Holy Heretics

Once an AC/DC roadie, Taylor found God and became a star preacher at his LA church. Now he has been asked to leave – and many of his flock will go with him The historic church of All Saints’, Beverly Hills, on a prime residential street near the luxury shopping hub of Rodeo Drive, is not a place you would expect to find a British former heavy metal roadie as associate rector. But that is the role Barry Taylor, once dubbed “the screaming skull” for his gaunt visage, has played for the past 10 years. Not any more. The normally staid world of Californian Episcopalians has been turned upside down by a row over collection plates and preaching styles that led the Los Angeles branch of the church to hand the city’s most eccentric priest his cards. Urged on by his many celebrity supporters, Taylor has now set up a rival service at a temporary Sunday venue at a rented Lutheran church. The west coast religious establishment has never seen anything quite like it. Taylor’s extraordinary journey from star roadie to priest