Background: Thomas Richard Christy was born in Fort Scott, Kansas on April 1, 1974. His father is a Vietnam veteran. Christy grew up in the nearby town of Redfield, on a "farm in the middle of nowhere". According to the 2010 census, the town has a population of 146.
Context: Christy became an avid listener of The Howard Stern Show in 1996 when he moved to Florida, listening to the program "every morning religiously" with headphones while he worked as an electrician. After he obtained the number to reach the show's answering machine from the Internet, he began to submit comical voicemail messages in 1999, that were played frequently on the air. From 2001, Christy began to send in song parodies and bits about staffers Robin Quivers and K.C. Armstrong. His made his debut appearance on April 24, 2003 when the show was broadcast from the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Christy lost a round of blackjack in hope of winning a date with a porn star.  Following the departure of "Stuttering John" Melendez in February 2004, Stern announced the Get John's Job contest a month later, pitting ten listeners who had contributed to the show against each other in competition for the vacated position. Each contestant was given a week to display their talents they could bring to the show, after which the listeners voted online for their favorite. Christy produced a required demo CD of his bits, and was selected to compete for the prize of an initial three-month contract and $25,000. Leaving Iced Earth was a difficult decision for Christy, but felt he could not waste the opportunity to pursue his "dream job" and work for Stern. He had also grown tired of living in Florida, and wished to move. On July 1, 2004 Christy won the contest with 30% of the vote; Sal Governale was second with 24%. By September 2004, both had joined the show as full-time staff members. Christy then relocated from Florida to New York City, where the show is based.  Christy has become known on the show for his prank calls, song parodies, and outrageous stunts, usually performed with Governale. He faced challengers in porn trivia in Stump the Perv, vomited on guests, received a bikini wax, and painted his genitals. From 2005, Christy performed nationwide as a stand-up comedian as part of the Killers of Comedy Tour with other show cast members.  In 2006, the show relocated to Sirius XM Radio. Christy hosted his a semi-regular metal show on the Liquid Metal channel named Richard Christy's Heavy Metal Hoedown. Christy also hosted Inside the Porn Actors Studio on Howard 101, an interview series that parodied the television series Inside the Actors Studio with porn actresses, with Christy filling the role of host James Lipton.
Question: Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?
Answer: Following the departure of "Stuttering John" Melendez in February 2004, Stern announced the Get John's Job contest a month later,

Problem: Background: Sonata Arctica is a Finnish power metal band from the town of Kemi, Finland. Created as a hard rock band named Tricky Beans, they later changed to Tricky Means and finally to Sonata Arctica, when they shifted to power metal. The current line-up consists of singer, keyboardist and songwriter Tony Kakko, guitarist Elias Viljanen, bass guitarist Pasi Kauppinen, keyboardist and keytarist Henrik Klingenberg, and drummer Tommy Portimo. All the musicians of the band's history except Portimo also acted as backing vocalists.
Context: The band was founded by Marko Paasikoski (guitar), Jani Liimatainen (guitar) and Tommy Portimo (drums) in Kemi at the end of 1995 (Tony Kakko (vocals) and Pentti Peura (bass) joined in early 1996). Originally named Tricky Beans, they played hard rock rather than the power metal with which they grew to fame. Kakko explained that when he was invited to join the band, Paasikoski said the band was going to play "a mixture of Megadeth and Spin Doctors". During their early career, they recorded three demos which were never sent to a recording label -- Friend 'til the End, Agre Pamppers and PeaceMaker. According to Kakko, the band's first name was based on one of their early songs, which was "about a lady who was tricky and I didn't really know what I was talking about (laughs)". Their first show was about to take place but they were still unnamed, so they had to come up with something.  In 1997 the band changed their name to Tricky Means, and from that point until 1999 their style was thoroughly worked upon and ultimately was drastically changed, acquiring a strong emphasis on the keyboard melodies and relying on an easily distinguishable rhythm line maintained both by the bass and the guitar. Vocalist Tony Kakko developed a clean singing style which relies both on falsetto and tenor voices. Kakko has stated that the change of sound was influenced by fellow Finnish power metal band Stratovarius. At that time, Pentti Peura was fired and Marko Paasikoski left due to a lack of gigging. Two months later the band got signed to a three-album deal with Spinefarm, which left Marko displeased. The band finally changed their name to Sonata Arctica, because they thought they wouldn't be able to sell metal albums with the previous name and also because Spinefarm asked them to do so. "Sonata Arctica" was suggested by a friend of the band: "sonata" for the music and "arctica" for their home (Kemi, in Northern Finland).  In 1997, they recorded a demo entitled FullMoon in Kemi's Tico Tico Studios, which was their first real metal recording. The line-up consisted of vocalist and keyboardist Tony Kakko, guitarist Jani Liimatainen, new bassist Janne Kivilahti (who started first as second guitarist) and drummer Tommy Portimo. The demo was sent to Spinefarm Records by a friend of the band and a recording deal soon followed.
Question: Did they know each other previously?
Answer:
Originally named Tricky Beans, they played hard rock rather than the power metal with which they grew to fame.