My Home Free Story

It was August 2014 and I was scrolling down Facebook and happened upon a video of 6 guys singing "Ring of Fire," around a bon fire. Well, I couldn't resist, so I clicked on the link. Little did I know that video would change my life in a fantastic way! I watched the video and immediately became mesmerized by their voices. The two basses with big, rich tones and the young man with the power and energy. One kind of looked like a biker, then the cowboy, and wait, is that guy beatboxing? I had to watch the video several times to fully take in all I had heard. I knew who Avi Kaplan was, but who is Home Free?

I did a search on YouTube for Home Free and found The Sing Off videos, so I started watching them. Well, honestly, their version of "Cruise" made me melt! All I could think, was "Damn these guys sound amazing!" Once I could stop watching "Cruise," I went on to "Life Is A Highway." Now this song is more from my era and again, they sounded so good. Then that bass guy started singing, oh my. I just wanted more. And then I watched the "Ring of Fire" version from The Sing Off and well that just did me in, I was done. I watched that one over and over and over again. 

I went on to watch videos, read articles and eventually buy Home Free's Crazy Life CD and Tim Foust's (you know, that bass guy) The Best That I Could Do CD. And this story is in another article, but after hearing "I've Seen" from Tim's CD, I got inspired to start writing again. Something I did on occasion, but not like I used before I had kids. This song reminded me of the songs I wrote with one of my best friends and triggered the flow of words in my head, again. 

I decided to use Twitter as my way to follow the Home Free vocal group. I felt a little silly, at my age, following a band, so I hid in Twitter since none of my friends where out there. Within just a couple of days, I stumbled upon a Twitter account called @ThoseCrazyFries. That started my descent into the world of Home Fries, the loyal, crazy and fun fans of Home Free. 

Over the past, almost year, I have met some incredible fans from all over the world. Some in person, but most of them in fan groups. When Tim favorited one of my responses in Twitter, I made the decision to take my daughter to Nederland, TX to see them in concert. That concert was amazing and a little stressful. Along with my daughter, were my nerves, her nerves and my camera. I was too nervous to talk to them, so I decided to take pictures of my daughter getting their autographs. She was so nervous, she was afraid of Tim, zipped past Chris, loosen up and high fived Rob, got so nervous at Austin (her fave) that she hid behind a stranger but eventually high fived him too and then we finally relaxed by the time we got to Adam that we talked to him. I felt like a teenager after and we had a great time. 

I have now seen Home Free three times; Nederland, TX in October 2014 (with my daughter), Oklahoma City, OK  in April 2015 (with fries I'd never met in person) and Dallas, TX (with my kids) in May 2015. I have made some friends for life and even if we can never see Home Free in concert together, we'll still be friends. And if you're going use a tool to find great friends, I can't think of a better one than five adorable, amazingly talented and generous guys called Home Free!