At this year’s Louder Than Life festival, we caught up with Cherry Bombs performer Alicia Taylor to talk about her rock and metal dance troupe, how she discovered cabaret, the ideas she bounces off Corey and Griffin Taylor and more.
A former NFL cheerleader, Taylor initially loved her job, but eventually left to pursue a more creatively fulfilling outlet. “I was just tired of it,” Taylor says. “I wasn’t passionate about the performances we were doing, I wasn’t passionate about the music we were performing to. All these other dance groups in LA were a thing already. I saw that and I thought, ‘Maybe I can expand on this and I can make it a lot bigger.’”
Cherry Bombs 2022
Cherry Bombs are currently touring with In This Moment (both opening for them and performing onstage with the band) playing a show full of fire, aerials, stilt walking and dance. The group’s production standards have gotten bigger and bigger over the years, and Alicia Taylor often bounces ideas off her husband, Corey Taylor, and her stepson, Griffin Taylor.
“Corey is definitely my sounding board,” Alicia explains. “I’ll spit it off to him and ask him if it makes sense. If it makes sense to him, then I’m like ‘okay.’ He’s smarter than your average person, he’s really really smart, he can connect dots a little easier. Within the family unit we’re always sharing song ideas, lyrics, stage stuff, production… ‘Hey Mom, how do I do this with fire?’ It’s always an ongoing conversation. It’s just really fun to bond over too.”
Alicia also described how Corey initially asked her out, and how she turned him down at first. “There [were] a lot of mini interactions over the course of seven years, by the time we actually toured together. At that point in time, he had asked me to go out on a date and I said ‘no.’ I just didn’t want to date a band guy. Not about it, don’t trust you, not into it, and I wanted to be professional. Eventually he said, ‘Listen, can I just take you on a date after this tour?’ I said, ‘After the tour is over, after the last show, we’re done working, you can take me on a date.’ And then the rest is history.”
Check out our chat with Alicia Taylor below and see Cherry Bombs’ current tour dates with In This Moment and upcoming dates with Corey Taylor’s solo band here.