As he returns to the stage after a five-year hiatus, the musician, radio DJ and community organizer reflects on his music, a decade at WUKY, the Take Back Cheapside movement and more
Between holding down various radio personality roles and being an accomplished performing and recording musician, DeBraun Thomas has been a mainstay in Lexington’s music and culture scene since moving here from Menlo Park, California, in 2009 to study journalism at the University of Kentucky. Ten years into his career at Lexington’s National Public Radio affiliate WUKY 91.3 FM, Thomas plays an integral role both on the airwaves and behind the scenes at the station, where he serves as a producer and as the host of Rock & Roots on weekday mornings and The Crunkadelic Funk Show on Saturday evenings.
During his time in Lexington, Thomas has also been active in the racial justice realm, co-hosted the arts and culture podcast “Advanced D&D” with current Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government councilmember candidate Dan Wu, and co-produced a KET documentary about the 50th anniversary of the March on Frankfort, a 1964 demonstration where over 10,000 Kentuckians marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on the state’s capitol to call for legislation to end discrimination and segregation in the commonwealth.
But beyond his role on the radio, Thomas has been keeping a relatively low profile in recent years following the Take Back Cheapside movement, an effort he headed in 2017 along with fellow activist Russell Allen. While the experience, which led to the removal of two statues of Confederate leaders in downtown Lexington, was gratifying in many ways, it also marked a tumultuous time for Thomas, who hesitated to appear in public for a long time following the statues’ removal due to repeated death threats and harassment. As a musician for whom live performance has long been a central part of his life, Thomas found himself closed off from his biggest creative passion, which led to bouts of depression and PTSD.
But with a handful of high profile live music gigs lined up this summer, Thomas says he has largely been able to put that experience behind him as he prepares to return to the public eye this summer to play live music again for the first time since 2018.
“There are a lot of songs that I have written since 2017 that have really helped me work through the trauma, PTSD and depression I deal with,” Thomas explained.
The first of two large public appearances scheduled for Thomas this month is the Allegro Dance Project production “Headspace,” which takes place at Moondance Amphitheater July 22-24. Thomas has partnered with Allegro Dance Project, an organization that features an outreach program focusing on inclusivity for kids with special needs, several times over the past few years to provide interpretive accompaniment music and loves the change of pace it offers compared to playing his own music.
“I love working with the kids and folks involved with the Allegro Dance Project,” he said. “It requires a completely different approach to music than I take with my own stuff.”
The following week, on July 30, Thomas will reintroduce himself to Lexingtonians through his own music when he performs at Crave Food + Music Festival, a festival produced by this magazine’s parent company taking place at Masterson Station Fairgrounds. The show will mark the first time Thomas has played his own music publicly in town since Moontower Music Festival in August 2017. That festival took place just a week after the city council voted unanimously to remove the statues, during a time when tensions surrounding the issue were arguably at their highest.
The show will include songs from his 2015 rock ’n’ blues album, “All My Colors Are Blind,” as well as newly penned tracks documenting Thomas’ life since Take Back Cheapside, the pandemic and other events of the past five years. Thomas has been recording at Nitrosonic Studios recently with the assistance of fellow musicians Thomas Asher, Daniel Mohler, Severn Edmondson, Dave Farris and Lee Carroll.

DeBraun Thomas moved to Lexington in 2009 to attend the University of Kentucky School of Journalism and pursue a career in radio. In 2012, he got an internship with WUKY 91.3 FM, Lexington’s National Public Radio affiliate, and became a staff member the following year. Photo by Mick Jeffries
Smiley Pete reporter Matt Wickstrom recently spoke with Thomas about returning to the stage, his experience with the Take Back Cheapside movement, his work at WUKY and more.
How did you first get involved in playing music, and what does that creative outlet mean to you? I’ve been playing music professionally since I was 15. I started playing in clubs with my dad’s various bands; he always told me to tell my mom we were playing in ‘restaurants,’ and sometimes I’d wear a hat and sunglasses to blend in. There was a club up where he lived that hosted a blues jam, and when I was in high school, I would take a bus some school nights to go play, and come back the same night to make it to school in the morning. I really credit that time for the experience in performing and also getting to see and be prepared for the business side of the industry. Music has always been part of my life. When I was in elementary school, on the way to school in the morning my mom would always listen to either gospel or KBLX. Sometimes if a song was that good, we’d sit in the car and let it finish before I got out of the car. I was always tapping some rhythm or creating a melody to whatever sound was happening, whether it be a song on the radio or the windshield wipers.
I can say with my whole heart, that if it were not for music, I wouldn’t be here. Music has saved my life more times than I can count, and it has given me so much, so many experiences, and I am truly blessed to get to share that love with others, whether it be on the radio or in performance. I think to a certain extent, sometimes seeing your thoughts written out or hearing the same kind of ideas from other people is really validating.
How did you get into radio and what do you enjoy most about it? I grew up in the Bay Area listening to great radio stations like KBLX, KCSM, KALW, KFOG (RIP), 107.7 The Bone, and I always had a fascination with it. There was a DJ on KBLX named Kevin Brown. One thing I always loved about him was that he referred to himself as ‘your cousin’ and really made you feel like he was sitting right next to you – that feeling has stayed with me for my entire life. When I was in high school, I learned Sly Stone was a radio DJ at KSOL in the ’60’s and it really inspired me to go for it. I started studying broadcasting at the College of San Mateo, and when I got to Lexington, I started at [University of Kentucky college radio station] WRFL, where I created the Crunkadelic Funk Show.
I have always loved the person-to-person connection you get from listening to radio – it’s an intimate form of connection you don’t get in the same way from TV or the internet. I think especially during the pandemic, it has been a responsibility to provide that little bit of normalcy to make a listener’s day feel like it has some structure. I’ve gotten so many messages from listeners expressing how much it means to them to hear me every day, and that means a lot to me. I understood that before the pandemic, but I had a moment of realization with it about three weeks in, and it is a responsibility I don’t take lightly.

Photo by Mick Jeffries
What is your favorite moment from hosting the Crunkadelic Funk Show? That has got be in 2012 when George Clinton & The P-Funk All-Stars came to perform at Buster’s. I had reached out to Garrett Shider, son of the late Garry Shider, for an interview. After the band sound-checked, I went to pick up Garrett and bring him back to WRFL. Michael ‘Clip’ Payne also tagged along, and Garrett wanted me to also pick up his brother Marshall, who was staying at the Red Roof Inn on North Broadway. This just so happened to also be Big Blue Madness, and I was late to my show because I was stuck in traffic, but I got to hear and share some great P-Funk stories with them while also explaining to them that the traffic we were sitting in was for [a basketball practice] not a game. We got to the station, had a great interview and the last song I played was Funkadelic’s ‘Baby, I Owe You Something Good,’ which featured Garry Shider on lead vocals. As we were walking out of the studio, Garrett and Marshall were harmonizing to their dad’s vocals, and I felt honored to witness such an incredible moment. Later that night I ended up in a haunted maze with other members of Funkadelic, and I swear to you, even today I still can’t believe that happened. I guess that part is a story for another time.
Can you tell me about some of the fallout you experienced following the Take Back Cheapside movement? I had to hire a security detail, and I remember riding around with them on the day of the city council meeting that decided the fate of the statues at Cheapside Park and hearing about some very legitimate threats on my own life. To protect myself, I attempted to track down a bulletproof vest to wear to the council meeting but didn’t have any luck in finding one. It blew my mind how easy it was, and still is, for people to legally buy assault weapons, yet I couldn’t get a bulletproof vest to protect my own life.As far as the movement itself goes, I’ve had so many people in my life tell me that I couldn’t do something or shouldn’t bother wasting my time. With Take Back Cheapside, that was another opportunity to prove them wrong. Despite the difficulties, it was incredible watching our city come together. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it as united, maybe with the exception of the 2020 protests. Because of it, I refuse to believe that anything is impossible.
What did the experience helping lead the movement teach you about community organizing? I think of it like [the animated television series] ‘Voltron,’ where you have five different robots that join together to make Voltron, Defender of the Universe. It only works with all five pieces though. One person may be a foot, someone the head and another an arm, but if you don’t have all five together then there’s no Voltron. That’s been my approach to community organizing, whether it be with Take Back Cheapside, fund drives at WUKY or my work with the Allegro Dance Project. Most people think you need a superpower like great public speaking skills, but there’s so much more to enacting change. Protests generate attention, but the best way to create change is to have people going to meetings and helping to organize. Change doesn’t happen overnight, and it certainly doesn’t happen if you don’t show up.

Thomas has been playing music since the age of 15, when he played alongside his father at gigs in the Bay Area, where he was raised. Photo by Mick Jeffries