LOUISVILLE, Ky (WDRB)—In our fast paced world, with a million distractions, sometimes it's tough to notice the small things that make life beautiful.
Along Brownsboro Road, shoppers and drivers can't ignore a musician with some serious skills. “There's nothing he can't play,” said one passerby.
“He just seems to do it for the love of doing it,” added Roberta Wilson.
His name is Wayne Thomas. Maybe you know him as the “Clifton sax guy.”
A few times a week, a little more when it's nice out or around the holidays, Thomas is at his post between the Clifton Kroger and Speedway, playing his heart out.
“I don't feel like I'm here,” Thomas said. “I feel like I'm a little bit closer to heaven."
Wayne Thomas isn't getting rich playing his saxophone along Brownsboro Road, but he's putting food on his table, after years of financial and health problems.
The melodies draw Louisville listeners in, especially the ladies. “I've been given a lot of addresses and phone numbers,” he said.
His well known tunes can also make him a bit of a target. “I've been mooned a lot,” Thomas said
Some skin is far from adversity for Thomas. He's seen the hardest of what life can dish out. “After the death of my mother, I spiraled all the way down into depression,” Thomas said. “She was the only person I was really close with."
Alcoholism and homelessness would follow. "I hit rock bottom. I wanted to kill myself,” Thomas said.
He tried to get past his problems by taking his talents out west, and attempting to compose the kind of comeback story every musician dreams about. “I wanted a band to pick me up,” he said.
Somehow though he always found himself back out on the streets. Illness finally brought him back to Louisville. “I got really sick,”Thomas explained. “I didn't know what was wrong with me."
Wayne Thomas isn't getting rich playing his saxophone along Brownsboro Road, but he's putting food on his table, after years of financial and health problems.
It was diabetes. The diagnosis was a blessing in some ways. Therapy, medicine, and help with housing back in his hometown, along with that instrument his beloved mom introduced him to, reset the tone of his life.
“The sax helps a lot. It's a friend that never leaves me,” Thomas said.
The tips he’s getting on Brownsboro, aren't making him rich, but are keeping food on the table, and in the meantime delighting his neighbors.
“Somebody said, ‘you know you make the neighborhood fun and happy,’” Thomas explained.
Wayne Thomas is a positive force, when the song could've finished so much differently. A once struggling musician finally found the stage and recognition he's always deserved in Clifton.
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