Born in Worland, Wyoming, in 1959, Joel started playing drums and trumpet at an early age, performing on trumpet at Carnegie Hall when only 16 with the McDonald's All American High School Band.

Joel studied at Berklee College of Music (1979-1982) focusing his attention on the drums and recording engineering. Alan Dawson and Gary Chaffee were his private drum mentors during this period.

Since moving to Los Angeles in 1985, Joel Taylor has been in demand as one of the most versatile drummers in the L.A. studio and touring scene.
He has toured and recorded with a diversity of artists that span the whole stylistic spectrum of the music world, such as Allan Holdsworth, Rick Springfield, Joe Sample, Michael Bublé, Gloria Estefan, Andy Summers, The Jazz Crusaders, Robbie Krieger, Stanley Clarke, Al Dimeola, Robben Ford, Ernie Watts, Eric Marienthal, Jeff Lorber, Herb Alpert, Michel Legrand, Frank Gambale, Diane Schuur, Victor Wooten/ Steve Bailey, Chris Botti, Colin Hay(Men at Work), Josh Groban, Micky Thomas (Starship), Bobby Kimball (Toto), Vesta Williams, Phil Perry, Bobby Caldwell, Brian Bromberg, Yanni, Freeflight and Banned From Utopia (Zappa Alumni Band).
Joel is on the short list of drummers for legendary producers David Foster and Peter Wolf. He has performed on numerous film, tv, and video game soundtracks including Gran Torino, Anchorman, Witches of Waverly Place (The Movie), Garfield, Frenemies, Dog With a Blog, Marvin Marvin, Stuck In The Middle, The Swap, Hannah Montana, and Jonas (Brothers).

He is also featured on over 100 of the drum tracks for the award winning, multi-platinum, Guitar Hero II, III, Rock the 80's and Rock Band video games. All featured drum tracks were recorded in Joel's Jackalope Recording Studios in Altadena, Ca.

Joel has also recorded drums for hundreds of national jingles. He now records for musicians and producers from all over the world in his studio via the internet.