Rik Fox
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Richard Suligowski (born 1956 in Amityville, New York), better known as Rik Fox, is an American heavy metal bass guitar player.
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 photography, choosing as his subjects the flashy personalities of the New York glam scene of the 1970s. He photographed the New York Dolls and among others. During this period, he dated a younger sister of original Kiss drummer Peter Criss. Fox and Criss became friends and witness the formation of Kiss from the very beginning, including, before the addition of lead guitarist Ace Frehley.
After moving to Los Angeles, California in 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 did, in fact, name the band. The idea occurred to him after he stepped on a wasp in the courtyard of the house where he lived with his fellow bandmember 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 it is confirmed by W.A.S.P. guitarist Randy Piper, and in online interviews with guitarist Piper. Blackie Lawless reportedly denies Rik Fox's participation in W.A.S.P., but he's clearly shown in photographs taken by Don Adkins Jr. during the band's first photo session, and has played on the bands' first demo which circulates among collectors.
Fox's music career ended, after he abandoned his last band, Thunderball, in the early 1990s. After that, he worked in the film industry as an assistant Property Master, and weapons handler, working on the Television series Air America, featuring Lorenzo Lamas. Fox also dabbled in acting and took several film roles. Through acting, he eventually became involved with the Renaissance Faire scene, where he actively sought to bring the noticeably absent Polish history into the forefront. Fox has been referred to as a 'pioneer', (or, a "Johnny Appleseed"), in this venture, by many Polish media correspondents. Apart from being a musician, he is the First Polish-American of noble ancestry, who represents the Polish Winged hussar cavalry in U.S. History. More recently Fox has been nominated as the Vice-President of the Los Angeles Chapter of the Nationally known organization of the Polish American Congress. He is also involved in co-promotion of the European and Japanese market release of The Steeler Anthology with former band mate Ron Keel. Plans for concert tours to promote the album release, remain yet to be realized. In the meantime, Fox continues to worked on his pursuit of raising Polish History awareness and Culture.
[edit] External links
|
|||||||||||||||||
