Love, PJ Harvey
This album came out the same year as LIVE’s Throwing Copper in 1994 and it is just absolutely one of the best and deepest rock albums ever. PJ’s voice is so haunting and beautiful. We got to tour with her in 1995 and it was a true highlight of my career.
3
Led Zeppelin IV, Led Zeppelin
It came out the year I was born, 1971. Fast forward to 1983 when I heard it for the first time at 12 years old. I stayed up all night with it spinning on my cassette player, absolutely mesmerized by the lyrics and melodies. They were so strange and powerful to my young ears. I think I listened to “Stairway to Heaven” 20 times that night. Sounds cheesy, but I was literally never the same.
4
The Joshua Tree, U2
When I saw U2 in 1987 at the old veterans stadium in Philadelphia, they opened with “Where the Streets Have No Name”…I was 16 years old. After that song was over, I turned to my friend who came to the concert with me and I said “I’m going to do what Bono and this band does, or I’m gonna die trying.” It’s hard to put into words how totally powerful that band was in concert in 1987. If you know, you know.
5
Dark Was the Night, Blind Willie Johnson
Listening to Blind Willie Johnson is like peering into the birthplace of all of the music I have ever loved. The depth of feeling in “Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground” is truly unbelievable. Channeled from beyond time and space through this humble, blind bluesman—and here we are, the beneficiaries of all the music him and his fellow troubadours like Robert Johnson have inspired since. Just…wow.
LIVE kicks off their Jubilee Tour with Stone Temple Pilots and special guests Soul Asylum and Our Lady Peace on August 16 in Concord, CA. Visit Freaks4Live.com for tickets.
To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, click here.