Career
Martin was the author of the book The Coming of Tan, which describes his life and his alleged alien abduction. He hosted The Riley Martin Show on the Sirius XM Radio channel Howard 101. He appeared on the The Howard Stern Show and was considered part of the Wack Pack.
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Martin stated on his website that he "was born May 9, 1946 in Mississippi to a family of sharecroppers of African American and Native American descent." He claimed he was first abducted by aliens in November 1953, near the Saint Francis River while living in Arkansas.
Martin characterized his interaction with the aliens as positive. The Biaviian alien O-Qua Tangin Wann (also known as Tan), is listed as the co-author of his book
He asserted that a significant amount of knowledge was uploaded into his brain by the aliens within a matter of minutes, including 144,000 different alien "symbols". Martin claimed that these aliens, flying aboard "The Great mother ship", gave him this knowledge so that he could produce and sell hand-drawings of these symbols, which will allow passage aboard the Mother Ship when the Earth is "transformed" in 2012.
Martin claimed that each symbol is uniquely tuned to its buyer.
Besides his Sirius show, Martin hosted a weekly internet radio show, The Official Riley Martin Radio Show. Martin"s official Facebook fan page and Twitter feed announced his death on January 5, 2016, although it occurred in December 2015. The producer of his radio show told TMZ that Martin had died "a few days before Christmas.".