Replacement singer Chris Shinn looks back on his years fronting Live in an honest new interview: 'I'm just embarrassed by the whole thing.'
now. The section on that is so well-written — if anyone wants to really wrap their head around it, read that book.That was amazing. I had just started working with the guys in Seattle. We had barely been together longer than a handful of months. And then Christopher came to me and said, “Man, the guys in Live want me to do a short tour with them, record with them on their new record.” But he said to me, and I’ll never forget it, “But if me doing this means that you’ll leave, I will not do it.
I remember being on the road and hearing other members of the band fight with management, but I was just in the back having the time of my life. I wasn’t worried about any of it. They weren’t looking for a new singer. What happened was that I was living in Nashville. And I get a call from Chad Taylor. He put the whole band on speakerphone. They were just curious to hear what I’d been up to. And in a nutshell, Live had been on a hiatus, broken up. The three guys retained the name since it’s a majority rules deal.
At a certain point did they sit you down and say that they were going to re-launch Live with you as the lead singer? That’s my least favorite. A song like “Lighting Crashes” is just impossible. It’s Ed. That is all Ed. The good part part of it is that I rarely had to sing it. Honestly, I’d sing “the angels closes her eyes” thing. I could whup that line. That was fun. When it came to, “Oh, I can feel it…” the whole room would just sing it. I’d just back off the mic and let everyone sing it. That was fun.It’s hilarious.
That was such a wonderful time. Those are the memories I cherish the most. It’s my friendship with Jerry Harrison, and the photographer, and my best friend, Lucia De Giovanni. I love her dearly. We became super, super close. And Jerry and I spent so much time together. I learned so much from him. To this day, I consider him a father figure. He’s a wonderful, wonderful man.Yeah. A lot of the music on that record is mine. I haven’t listened to it in years.
I said to Jerry, “I Googled you and read one thing, but then I realized I didn’t need to do that right now. I need our relationship to be what it is. When we’re done, I’ll Google you and learn all about it. I don’t need to be nervous around you.” So he didn’t. I was like, “You’d automatically be putting me in the firing range. Why would you do that? I’m not in this for that attention. I don’t need that attention. The greater good is making Live something new and different.”
I don’t read comments, really. But with my time with Live, the comments would be usually 95 percent glowing reviews and comments from fans. They were so excited. I think that had a lot to do with me making myself available. I went out of my way to get to know the people. I’d stand in the audience with the crowd before and after the shows. I blurred that line. I welcomed them in and was like, “We’re all celebrating this together.
That’s when it changed. Suddenly, now that I had asserted myself, they went, “What? You’re not going to make us money? How dare you?” I put my foot down and said, “No. This is what’s happening.” During your whole time in the group, did you worry in the back of your head that they’d eventually make peace with Ed at some point and you’d be out?shut me down and say, “No, no, no.” Chad would always say, “This isband.” I said, “Don’t say that. It’s ridiculous.” He’d say, “No. This is your band. You’re our man. Period. We’ll never get back with Ed.” I’d say, “That’s some shit some 17-year-old kid would say. This is someone that you love dearly.
I always thought that we’d eventually level out and have time to get into the nuts and bolts, and do something really special. Because we were a good band. I was like, “Why don’t we just set up a camera and film one of our rehearsals? Let’s film us playing a song in a room together, because we can knock it out.” That to me was so impressive. I wanted people to see that, but they had no interest in that. None. Not any.
At one point, they were all over MTV and playing pretty big venues. It must not have been easy to go from that to playing county fairs. I never heard from them. They never publicly thanked me. They never did anything of the sort. A few weeks went by, and I text the other band members and went, “Really? You’re not even going to call me or anything?” I get a text from [Chad] Gracey that just went, “Thanks for all the laughs.” I just thought, “I’d rather you not respond to me than respond with that.” It was so mean. I feel it right now. What a kick in the gut.
I’m proud of what I did. I know what I did for that band was massive. I brought that band back to life. Those guys didn’t even talk to each other. Two of the guys lived 30 minutes from each other, and they never saw each other, didn’t hang out. I brought them together and gave them what they wanted. I had the goods. I was able to rally them together and make the band feel how they felt 20 years before.
It could have been a beautiful thing. They could have brought the new fans along and it would have been great. Instead, they completely divided the fans. It was so ugly. Oh, and I found out about Ed firing the whole band from Christopher Thorn. Just a few weeks ago, I was in New Orleans. We want to see Afghan Whigs. Greg Dulli is an old friend of mine, and Christopher is now the guitarist in Afghan Whigs. Christopher had just done a Blind Melon show at this private event. Ed was playing it solo. He hadn’t seen Ed in years. Ed beelined to him and told him all the stuff. Christopher couldn’t wait to tell me when he saw me.That’s an interesting thing.
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