Standing In The Fire

By Richard Blake Thomas

“Standing In The Fire” is the autobiography of former Rev Theory lead guitarist Richard Thomas, better known by his stage name “Rikki Lixx”.
Richard Thomas is now a solo Christian recording artist with many albums and singles available worldwide. Richard Thomas aka Rikki Lixx opens up in his new autobiography &ldquo

• Language: English
• Publisher: Deus Crux Publishing
• Release date: May 8, 2017
• ISBN: 9780692900499

Richard Blake Thomas

http://www.richardthomasmusic.net

Book preview

Standing In The Fire

Copyright © 2017 by Richard B Thomas

www.richardthomasmusic.net

All rights reserved. Published 2017

Published by Deus Crux Publishing

For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Deus Crux Publishing at [e-mail]

Autobiography lived and written by: Richard Thomas

Cover design and book layout by: Philip Toups

Editors: Anthony Younes and Richard Thomas

Transcribers: Randy E. Henderson and Richard Thomas

All rights reserved. Copyright 2017 by Richard B Thomas

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording without prior written permission from Richard Thomas.

STANDING IN THE FIRE

ISBN # 978-0-692-89074-5

ISBN # 978-0-692-90049-9 (e-book)

Printed Worldwide

www.richardthomasmusic.net

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

PHOTO COLLECTION

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ONE

Music was a part of my family on both sides. My great grandfather Thomas was an opera singer and my great grandmother on my Mom’s side could watch an opera, then go home and play everything she heard on the piano by ear. Although musical talent runs throughout both sides of my family, Thomas and Gholson, I was the only one to take things to a professional level. When I was in the second grade and heard Guns N’ Roses’ album Appetite For Destruction, I knew right then and there that I wanted to be a rock star. I idolized Slash to the point that I wanted to be just like him. I grew up in a small, preppy town so my G’N’R T-shirts and ripped jeans didn’t go over too well. Although being labeled one of the bad kids at a young age, things always seemed to work out. I think part of it was that although my rocker friends and I did our own thing, people seemed to have a general respect for our musical talent. Also, everyone was afraid of my Dad. But seriously, most of the time I got away with murder because I was Andy Thomas’s son. Those that knew him knew that he was a great guy but if you messed with his kids, he would make your life difficult to say the least.

I was born April 15th, 1981 in Abington Hospital in Abington, Pennsylvania, about an hour away from Philadelphia to my mother, Freya Gholson, and my father, Andrew Thomas. We were a poor family living in a very rich trust fund family town. My father started his own construction company called Thomas Services. He did his very best to stay afloat, keep food on the table, and get our bills paid. My parents would argue a lot, usually about money (the evil spirit called mammon). I have fragmented memories from those days. For example, I remember being in my car seat; I couldn’t have been more than four or five years old. My parents were in a heated argument and I remember my Dad taking the Lord’s Name in vain. He said, Jesus Christ, very loud. All I remember thinking of was a spoon of rice. I guess Christ made me think of rice for some reason. And of course I had no idea Jesus Christ was the Son of God. In fact, I didn’t know Jesus was the way to Heaven until I was about thirty years old, despite the fact that I went to a church school. Something is very wrong about that but we’ll get to that later.

Anyway, during that time and age my siblings Stephen, Bryan, Natalie, and Brenndan hadn’t been born yet. It was just my older brother, Michael, Melissa who is the oldest of my two sisters, and me. When my parents’ arguing would get too heated we were taken over to my grandparents’ house on my Mom’s side; Commander Daniel Harrison Gholson and Gwladys Hicks Gholson, who we called Baba’ and Umpapa’. When my older brother Michael was a baby he tried to say Grandma, but it sounded like Baba’, so it was and still is called Baba’s House. Even my extended family, friends and friends of friends call my grandmother Baba’. It just kind of stuck I guess.

Baba’ was like a second mother to me. I was basically raised in Baba’s house. Most of my bands practiced there. My recording studio was kept there while touring strong for those seven years. And even now as I write this I am sitting in my studio in Baba’s house where I live and help to take care of her. My grandfather, Umpapa’, was a commander fighter pilot in the Navy. He flew towards the end of the Korean War and also the Vietnam War. He would always make it back to the aircraft carrier totally unharmed with his plane full of bullet holes and shrapnel, almost inoperative. That’s how he got the name The Flack Collector. He died four years ago while I was on tour. I really miss Umpapa’. He was a true American Hero and will be missed always.

My parents officially divorced when I was 12 years old, but the enemy had his deceptive grip on them well before that. Although we lived in the same house, my Mom and Dad were separated several years before Dad left. I was 11 years old when my Dad left for Colorado. He was abandoned spiritually so he left us physically. Right or wrong, it didn’t matter. None of us had Christ in our hearts so it was a demonic circus regardless. I can’t speak for my brothers and sisters but it didn’t seem to affect me. I was too preoccupied with my music.

While in Denver, CO my Dad remarried and had a son, Brenndan Thomas, making him number seven in the Thomas sibling lot; five boys and two girls, in order from eldest to youngest: Michael, Myself, Melissa, Stephen, Bryan, Natalie (Bry and Natty are twins), and my half-brother Brenndan. Dad leaving left my mother to struggle. She had several jobs while going to school to become a nurse and was living on welfare. It really didn’t affect me either way because I was so focused on practicing guitar and writing my music. I also had all the freedom in the world to do whatever I wanted because my mother was too busy with work and raising my younger siblings. There was absolutely no authority over me. However, it did affect my brothers and sisters. I can’t speak for them but I know on some level they were hurt by the whole situation. And thinking back, it was probably part of the reason I self-medicated, although at the time I thought I was just having fun and doing what my rock star idols did. The sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll started shortly after I started playing guitar at age ten.

It’s important that I say to others going through a divorce or children living in a broken home that the reason things went out of whack with my parents’ marriage was because they didn’t have Christ in their hearts. They weren’t focusing on Jesus for all things. It’s not their fault. The church we grew up in didn’t teach us the truth, and the truth is that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. God designed marriage to be like a triangle. Marriage is between a man, a woman, and Jesus Christ, Jesus being the pinnacle of the triangle with the man and woman looking up toward Christ for all things. Anything and everything is possible when you have Christ in your heart, and I pray that anyone reading this who is going through a hard time prays the Sinner’s Prayer, giving their life to The Lord. I wish there was someone there back then who could have told me the truth. It would have saved me a whole lot of hell on earth.

FREYA GHOLSON

At six years old, we were sitting on a swing and Rick pointed to a couple far away and said, You know those people, Mom? Do you see their body language? I think one of them is hurting. He was a sensitive person even then at such a young age. Ricky was the second born of six kids and helped take care of the younger ones.

We lived in a blue collar household where his father had a general construction company and I didn’t work; I was a stay at home mom. Though Christmases were really special and we had a lot of fun, we were on edge most of the time. We all didn’t know what the next step was going to be. It had made Rick insecure, anxious, and stressed to the max, to the point where he would have a rough time in the first grade and had to eventually repeat it. Though in the second grade, his teacher fell in love with him and took him under her wing. He was so smart and flew by after that, even having the lead in the play Peter Rabbit.

He was so little in the fourth grade when he and his brother, Mike, started Twilight’s Misery. They had learned Sweet Child o’ Mine and Rick was off from there. He became obsessed and would play and practice all of the time. I was a single mom by that point, so I focused on keeping the house and keeping food on the table. I didn’t realize Rick had a problem. He would only hang out with a small group of boys who all drank and did drugs at a place they called the Benches at Burrow Park.

I had never been a drinker myself, but he would secretly get all the alcohol he wanted at his grandparent’s house. It was when Rick had overdosed on huffing glue and Nyquil gel caps that I realized something was wrong. The Twilight’s Misery guys and I were in the emergency room and I was so in shock. I thought this was a sign for him that he needed to calm down from it all.

Rick was young when he really started to get serious and realized that music was what he wanted to do with his life. We were pretty poor so anything Rick wanted to do he worked at. He was quiet and got the job done; didn’t think about it, just did it. He was 14 years old when he went to a classical guitar music school in Miami for the summer. And I would drive him multiple times to the Berkley School in Boston. Everything Rick did, he was so sufficient. He would be ten minutes early everywhere he went. He auditioned for CAPA during the middle of his sophomore year and got in. While going to CAPA he was accepted to attend the Governor’s School in Pennsylvania for most of the summer.

After he auditioned with Danny to be in Operator, they obviously knew that he was their guy. I was so excited for him. I knew of his drinking then, only not how bad it was. He would send me his money so his bills could get paid, and since my husband was his accountant he’d save every receipt. The money he had spent on alcohol, coffee, and cigarettes was…wow. And then when it came to Rev Theory, it really became clear to me how bad the problem was. We’d have conversations and there’d be long pauses, and he would get irritated with me when he felt interrupted. His brain was taking so long to process questions. I tried to approach him on it and convince him to drink healthier drinks like green tea.

From then on I had constant dreams and fears of him overdosing and dying. When it did happen and he overdosed in his studio, his younger brother, Stephen, had went in and immediately called 911 after seeing all kinds of pill bottles scattered on the floor not knowing what all he took. After seeing them put him in the ambulance and take him to the hospital, I felt there was hope and for the first time in a long time I actually slept. After rehab he was isolated a bit and wasn’t happy at first, but he wasn’t medicating himself anymore.

About a year later he pulled himself back. He had so many temptations and demons to overcome, but it took him accepting Christ into his heart for that to actually happen. Richard is the most giving, nurturing, and caring human being that would do anything for anybody. He had sent me the Sinner’s Prayer and it was so powerful that I cried and cried. Richard was also my inspiration to turn to Jesus and there’s nothing like feeling the strength of the Lord in your life.

As far as school went, I just didn’t see the point and thought it was a waste of time. It wasn’t that I was a bad kid. I just already knew exactly what I wanted to do for the rest of my life and I was already working towards it before my teen years. Of course some people need school; I just wasn’t one of them. When I was in first grade, I would get into screaming matches with my mother trying not to go. I had the worst anxiety about going to school. It was so bad that I honestly felt that death would be a better option. I missed so many days that I had to repeat first grade, but that wasn’t a bad thing because being a little older made things a bit easier and it also helped with my anxiety issues. But I’d say the best part about repeating first grade was that if I hadn’t, I never would have met my two best friends, Nick and Dean aka Fish and Torch. You’d have to ask Dean why we call