Rik Fox - W.A.S.P.

W.A.S.P.

After moving to Los Angeles, California in March 1982, Fox played bass-guitar in several bands, including Steeler, SIN and W.A.S.P.. Although he was only briefly associated with W.A.S.P. for several months, and recorded a 'live' three-track cassette demo, he came up with the name "W.A.S.P.". The idea occurred to him after he stepped on a wasp in the courtyard of the house where he lived with band leader Blackie Lawless. The story of W.A.S.P. is retold in the book Bang Your Head: The Rise and Fall of Heavy Metal by David Konow, where this is confirmed by W.A.S.P. guitarist Randy Piper as well as in several online interviews with him. On the other hand, some who witnessed the formation of W.A.S.P. explain that Rik Fox participated in the band after drummer Tony Richards showed up in the scene; according to Richards, the name was not Circus Circus when he joined the band. Fox contends that to his recollection, the band was named Sister when he joined. In an attempt to save face and fuel the controversy, Lawless finally admitted Fox's involvement after many years of being asked about this subject, confirms that Rik Fox had indeed played with the band but, backpedals by subjectively claiming 'only for a couple of rehearsals', which is not the accurate truth, since Fox spent some 4 months rehearsing and writing with the band. In fact, Fox contributed to the W.A.S.P. song 'Master of Disaster', found on their original early demo. The entire second verse's lyrics and half-time break was written by Fox which preceded the guitar solo, and was eventually cut-up and re-used by Lawless in the W.A.S.P. hit song 'Wild Child'. Additionally, as photographer Don Adkins Jr. among others, can validate, and who watched Fox at the W.A.S.P. rehearsals at Pipers' studio, all Fox's claims and preponderance of evidence to be in fact, true. Fox is also shown in early band photographs taken by Don Adkins Jr. during the band's first photo session. Both Lawless and Richards allege that 'Rik Fox couldn't do it in the band, his playing was just not right', again, a subjective back-pedal-face saving gesture, so they 'let him go in a very short period of time', which comes off as plausible, because Lawless is in a better position to be believed, yet it is Fox's bass tracks found on the 'original' W.A.S.P. 3-track demo recorded at Pipers' studio which, as further evidence do not lie; so his playing ability was 'not' as some contend, the actual reason for his departure from the band. The band was actually called 'SISTER' when Fox flew out from N.Y., but with several other bands using the term 'Sister' (White Sister, Twisted Sister, et al.) Lawless claimed he 'was looking for something entirely different'; at Fox's suggestion of the name W.A.S.P., Lawless 'lit up' and loved the name). It's still not clear why Piper (and others) stand by Rik Fox's evidence, while some others are in opposition in this affair since; clearly, sides have been drawn on this controversial issue. With the 2011 release of 'W.A.S.P.; A Sting in the Tale' by U.K. author and fan, Darren P. Upton, further backstory background was broken open, when Fox was contacted for an interview and has been subsequently acknowledged as a definitive part of the W.A.S.P. Family Tree, resulting in a floodgate of W.A.S.P. fans around the world finally acknowledging Fox as the original bassist/member of the band's historic line-up and creator of the band's moniker. Whereas, all information coming from the official W.A.S.P. website has Blackie Lawless' history of the band carefully continuing to exclude any of Fox's involvement in the band's history.

Read more about this topic:  Rik Fox

Famous quotes containing the word wasp:

    Why should the generations overlap one another at all? Why cannot we be buried as eggs in neat little cells with ten or twenty thousand pounds each wrapped round us in Bank of England notes, and wake up, as the Sphinx wasp does, to find that its papa and mamma have not only left ample provision at its elbow but have been eaten by sparrows some weeks before we began to live consciously on our own accounts?
    Samuel Butler (1835–1902)