Mickey Thomas actually helped build the Kahle Community Center on rock ‘n’ roll.

From 1997 through 2000 Thomas headlined late-summer concerts at Kahle’s soccer field, raising more than $50,000. The funds helped build a gym, fitness area, indoor playground and indoor track as Phase 2 of the Kahle project, according to Vicki Schussell, the recreation supervisor. A concert in 2001 went to Phase 3, which would include a swimming pool.

Thomas lived on Kingsbury Grade from 1991 to 2005. Now a resident of Palm Springs, Thomas returns to Stateline for a concert Saturday, Feb. 3 at Harrah’s Lake Tahoe.

As was the case during a November concert in Reno, plenty of Thomas’ friends and family will be present.

The Tahoe community didn’t treat Thomas like a rock star.

“Here in town everyone knew him as a dad,” said Janice Shaw, who lived across the street from Thomas. “He is a pretty unpretentious guy.”

So unpretentious that Shaw, Kahle’s recreation leader, felt comfortable enough to go over to his house and tell him of her idea of a “Park-stock” concert, a Stateline version of Woodstock.

“He said he’d love to,” said Shaw, whose son, Elliott was a best friend of Mickey and Sarah Thomas’ daughter, Taylor. The two even went to the junior prom together.

Unlike massive tourist events like Fourth of July and the Celebrity Golf Championship, the Kahle concerts were community affairs, with 1,300 to 1,800 attending. After one show, a Rite of Passage volunteer clean-up crew told Kahle staff there wasn’t anything left to clean up.

“Mickey was really nervous before the shows,” Shaw said. “He said he’s never played before a group where he felt that he knew everybody.”

Shaw said Thomas donated his services and paid the band out of his own pocket. Stateline casinos donated rooms and other services, she said.

At the age of 8, Taylor began singing in the concerts, taking Starship’s role of Grace Slick. This spring she will enroll in a London acting school.

The things Thomas misses most about Tahoe are boat trips across the lake and skiing and swimming with his family, he said. His favorite swimming spot was Skunk Harbor.

As a native of Cairo, Ga., it’s not surprising he preferred Tahoe in the summertime. Now he’s in a full-time warm-weather climate in a community where he is treated like a regular resident, not a celebrity.

“Everybody keeps it low key up (in Tahoe),” he said. “It’s kind of like that in the desert too.”

“We built this city on rock ‘n’ roll.”

– Mickey Thomas from Starship’s big hit from the 1980s