Queens, the Poconos, and Spider-Man

Robert Vincent Felicetti was born on May 6, 1986, in New York City and spent the first eight years of his life in Bayside, Queens.

His grandparents lived down the road and helped raise Rob and his younger brother, Ted, while their parents worked. He grew up surrounded by extended family and assumed everyone else did too. It genuinely surprised him to learn that some of his friends barely knew their cousins.

There were also a few signs that Queens might not be the most peaceful place to raise two kids.

Someone blew up a neighbor’s car in the middle of the night. Another neighbor’s pit bull pulled Rob from his bicycle by the arm and tried to kill him. Shortly afterward, his parents moved the family to the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania.

Rob went from New York City to Blakeslee, Pennsylvania, where life was considerably quieter.

Maybe too quiet.

He was not athletic, was not one of the cool kids, and describes himself as loud and attention-seeking while simultaneously hating the attention once he received it. He was shy, although he did his best to pretend otherwise.

Before music, Rob drew constantly and became obsessed with the television, movies, and toys of the late 1980s and early ’90s. Spider-Man was the first character with whom he truly connected. Peter Parker was a kid from Queens, just like him, which was enough to make Spider-Man the coolest person in the universe.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, ALF, and Star Wars followed. Rob became especially invested in Star Wars during the mid-’90s revival, when the original toys began appearing in stores again.

Music was always around the house. His father played guitar, bass, and piano and performed in bar bands. Rob’s earliest musical education came through his parents’ record collection: the Beatles, the Eagles, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and Electric Light Orchestra.

Then he found punk rock.

Albums like NOFX’s So Long and Thanks for All the Shoes and blink-182’s Dude Ranch stayed on constant rotation—so constant that Rob managed to annoy nearly everyone he knew.

His first major concert was Eric Clapton at Madison Square Garden. His first rock-club show was Lit at Tink’s in Scranton, Pennsylvania. That show opened the door to a local and regional punk scene filled with bands like BigWig and Catch 22.

Rob had found where he belonged.