They performed with new touring members, including Gracious Few bandmate Sean Hennesy on rhythm guitar and Alexander Lefever on keyboards. On January 24, 2012, Taylor, Dahlheimer, and Gracey announced that they were leading members in a project to renovate a four-story building at 210 York Street in York. A previously unreleased Live song, "Hold Me Up", features in the 2008 Kevin Smith film Zack and Miri Make a Porno. On August 2, 2008, Daughtry and Live performed the band's interpretation of "I Walk the Line" together at the Toms River Fest in Toms River, New Jersey. On season five of American Idol, finalist Chris Daughtry was accused of performing Live's version of Johnny Cash's "I Walk the Line" and claiming it as his own interpretation.
The record peaked at number 52 on the Billboard 200 album chart, and reached number three on the Billboard Independent album chart. Awake included "We Deal in Dreams", a previously unreleased song from the Throwing Copper sessions, a cover version of Johnny Cash's "I Walk the Line", and a new version of their song "Run Away", with Shelby Lynne sharing lead vocals with Kowalczyk. The first single was "Simple Creed", which featured a rap by Tricky, but the events of 9/11, which occurred a week before V was released, meant that the melancholic "Overcome" received significant airplay and became the album's selling point. It was the third longest gap between an album first charting and reaching number one, behind Fleetwood Mac's eponymous album in 1976 (58 weeks) and Paula Abdul's kai cenat casino Forever Your Girl in 1989 (64 weeks). The band appeared on NBC's Saturday Night Live, where they played "I Alone" and "Selling the Drama", and they performed for the first time in the UK, on The Word.
After appearances on the MTV 120 Minutes tour, at Woodstock '94, and on Peter Gabriel's WOMAD tour, the band's third album, Throwing Copper, achieved mainstream success. When the band graduated from high school, they recorded a self-released cassette of original songs, titled The Death of a Dictionary, in 1989. Live earned fame for their single "Operation Spirit (The Tyranny of Tradition)", whose video received airtime on MTV. On August 16, 2024, the band released the song "Lady Bhang (She Got Me Rollin)", which also features a guest appearance by Dean DeLeo of Stone Temple Pilots.
"Lightning Crashes" also stayed at the top of the Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart for ten consecutive weeks. The single "Operation Spirit (The Tyranny of Tradition)" reached number nine on the Modern Rock chart and was followed by their debut album, 1991's Mental Jewelry, which Harrison again produced. Gracey picked the name based on a comment by his girlfriend at the time. When touring, Live has used additional musicians, including Kowalczyk's younger brother Adam, British keyboardist Michael "Railo" Railton, rhythm guitarist Christopher Thorn of Blind Melon, and guitarist Zak Loy of Alpha Rev. Their biggest success came in 1994 with their third album, Throwing Copper, which sold eight million copies in the U.S.