Ricky was born in San Antonio, Texas in 1951. He inherited his musical genes from his father who was a part time bass player, his uncles who were full time musicians, and his grandfather who was a composer, arranger, musician and teacher. His grandmother's family on his father's side were also musicians. His mother was a music aficionado. She loved music, and had all kinds of music in the house, hence Ricky grew up listening to all genres of music.

Ricky began taking piano lessons in grade school, but was more inclined to play junior high sports than play the piano. It wasn't until around the age of twelve, that he really took notice of how cool it was to be an entertainer. His mother gave him a healthy dose of Rogers and Hammerstein and George Gershwin, mixed with the M-G-M musicals. He was getting the foundation to what show business was all about. When he was eight years old, he began going to sleep with a transistor radio. Every night it was the same until the time he found a an exclusive R&B radio station. That's when he first heard James Brown, and his life changed forever. Ricky wanted to be a singer, until his cousin convinced him to keep bugging his parents to buy him an organ, so he could play in their garage band. Ricky didn't think the organ was cool until he heard Good Lovin' by the Young Rascals, and the change continued. He got his first organ and his career began.

Ricky began playing at the age of thirteen. The band was called the Zilches, and they played rock & roll, and rhythm & blues. They recorded a cover of a Young Rascals song called "love is a Beautiful Thing". He spent his teen years playing and recording 45's with different S.A. bands. In 1970, he recorded an album with a blues band called Eastwood Review. The band was a quartet that featured a great guitar player named Chris Holzhaus, who was an influence on Ricky's playing as a keyboard player. The album was pitched to labels in N.Y. and Hollywood, but was rejected because they didn't think white guys playing the blues, other than Johnny Winter would sell. So that album stayed on the shelf and the band broke up. The album has become a collector item since being released in 1996, by the original producer. It was found in record stores in Japan and other European countries. Neither Chris nor Ricky knew about its release, until Ricky's brother Bubba, who was on tour with Brave Combo in Japan, found a texas blues compilation that had two of the songs they had recorded on the album. Chris has recently recorded a solo album and still tours, and no one knows what has become of the record producer.

During the 70's Ricky played with various bands that were writing and performing their own music. From rock and roll, to jazz-rock, to funk and r&b; if it was original, he was into it. It was also at this time that he got into musical theater and was part of an original rock opera based on Lewis Carrol's "Alice in Wonderland, called Alice and Wonderland". He also co-wrote music for an original adaptation of Stevenson's "Dr. Jekle and Mr. Hyde", called "The Bloody Mr. Hyde".