Interview With Rik Fox 

December 9, 2015

By Londa R. Marks | Metal Music Interviews

Published By Rock Legend News, Firenze, Italy and

Tempi Dispari.it, Rome, Italy
 

Interview with Bassist Rik Fox ‘The Winged Knight of Heavy Metal’, from Hollywood, California’s 80’s glam bands: SIN, STEELER and WASP.

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Rock Legend News: You started on the path to glam rock of the 80’s by photographing bands like New York Dolls and KISS in New York. What attracted you to KISS and New York Dolls glam style? 

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Rik Fox: Well, allow me to clarify, I didn’t photograph The New York Dolls so much as I did The Brats, KISS and The Harlots of 42nd Street, mostly at a club in Queens, NY not far from my home, called Coventry. It was a flourishing club across from Manhattan that showcased many of the Manhattan rock scene’s glam bands. I also hung out at the famous 82 Club where many of the same bands performed. In any case, while I was in high school during my formative years between 1970 and 1974, it was a magical and evolutionary time in the history of rock music. Many bands were rising up from out of the ashes of the 1960’s and early 1970’s, and becoming something of a theatrical rock revolution. There was something very primal and attractively exciting about this; it was very different from what came before. Bands used to just stand there pretty much and just ‘play.’ 

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Now, there was the incorporation of band interaction and movement onstage, a physical interpretation of the music in an energy coming from the stage. Bands began to incorporate wearing face make-up eye-liner, eye-shadow, lipstick, platform boots tight velvet or satin pants, and jackets, sequins and rhinestones began catching the stage lighting. There was also an element of androgyny, with bands like T. Rex, David Bowie, Mott the Hoople, Slade, The Sweet and Queen. 

This began to make its way to American shores and into the hard rocking punkish presentations of Detroit’s MC5 and Iggy Pop and the New York rock bands, like The Harlots of 42nd Street, The New York Dolls, Teenage Lust, The Brats, Luger, The Planets, Street Punk, Spike, and, of course, more notable bands like Alice Cooper, Silverhead and KISS. It was like the anger of punk meets the androgyny of glam. 

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Since I had already become friends with KISS’ drummer Peter Criss before he was in the band, and began to go to watch KISS’ rehearsals in NYC, even before guitarist Ace Frehley was a band member, I was also a member of the photography club while in high school around 1972-73, so, I had access to all the film and developing materials I could get my hands on for free. My father had bought me a German-made Hanimex Practika 35mm camera and I was good to go. I began sneaking into clubs in NY like The 82 Club, and Coventry in Queens and photographing many of the bands I was attracted to. I shot many of these bands and began to become influenced by them musically as a fledgling bassist. Originally, the first band I was attracted to was Steppenwolf in 1967-68, and they were not glam, but a leather-wearing hard rock and blues band. So, it’s difficult to explain exactly what this new attraction was; it was just something I felt in my heart and soul; some new form of personal communication with an audience who loved being entertained by this new form of music, which was loud, brash, very catchy and simply played. 

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One night, I even hung out with some of the members of The New York Dolls while I was photographing bands at Coventry, and I dressed along just like they did. In fact, Dolls drummer Jerry Nolan complimented my burgundy satin pants, and when I told him I was friends with his childhood friend, Peter Criss, he lit right up and smiled. Then I chastised him for carelessly dropping his cigarette ashes on my new pants, and he apologized.

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Rock Legend News: After moving to L.A. from N.Y., you played bass guitar in several bands including SIN, STEELER and WASP. Which of these groups do you feel most tied to and why?

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