For those of you who don't know, Matt Freeman is one of the most talented bass players ever.  End of story... but there's more to it than that.   This is a little bit about Matt Freeman... Not too much... He probably doesn't want you to stalk him.

Back in the day of the ska-punk band, Operation Ivy, Matt Freeman went by the alias, Matt McCall.  That name came from a TV show with a guy who looked like him.

But even before there was Operation Ivy, there was Tim Armstrong.   Tim and Matt knew eachother since they were 5.  They played on the same Little League team and grew up a few blocks away from eachother in Albany, California.  Matt and Tim formed Operation Ivy with their friend Jesse, and they played at all sorts of keg parties and other shows.  But as we all know, Operation Ivy broke up in 1989.

Tim had been living with Matt and had been an alcoholic for years, since his early teens.  Tim had been in and out of detox, but in 1991, he decided he couldn't live with Matt anymore, and he moved into a Salvation Army shelter for a few weeks to get his life together (that's what the song 'Salvation' is about if you didn't know).  He did, and he thanks Matt for helping him through everything.  That's when Rancid started.  Lars didn't join the band until later on.  He doesn't sing on the first album, because he wanted to let everyone else do it because they wrote all of it, and he didn't want to seem overpowering or anything like that.

Matt is Rancid's driver.  He drives a '63 Nova, that you can see in a couple videos for Rancid.  Neither Lars nor Tim has a lisence, and I'm not so sure about Brett.  Matt drives them around Oakland and Campbell, and on their tours too.

Matt is involved in several side-projects as well.  So are the other members of Rancid, so that's no big surprise.

More on Matt later... *much love*