Steve Taylor

Roland Stephen Taylor (born December 9, 1957) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, music executive, film maker, assistant professor, and actor.

He graduated from Northglenn High School in 1976.

While there, he attempted to learn the bass guitar, piano and trombone.

Upon graduation from high school, Taylor enrolled at Biola University in California.

During his first year, he was first of the 100 chosen, from 20,000 applicants, to spend the summer at John Davidson's summer camp.

At the camp, Taylor spent time learning from singers like Tony Orlando, Florence Henderson, and John Davidson.

Taylor returned home and enrolled at the University of Colorado at Boulder, to study "serious music".

A figure in what has come to be known as Christian alternative rock, Taylor enjoyed a successful solo career during the 1980s, and also served in the short-lived group Chagall Guevara.

In contrast to many Christian musical artists, his songs have often taken aim at Christian hypocrisy or "error" with the use of satirical, sardonic lyrics.

He graduated there in 1980, but described his Bachelor of Arts degree in music and theater as being worth "slightly more than the cash value of a Pizza Hut coupon."

In 1980, Taylor wrote and directed a pop musical comedy titled Nothing to Lose based on the parable of the Prodigal Son from the Bible.

It had a short run at a community theater in Denver.

He also wrote and starred in a short film, Joe's Distributing, a parody of avant-garde films.

Taylor wrote articles during this time that were published in The Wittenburg Door and CCM Magazine (for which he won an award from the Evangelical Press Association).

After recording a demo of original songs, Taylor began to write for the musical group the Continental Singers.

The Continental Singers' founder, Cam Floria invited Taylor to join the group as assistant director on a tour to France, Italy, and Poland sponsored by Solidarity.

When he returned to the United States, he was asked to perform at the Christian Artists' 1982 Music Seminar in Denver.

Billy Ray Hearn, president of Sparrow Records, was backstage and immediately signed Taylor to a recording contract.

He recorded his debut solo project I Want to Be a Clone in 1982 and released it in January 1983.

He quickly gained a reputation for writing songs that satirized beliefs and practices with which he disagreed.

In 1983, Taylor recorded his first full-length album.

Released in 1984, Meltdown included some of the demo material that was not on Clone along with some new material.

His video single of the title track, "Meltdown (at Madame Tussauds)" was played on MTV, which was unusual for a Christian artist at the time.

The video featured an appearance by actress Lisa Whelchel.

During a performance at 1984's Cornerstone Festival, Taylor fractured his ankle while jumping off the stage.

He finished the summer's tour in an electric wheelchair.

In 1985, Taylor received his first Grammy nomination in the "Best Male Gospel Performance" category, while also being nominated for Dove Awards as "Gospel Artist of the Year" and for Meltdown as the "Best Contemporary Album of the Year".

In 1997, he founded the record label Squint Entertainment, which fueled the careers of artists such as Sixpence None the Richer, Chevelle, and Burlap to Cashmere.

The album also included "We Don't Need No Colour Code", which was critical of Bob Jones University and its anti-interracial dating policy, a policy that was not abandoned by the university until 2000.

Another track on Meltdown, "Guilty By Association", one of the original demo songs, includes a jab with an impression in the middle eight at televangelist Jimmy Swaggart.

The song "On the Fritz", the title track from Taylor's next studio album, was also targeted at Swaggart.

Swaggart later struck back by devoting part of a chapter of Religious Rock 'N' Roll, a Wolf in Sheep's Clothing (ISBN 0-935113-05-3) to Taylor, whom he saw as playing evil rock music.

Despite this success, Taylor was ousted from the label by its parent, Word Entertainment, in 2001.

He has produced and written for numerous musical acts, one of the most consistent being Newsboys.

As a film-maker, Taylor co-wrote, directed, and produced the feature films Down Under the Big Top, The Second Chance, and Blue Like Jazz.

After a decade and a half of hiatus, Taylor returned to performing music in 2010 as the front-man for Steve Taylor & The Perfect Foil, a supergroup he founded with Peter Furler, Jimmy Abegg, and John Mark Painter.

Along with a university residency and continued filmmaking, Taylor would resume work on unfinished Chagall Guevara material into the 2020s.

Taylor, the eldest of three children, was born in Brawley, California.

Taylor's father, Roland Taylor, was a Baptist minister.

When Taylor was six years old, the family relocated to Northglenn, Colorado, a suburb of Denver.