King Lizzard

King Lizzard (born Randall James Colmus ) is an American entertainer born June 2, 1957 in Detroit, Michigan currently living in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Biography
Early life 1957-1977
King Lizzard was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, the city Rolling Stone magazine calls "the Liverpool of America, a gritty industrial city producing hard, loud rock since the sixties." King is only child of entertainer Johnny Colmus (who worked with and wrote songs for Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn and Ernest Tubb, among others, from 1955-1975, and Jean Sackman, a professional hairdresser. His mother's side of the family were Polish/German Jews who converted to Catholicism, changing their name from Sackman to Benson during World War II. His father's side of the family are Latter Day Saint Mormons. His parents divorced when he was eighteen months old.
King had a half-brother by his father's next marriage, who was born with spina bifida, in 1967 and died in 1983 from complications of the disease. His mother remarried once, but that marriage lasted only two months. His mother was more like his big sister than his mother, only having 17-years difference between them. His mother also had emotional problems that sent her to the hospital on several occasions, leaving him to be raised by his maternal grandparents.
The constant battles in his family made King retreat into a world of movies and music, where he would lock himself in his room and write stories and songs. He taught himself piano in his aunt's basement by the time he was seven.
In 1962 he was hit by a car while riding a bicycle, which broke numerous bones and left him with a permanent deformity of the left hip. Medical procedures being primitive, the only thing doctors could do was repair the hip with a metal pin. His grandmother vetoed that procedure as a neighbor's granddaughter had the same procedure done and quickly lost the use of her leg and the ability to walk. King was home tutored and unable to leave a wheelchair until he was 11-years-old (1968).
In 1972 his grandfather retired from construction and they were set to move to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. On an initial visit, they got tangled with Hurricane Agnes. Ruling that out, his grandparents were urged by his older cousin, Lowell Thomas, to move to San Diego, California, which they did. Upon arriving to California King was bitten by the acting bug and took Drama and theatre production classes at James Madison High School, where he acted in a one act play, Edward Albee's the Zoo Story, that won statewide awards, and earned him a fully paid college scholarship. King attended San Diego Mesa College, where he became friends with Annette Bening, Tim Thomerson and Ned Bellamy and gained degrees and honors in Film and Theatre Production from San Diego State University. Because of his deformity King regularly played evil characters on stage, including Iago in Othello and Faust in Marlowe's Dr. Faustus. He was set to go to USC film school, but the death of his grandmother and subsequent homelessness changed everything.
Along with his love for theatre, hoping to become a screenwriter, he was also developing a music passion which was sparked by his college mounting an elaborate production of Jesus Christ Superstar. His love for classical music became a love for hard rock and roll.
He received his first guitar as a high school graduation present from his mother. In 1976 his maternal grandmother bought him a Univox electric guitar where he formed a band, Grand Cross Ltd, with some friends. Soon after he secretly put a $3,000 Gibson Les Paul on layaway at a neightborhood music store. When his grandmother died and he was forced to live in a mission in San Diego for two months the music store allowed him to get out of the layaway and buy what money he'd applied, which ended up being a 1962 Gibson EB-3 electric bass guitar. His jackhammer style of bass playing and Ted Nugent-like stage antics quickly earned him recognition and awards from radio station KGB-FM. He began playing professional music in 1977, his influences in music coming from Black Sabbath, Alice Cooper and Kiss, while his guitar playing was heavily influenced by Jimmy Page and Frank Marino of Mahogany Rush.
Early bands include Whitewater, Sure, and Anti. In 1978, after getting a job at Robinson's department store and moving out of the mission shelter he lived in the same low-rent apartment building as a young San Diego band called Mickey Ratt, where he jammed with them at parties and at various clubs. The band would later move to Los Angeles and become Ratt.
The Famous Years 1977-1997
In 1979 King met his first wife while at work.
While continuing to work a day job, in 1981 King formed a band called Legacy, being the bassist and co-songwriter. Legacy became a hit with the San Diego crowds, playing up to seven nights a week at establishments such as the Distillery, Bacchanal, Trojan Horse and Cunningham's.
Legacy was signed to a major label, and from 1981-1983 opened for such headliner acts as Cheap Trick, Molly Hatchet, Heart and Chuck Berry, playing in arenas and large stadium crowds. Because of internal problems, they were unable to complete their first album release and disbanded under hostility and lawsuits. The original band members were replaced, one-by-one, by label studio musicians until all original members were eventually phased out. The first phase of replacements produced phenomenal music, although the band was losing its identity and soul. In the end the label owned the name and original music. The studio band released one album, which failed to break the top 200 charts.
At that time King met what would be his second wife who became pregnant while King was still with his first wife. He and his first wife split and king immediately married and had a daughter. The daughter was born with a kidney condition and died at 26 months of age. The emotional trauma caused the two to split. King moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in motion pictures.
In 1986, at the suggestion of a co-worker, he attended a ceremony at the Nichiren Shoshu temple in San Bernardino, California. Shortly afterwards King received the Gohonzon from the Sokka Gakkai International and has been a practicing Buddhist ever since, alongside Tina Turner, John Astin and Patrick Duffy out of the North Hollywood chapter.
From 1987-1993 he did extra work on several feature films, including "Terminator 2," "Soldier's Fortune" and "Cartel."
In 1989 King was re-united with his estranged father whom he hadn't seen in 30 years.
In 1994 King weathered sitting on top of Northridge during the great Northridge quake. It was also the year his mother became terminally ill with lung cancer. He put everything on hold for ten months to care for her.
When she died in July, 1995, he went back to doing Unit Production Manager work for two low budget films, Deadster and Terror in Tick Canyon.
Running out of money and starving, he was forced to move to Las Vegas in 1997.
Las Vegas Years 1997-Current
In 1997 King moved to Las Vegas where he lived with his father and stepmother for a few months. He got work on the loading docks of Macy's and began writing and recording music in his father's home recording studio. He originally was going to use the stage name Lord Randall, then Crush Groove, but upon talking to a friend from Los Angeles who chided him about becoming a lounge lizard, King replied, "But I'll be the King Lounge Lizard." He later became King Lounge Lizzard, with double z's (like ZZ Top or Ozzy), later becoming K.L. Lizzard, then finally dropping the "Lounge" to become King Lizzard around 1999.
In 1997-1999 he was the songwriter/ keyboardist for the techno-pop band "Living Karma." The band featured dynamic singer Misty Bennetts. The band also had Frankie Valli impersonator Mark Maynard on vocals and bass, and Rick Bell on guitar. In June 1998 they recorded "The Sin City Symphony" at the Las Vegas Recording studio near Boulder Station Casino.
Living Karma, with its revolving door of personnel, played at Caesar's Palace, Imperial Palace and Palace Station. Their last show was at the Old Boston, where technical and audio problems made Bennetts walk off stage in the middle of the performance. Bennetts and King never played together nor even talked after that. Bennetts died in a fire in June 2004, suicide was suspected by Metro police.
From 1999-2002 his vision got darker and louder with the Progressive Metal "King Lizzard's Hearts of Darkness Band." King took over playing lead and rhythm guitar, using a Gibson Les Paul Florentine and a 1984 Ibanez Destroyer (which he got from a pawn shop in Henderson). The Hearts of Darkness Band played at all the major clubs in Vegas and did a concert at the Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel on March 3, 2002. Because of King's penchant for perfection and artistic differences the band went through numerous personnel changes.
In 2001, two days after the tragic 9/11, King launched a radio show on LVRocks Radio called "Inside Sin City" where he would interview Vegas performers, getting to be friends with such Vegas personalities as Buffalo Jim Barrier, Dr. Naughty, The Original Drifters, The Coasters, The Amazing Jonathon and the Snakebabe. He was also awarded the title of "Las Vegas' Godfather of Metal." In July 2001 he married photographer Lana Gunn whom he met in an AOL chatroom in 1999. She became the Queen Lizzard and they are still together. In 2002 King launched the first of what he hoped would be annual all-night music and comedy events called LizzardFest, to be sponsored by LVRocks. After complications with venue, talent line-up and low turn out, he quit his radio show. He was called back to host a local music show on LVRocks called "Sounds of Sin." He left a year later after artistic differences with his co-host and has yet to return to radio.
King had another LizzardFest in October 2003. Again, with venue, artist and turn-out problems. No more LizzardFests were mounted after 2003.
His last live concert was at The Beach on March 28, 2004, where he played with the LVRockers, which consisted of Pieter Holland and Lez Warner (former drummer for The Cult). In May 2004 he became an ordained minister and later was awarded Honorary Doctrates of Theology and Metaphysics for his journal "The Book of Creation" (Not Published).
In March 2007 he had another accident which re-broke his hip. In December 2007 he had a total hip replacement with titanium implants, which corrected his life-long deformity.
He currently works for the Federal Government, where he has met many distinguished visitors from foreign countries, including Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Turkey and Israel. Radio stations continue to play "I'm Stoned" and "The Patient in Room 666." He has a website, a fansite with several thousand members and continues to write and record music.
Discography
Albums
*The Sin City Symphony (1998)
*The Patient in Room 666 (2003)
*King Lizzard...and friends (2006)
*The Essential King Lizzard Vol. 2 (2009)
*The Return of the Patient in Room 666 (2010)
Singles
*One of Thousands (1981)
*The Patient in Room 666 (1981/1999)
*Living Karma (1998)
*I'm Stoned (1999)

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