A music writer from Boston.  A bass guitar player from Brighton, England.  A cook from Hosuton, Texas.  A Personal Injury Attorney in Washington State.  And a freeloader from Skokie, IL who lives with his parents.  We all grew up together on Chicago’s North side and went to high school together.  Even Nolan from England.  He and his family moved here when he was 13 and he moved back when he was 20, though he’s always flying back and forth doing tours with his band.  Even back then, we seemed like an unlikely group of friends since we all had different interests and came from different backgrounds.  However, we all lived pretty close to each other and were constantly seeing and running into each other around the neighborhood.  Whenever someone started a ballgame at the park we all joined in.  Whenever there was a bully giving everyone a hard time we all banded together.  And, besides, we all met each other through each other.  If I went to hang out at Nolan’s house, I met Chris.  And when we went over to Chris’s house the next day, Brian would come along.  That’s how we all became friends for life.  We grew up together and all just got along really well.