LVBST radio show is the only show that “Gets Personal with the Stars.”įive-time Grammy® Award winning hitmaker BJ Thomas will perform at the Suncoast Showroom. Singer BJ Thomas guests on “Las Vegas Backstage Talk” Radio Show with Comedian Michele LaFong. It's always been an important part of my emotions.BJ Thomas, Jackie ‘The Joke Man’ Martling-LV Backstage Talk w/Comedian Michele LaFong But I had that little piece of lightning from that song. 'What a road block and heartbreak and times of failure these addictions have caused me. When you open yourself up to drugs and alcohol at such a young age it becomes something you have to deal with the rest of your life,' he told the Huffington Post in 2014. 'I was raised in a fairly dysfunctional situation and I went through years of intense alcoholism and drug addiction so the song was always a touchstone for me. He enjoyed Ernest Tubbs, Hank Williams and other country performers his parents liked, but on his own he was inspired by the soul and rhythm and blues singers he heard on the radio or saw on stage, notably Jackie Wilson, whose hit ballad 'To Be Loved' Thomas later covered and adopted as a kind of guide to his life. By his teens, he was singing in church and had joined a local rock band, the Triumphs, whom he would stay with into his 20s. because so many Little League teammates also were named Billy Joe. Phoenix guitarist Tommy Connell: Remembered as 'one of the best' by longtime bandmate Jon Rauhouseīesides music, Thomas loved baseball as a kid and started calling himself B.J. Jenkins, later famous for the million-selling 'Left Behind' religious novels written with Tim LaHaye. He and his wife worked on the 1982 memoir 'In Tune: Finding How Good Life Can Be.' His book 'Home Where I Belong' came out in 1978 and was co-authored by Jerry B.

Thomas married Richardson in 1968, and had three daughters: Paige, Nora and Erin. He had planned to record in 2020 in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, but the sessions were delayed because of the pandemic. Recent recordings included 'Living Room Music,' featuring cameos from Lyle Lovett, Vince Gill and Richard Marx. He also acted in a handful of movies, including 'Jory' and 'Jake's Corner' and toured often. 1 songs as 'Whatever Happened to Old-Fashioned Love' and 'New Looks from an Old Lover.' In the late 1970s and early '80s, he was also a top gospel and inspirational singer, winning two Dove awards and five Grammys, including a Grammy in 1979 for best gospel performance for 'The Lord's Prayer.'įans of the 1980s sitcom 'Growing Pains' heard him as the singer of the show's theme song. Thomas had few pop hits after the mid-1970s, but he continued to score on the country charts with such No. 'I was at the bottom with my addictions and my problems,' he said in 2020 on 'The Debby Campbell Goodtime Show.' He cited a 'spiritual awakening,' shared with his wife, Gloria Richardson, with helping him to get clean. Grammy winner: Thomas, with hits like 'Hooked on a Feeling,' has died of cancer 2 months after diagnosis 1 with pop, adult contemporary and country listeners in 1976 with '(Hey Won't You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song.' The same year, his 'Home Where I Belong' became one of the first gospel albums to be certified platinum for selling more than 1 million copies. Thomas, who announced in March he had been diagnosed with lung cancer, died from complications of the disease Saturday at his home in Arlington, Texas, his publicist Jeremy Westby said in a statement.Ī Hugo, Oklahoma-native who grew up in Houston, Billy Joe Thomas broke through in 1966 with a gospel-styled cover of Hank Williams' 'I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry' and went on to sell millions of records and have dozens of hits across genres.

Thomas, the Grammy-winning singer who enjoyed success on the pop, country and gospel charts with such hits as 'I Just Can't Help Believing,' 'Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head' and 'Hooked on a Feeling,' has died.

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