"Kelly was the first person to encourage me to sing. I was a pretty sensitive kid and music and songwriting was a kind of self-therapy. 

I showed Kelly a song that I had written and recorded about a dinosaur. She really listened, and being classically trained, heard something I was doing with my voice and remarked how it was actually impressive and hard to do. 

That was some of the first external validation I received related to my original music.

Funny thing is, about a decade prior, her mom encouraged my creativity by hanging a drawing I did of "Chester the Cheetah" on the fridge in her kitchen.”

-Richie

“I met Richie when I was seven years old and he was eleven. I still have the friendship bracelet he gave me. Both of us, young and innocent, were united by faith, as his dad was a small-town preacher and my parents were drawn to support his mission. This meant, if the doors of the church were open, Richie and I were both there, and expected to help in any way possible. As children, we followed along blindly, but as teenagers, we often found ourselves in his dad’s office, getting a lecture about the music we were listening to or the concerts we were attending that were (apparently) not Bible-approved. By the time we were in our twenties not only were we still listening to those forbidden bands, but at church we had now volunteered in almost all of the ways possible. So, between the endless Christmas pageants, puppet shows, and leading the congregation in songs on Sunday mornings, I think it’s safe to say we were entertainers from the very beginning.”

-Kelly