Special to The Roanoke Times

Ricky Stallings started playing heavy metal music when he was 11. He learned to play five instruments and wrote his own songs. So when a man who said he was an agent approached Stallings and his band and told them they could have a lucrative recording career in Atlanta, he and his friends jumped at the chance.

"He had everything," Stallings said, shaking his head as he recalled the encounter. "The big car, the cigar, everything."

But when they got there, there was no record deal, and Stallings said his bandmates didn't want to work the long hours required to make it in the music business. He spent the next 15 years traveling the country, playing in bars and clubs and recording his songs in hope of someday landing a record deal.

All along, Stallings, 44, knew that someday, the life he enjoyed would change, but he tried not to think about it.

"I never expected how it was going to be. I could have planned better for this, but it just sneaks up on you."

When Stallings was 13, he was diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis, a type of arthritis that causes the vertebrae in the spine to fuse. Some patients end up bent nearly double and in chronic pain.

Stallings was able to work steadily until about 10 years ago. He lived in his hometown, Martinsville, was married and made his living giving music lessons. Then his back began to bother him. Working exhausted him, and often, he couldn't sleep for three or four nights in a row because the pain kept him awake.

For the first five years after he had to stop working, his wife supported them both, and Stallings worked when he could. But five years ago, they divorced, and he was on his own.

A year later, he was so down on his luck that he left Martinsville and came to Roanoke, where he lived at the Roanoke Rescue Mission.

He eventually went back to Martinsville but returned to Roanoke in April and has been living "back and forth" among various shelters and with friends ever since.

"I became homeless," he said. "I'm having a hard time coming off the streets."

His family in Martinsville hasn't been able to assist him, either.

"They're financially strapped. My dad has helped and helped so much."

This summer, he visited Roanoke Area Ministries for help with a prescription and a clinic visit. He received a grant through RAM's Emergency Financial Assistance program, which is supported by The Roanoke Times' Good Neighbors Fund. RAM also paid to replace his identification card, which he needs to apply for Social Security Disability benefits and subsidized housing. Stallings takes five medications, which cost $350 to $375 a month.

While he was at RAM, Stallings also signed up for the agency's employment program and has tried to work at landscaping and painting, but he said one day does him in. So he volunteers around the agency's day shelter, working at the front desk and keeping the bathrooms clean.

"I hate to sit idle."

Stallings said he would like to resume giving music lessons, but he has pawned all of his instruments. He'd also like to sell some of his songs, "but it's hard to do it when you're living on the streets."

Above all, Stallings wants to have a home before the cold weather sets in.

"I don't think I could survive winter out there."

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