STEVE TAYLOR

Sometimes called the "clown prince of Christian music," singer and guitarist Steve Taylor stood among the earliest figures to inject sarcasm and satire into the genre. Born Roland Stephen Taylor on December 9, 1957, in Brawley, California, he grew up in Denver, Colorado. Only during his college years did he start taking singing seriously; in 1979 he ranked first among one hundred applicants selected from a pool of twenty thousand for John Davidson’s summer camp, where he spent a month studying under Tony Orlando, Florence Henderson, and John Davidson himself. Although deeply anchored in Christian music, Taylor remained receptive to outside influences and frequently cited the Clash’s London Calling as a pivotal discovery of that period. A demo tape blending new wave with gospel soon attracted interest from multiple labels, yet before recording his debut he served as assistant director for the evangelistic ensemble the Continentals and as director for Chuck Bolte’s Jeremiah People, a Christian musical comedy troupe.

A solo appearance at Cam Floria’s Annual Christian Artists Conference in Estes Park, Colorado, during summer 1982 secured a deal with the independent Sparrow label, which released his initial four projects: the six-track 1983 EP I Want to Be a Clone, the studio albums Meltdown in 1984 and On the Fritz in 1985, and the live set Limelight. In 1987 he delivered what many consider his most polarizing work, I Predict 1990, featuring tracks such as “I Blew Up the Clinic Real Good” and “Since I Gave Up Hope I Feel a Lot Better”; the album’s contentious reception prompted Taylor to step away from Christian music for a time. He did not abandon music altogether, however, and in 1990 assembled the Clash-inspired band Chagall Guevara alongside guitarists Dave Perkins and Lynn Nichols, bassist Wade Jaynes, and drummer Mike Mead. The group issued only one self-titled album before disbanding in 1992.

Rather than resume solo activity right away, Taylor focused on production, overseeing several projects for the Australian gospel group the Newsboys. He eventually returned to his own career with Squint in 1993, his first solo outing in five years, while the tribute album I Predict a Clone appeared concurrently. The mid-nineties brought the double-disc, thirty-four-track retrospective Now the Truth Can Be Told and the new live recording Liver. He continued producing for acts such as Guardian and Sixpence None the Richer, and he launched his own imprint, Squint Entertainment, through Word Records.