Ricks was born and grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, playing trumpet as a child.
He worked as a booking manager for the Second Fret Coffee House in Philadelphia from 1960-1966, coming into contact with many key figures in the blues revival, including Son House, Lightnin' Hopkins, Libba Cotten, Jesse Fuller, Mance Lipscomb, and Lonnie Johnson.
After returning to the U.S. briefly to do field work in Arkansas for the Smithsonian Institution, he moved to Europe in 1971.
He suffered a stroke that year, and a benefit concert featuring Shemekia Copeland and David Bromberg was held in the US to help pay his medical bills.
Every year in the first week of August, eminent names of national, European and global blues musicians assemble in Kastav, Croatia, to honour Ricks influence.