Eric Gerald Froberg was born on January 19, 1968 in Santa Monica, California to Eric Froberg and Sylvia (Phillips) Froberg. His father, a business consultant and entrepreneur, legally changed his Swedish surname from Floberg to Farr in 1979. Professionally, Mr. Froberg used his ancestral surname, but sometimes signed his own work as “Rick Farr” or “Rick Falk.”
His parents divorced shortly after he was born, and he never had a relationship with his biological mother, who died in 1992. His father married Lynn Wacker, Sales and Training Manager of Hooked on Phonics, in 1973. The family lived in Glendale and Playa Del. Before Mr. Froberg moved to Carlsbad when he was eight years old, Mr. Ray. He lived primarily in the North County area of San Diego until he moved to Brooklyn.
He married Amelia Halverson in 2003. They divorced in 2015. In addition to Mr. Neubacher, he has his father, stepmother, and three younger brothers, Christopher, Justin and Gregory.
In 1999 Mr. Reiss formed a new band, Hot Snakes. Unsatisfied with his own vocals, he sent Mr. Froberg a cassette and agreed to join despite being on a different coast. In contrast to Drive Like Jehu’s distortion, the Hot Snakes favored clean guitar sounds and short, efficient songs, “powering Rick’s voice and pick attack,” Reiss said.
Mr. Froberg sang and played guitar in the Brooklyn band Obits from 2006 to 2015 and released three albums on Sub Pop. Commenting on ageism in music, Sohrab Havivion, another Orbitz guitarist, said the name was Floberg’s idea.
Painters, photographers and filmmakers can grow old, says Havibion, “jazz musicians and classical musicians are allowed to live long. But rock and roll is stuck in this youth culture rut. We wanted to get our feet on the ground and make the case that even middle-aged people can make important, important rock music that deserves to be part of the cultural conversation.”
