They say that childhood friends don’t stick and true friends are made after high school graduation, but this is not the case for New Jersey’s The Black Hollies. The majority of the band met as children, and their drummer joined the band two years ago.

“I met the original drummer in kindergarten,” Justin Angelo said. “Then when we were 15 he showed up at my door with Scott, the guitarist. He was this really annoying-looking kid, but now he is one of the most important people in my life.”

The Black Hollies began playing shows as a way for the band to have fun and hopefully get a few fans. “Most people didn’t really take notice of us [in the beginning], but to ourselves we sounded awesome. We didn’t really care what people thought because we were having fun,” Angelo said. When they started getting positive reactions from the crowd early on, they were “shocked and really happy” at the same time.

Still today, the Black Hollies play every show like they are playing for thousands of fans. “Once we played a show for two people,” Angelo said. “I swear, their jaws were at the floor because they were so amazed that we played our entire set and gave it our all. But that’s just how we are. We will play the same if there are 4 or 4,000 people in the audience.”

Angelo claims that playing the music and knowing he is making people happy through their sound is the most rewarding part of their career. “We handle everything ourselves from the setting up to the driving, so for that 45 minutes we are on stage, I have nothing to worry about and I get to play music, which is why we got into this business in the first place,” he said.

This close-knit group of guys have a ritual which they do before every show. “We listen to this record called ‘Nut Gone Flakes’ to get us pumped up and then we spend some time discussing the four hours worth of re-runs of ‘Rosanne’ that we watch every night,” Angelo said. “It sounds ridiculous, but [on tour] we stay at various hotels and the first thing we go is find TV Land so we can watch ‘Rosanne.’ It’s our thing. It fuels the band.”

Angelo works at a chocolate factory as his day job. “I make those chocolate bunnies everyone loves,” he said. “It’s a pretty cool job.”

Not only does he manage the factory, he also writes songs while on the clock. “I stand at the end of the conveyer belt with a pad of paper and a pen just in case I think of a song idea,” he said. “Then I sing that same song all day so I don’t forget it.”

Even though the tour is a long process, The Black Hollies enjoy every minute of the time they spend playing their music. These Rosanne-watching, chocolate-making guys have come a long way since the beginning, and plan to continue to write and play music as long as they are having fun while doing so.