ricky wilcox

"NOT BORN IN A LOG CABIN"...
Growing up in Ohio, Ricky heard The Beatles on a small AM radio one day and never looked back. Cutting his musical teeth in America's power-pop heartland, Ricky's early bands included PUNK from Cincinnati, legendary Chicago band D'THUMBS, and THEATRE, the group that brought him to Florida by way of Chicago and Detroit (as well as a #6 song on the charts in Michigan). His bands always seemed on the brink of being the "next big thing" but were ultimately denied the Big Deal. All of the above listed bands were hugely successful on the club and concert circuits, touring constantly (sometimes up to 300 days a year) and garnering regular rotation airplay on major radio stations.

From 1983 until 1996 Ricky played with notorious Tampa Bay band DELORIS TELESCOPE Deloris Telescope, with Kacy Ross(guitar, vocals) and Stevie Grandmaison(bass, vocals). DT's wild club shows in Florida became the stuff of legend (El Gordo's, Club Detroit, the ACL Club...) and it seemed that major success was just around the corner as the guys constantly toured up the east coast to showcase in Manhattan at such famous clubs as CBGB's, the Cat Club, The Bitter End, the Rodeo Bar and more. Louise from CBGB's once called DT "the band that wouldn't die", but they eventually did, however not before touring from the Virgin Islands to Japan and giving their loyal flock of "Delorians" a hefty catalogue of music and a hell of a lot of great memories. A reunion in 2010 at Jannus Live in St. Petersburg was a huge success.

Ricky has settled in Tampa Bay where he is still playing full time and concentrating on a songwriting career. He continues to perform with his original power pop band,  RICKY WILCOX & THE MOONSNAKES, who have released three records on the Sunshine Drenchy label. The Moonsnakes also feature uber guitarist and studio wizard Steve Connelly on guitar, who played in the legendary Headlights at the same time Ricky was in DT. Also featured in the band are Jim brown on bass, Alex Wolfe Parnes on drums, and Jeff Graves on guitar. Ricky also plays drums with iconic Tampa Bay power loungers THE VODKANAUTS. RW also plays a lot of solo gigs, and regularly with acoustic oriented power duo THE LITTLE KINGS with fellow Cincinnatian Tere Bertke (formerly of Blackhawk) on bass. Ricky is a proud alumni of campy lounge duo DICK and FEEF featuring Kathy Randall (aka FIFI) ,and popular British Invasion combo THE SHAGUARS in a lineup of local all-stars. Ricky still bashes the drums with some of the bay areas finest. including recording tracks on Ted Lukas's latest album.

“BRUSHES WITH FAME”...
Along the way, Ricky has had several interesting brushes with fame. The Cincy based band Punk was invited to nearby Bloomington, IN to jam with a then signed but unknown singer named Johnny Cougar. Ricky turned down an opportunity to leave his band and share percussion duties with -duh!-John Mellencamp. Punk also featured an unknown guitar player, fresh from Fender Guitar UK, named Seymour Duncan- who ,of course, went on to become one of the world's leading pickup makers. Later, playing in Chicago with D'Thumbs, Ricky got replaced in a management ploy by none other than the already famous Tommy Aldridge (Black Oak Arkansas, Whitesnake, Ozzy) but not before getting a ride in Tommy's Ferrari down in the Ozarks! Fellow D'Thumbs bandmates in Chicago John Brandt and Pete Comita both went on to serve replacement stints in Cheap Trick (for Tom Petersson). Ricky's hanging out with Bun E. Carlos led to Deloris Telescope's frequent (and often noteable) opening slots with Cheap Trick when they came through Florida. Ricky has also toured with EMI recording artists The Hazies, and over the years his various bands have opened for, among many others, the Police, Cheap Trick, Rick Springfield, the Gin Blossoms, the Butthole Surfers, A Flock of Seagulls and X.