I have a problem with my live server.
Php can't connect to mysql.
I setup a test script and no matter what username and password I enter, I only get this error message:
Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: NO)
I've googled far and wide, sorry I am not more informational

I've run mysqlcheck, restored my mysql database, restored my joomla database, reassigned root password, re-granted joomla access and re-written configuration.php
I've reinstalled mysql and php via yum
The only way I can get my joomla site back up is to run mysql with --skip-grant-tables, which is not something I want to do.

Please help me get to the bottom of this!

Seems like mysql does not recognise that you are using a password. Could you paste in the mysql_connect statement you are using? (with password replaced by s.t. like 'xxxxxxxxxx')?