History | rikfox

Early life

Fox was born in Amityville, New York, on Long Island, and raised in the Polish neighborhood of Greenpoint, Brooklyn. While in high school, Fox was interested in rock music andphotography, choosing as his subjects the flashy personalities of the New York glam scene of the early 1970s. He photographed the New York Dolls and KISS among many others, performing on the N.Y. city club scene at such famous locales as Max's Kansas City and CBGB, clubs he was later to perform in also with a group he joined during the height of the N.Y. club scene, The Martian Rock Band. During this period, he dated a younger sister of original KISS drummer Peter Criss. Fox and Criss became friends and Fox witnessed the formation of legendary rock band KISS from the very beginning, including the addition of lead guitarist Ace Frehley. During his formative club band years, after establishing himself on the 'scene', with The Martian Rock Band and performing at the famed NYC club Max's Kansas City, in 1976, Fox found himself joining a well-established New Jersey glam cover band making the rounds namedVIRGIN. VIRGIN eventually became known as SIN. From the bands' Bio; "SIN was originally formed in New York/New Jersey in 1976 -77, coming out of the ashes of New Jersey club circuit bands VIRGIN and LUST, with the name SIN first being coined by bassist Rik Fox, bringing with him, drummer Basil Stanley (Stan Bassel from Long island), joining Ian Criss and Keith (Vinny Matthews) Starz. In this line-up the band performed until 1978-79, when Criss left to join cover band Angelface. Fox retained the rights to the name SIN and after moving to L.A. in 1982 to join and name the heavy metal band W.A.S.P.. After departing W.A.S.P., Fox rehearsed for a short time with both Hellion and Warlord, eventually joining Steeler for one album and after leaving Steeler, with now-proven club-drawing power, reformed two Los Angeles versions of SIN once again."

The E. Walker Band was a six-night a week ‘day-job’ for Rik Fox, after being referred to the band in late 1979-early 1980, who were looking to replace # 6 of their ever-rotating bassist positions; Fox became # 7 (out of 8 bassists in the band’s many year tenure). “The E. Walker Band played everything from Joe Jackson to Judas Priest, Led Zeppelin, The Doors, Ted Nugent, The Ramones, originals and a lot of that early 80’s dorky punk music”, Fox says laughingly, “I like some of it now, but back then, I was a hard-rocker and didn’t care much for punk, although I was friends with The Ramones and we actually did a few Ramones songs in our set. Like Twisted Sister, The E. Walker Band was one of the most popular club circuit bands and a glorified bar-band; we were there to provide a live-jukebox experience and help the clubs sell drinks. But for me, it was Madison Square Garden every night. That’s what I got paid to do. PERFORM. That’s what was going on in both New Jersey and over on Long Island, while, in Manhattan, NYC clubs, like The Great Gildersleeves, Privates, and Traxx, that was the ‘original music zone’ for bands trying to get signed by record labels looking for the next big thing, so, whatever was popular in the clubs we did. Whereas Twisted Sister concentrated on sheer heavy songs and volume, E. Walker was more of a mid-range club band, but for a six-night a week job, it was almost like being on a mini-tour, and on my day off was when I had to do all my laundry for all my stage costuming, LOL…” The E. Walker Band temporarily changed their name to SPITFIRE while being given a small tour of the Toronto, Canada club scene being booked by The Agency, who also handled RUSH, Max Webster and all the big-time Canadian rock acts, performing their originals, which didn’t pan out to anything substantial and they returned back to the Jersey club circuit to their home base and their welcoming fans who packed the clubs to see them.