R5 Made Their National Television Debut on Good Morning America

Rocky, Rydel, Riker, and Ross Lynch and Ellington Ratliff make up the pop rock band R5.  You might wonder why I would be writing about this band on a country music website.  Well, they're relatives of mine!  

I started following the band a couple years ago when a cousin brought them to my attention.  Their Dad, Mark, is a distant cousin of mine. I grew up with their Aunt Barbara and Cindy and we all used to play on the Lynch ranch in South Dakota. Many miles and many years separated us until my Great Aunt Margaret passed away.  She was a Grandmother to the Lynch family and a wonderful lady that came to my house every day to watch over us when my Mom and Dad went to work. She basically spent every day of my childhood with me. She passed away at the age of 99.

It's interesting that families reconnect during such sad times in our lives but it does bring us all back together like family reunions from the past.  We gathered in the church basement to catch up on what was happening in our respective lives, said we would keep in touch and then all went our separate ways.  Then this phenomenon called "Facebook" was invented and rejoined the families that we had been separated from for so long.  We now watch each other's families grow and smile at the family photos of the first grand babies and the first days of school like we are sitting at the kitchen table like our parents used to do. That is how I came to know of this band called R5.

I have become the coolest Aunt EVER to my teen niece in Texas because "she is related to R5".  Truth be told...I have never actually met them. I have just watched them through their families Facebook posts and through YouTube. It's exciting to watch a member of my distant family on national TV.  Ross is "Austin" from Disney's "Austin and Ally" and that makes me cool to Taylor, the daughter of our traffic manager, Becke.

I guess it doesn't matter that I have never actually met them but I'm still cool, that makes me happy.

Here is the video of them performing on Good Morning America: