Ahem.

The truth is that "England" Dan Seals is actually living in Hendersonville, TN (just outside of Nashville) and has never once lived anywhere close to Nova Scotia. Furthermore, the moniker "England" was adopted in 1970, just before the release of their first hit (can't recall which one it was off-hand, but I'll get to that later). The reason he chose "England Dan" was for nothing simpler than the fact that it sounded "cool" and he'd always wanted to see England (the country). Because of his exploits with the band, he eventually went on to see England at least three times before the band broke up in 1980. Dan Seals has since gotten involved with the country music industry as a recording artist/songwriter. He has had nine #1 hits on the country charts, recorded 11 albums and is still on the road (even as I type this). He dropped "England" when he started his country music career.

John "Ford" Coley is living in Houston, TX with his daughter Angela. After the breakup of the band, John went on to try his hand at acting for a few years. To the best of my knowledge, he has had two small roles in the movie industry before giving it up and just enjoying a mild retirement from the entertainment industry entirely. He chose the fake middle name "Ford" as his stage name because that was the first type of vehicle he ever owned.

Dan Seals and John Coley first met in high school, in Dallas, TX. They were both working in a small Texas band called "Southwest F.O.B.", which went on to win the Texas State Battle of the Bands in 1968. The band put out one album, which enjoyed a mild if brief success on the radio circuit. Apparently, only Dan and John had the stomach for living on the road, with the other band members growing tired of that lifestyle in short order. When Southwest F.O.B. broke up in 1969, Dan and John didn't immediately decide to strike out on their own.

The thing that had drawn them back together was somewhat of a strange tale. Dan's brother, Jim Seals (of Seals and Crofts fame), had fallen in with a new religion out in Los Angeles, California, the Baha'i Faith. Dan and the rest of his family had no idea what this odd religion was about, but when word got around that the Baha'is were claiming that Christ has returned, well, Dan decided that his older brother had fallen in with a bad cult, which had probably brainwashed Jim, and someone's soul was in trouble. Dan sent his wife, first-born son and mother out to L.A. ahead of him while Dan drove from Dallas to L.A. in a '68 VW Bug. During this sojourn, Dan wrote his first song which was much later released during the apex of his country music career. When Dan finally reached L.A. to talk his brother out of this Baha'i nonsense, some three days after his wife, mother and son had already gotten there (under the pretenses of softening Jim up before the real showdown), Dan arrived only to find that he was faced with saving his entire family from this strange religion.

Three days later, after a serious and thorough investigation of the religion in question, Dan Seals himself became a Baha'i.

He stayed there for a few weeks, getting to know the Baha'i community in L.A. and ended up meeting his future manager/producer, Susan Joseph. Mrs. Joseph (then, she has since divorced) listened to Southwest F.O.B.'s first and only album, liked Dan and John's singing style and natural harmonics and suggested that the duo try to make it on their own. Dan immediately called John Coley, who was still in Dallas and completely unaware of what was going on, and encouraged John to come out to L.A. to record their first album as a duo act.

The rest will come later, but this should suffice as a decent primer of the true events leading up to the start of this, England Dan and John Ford Coley.

Minor note: I am Dan Seals' (second) son. Not only do I know the information intimately, I lived it.

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