Oz Fox
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Oz Fox (born Richard Alfonso Martinez) is the lead guitarist of the Christian metal band Stryper. Martinez claimed the name Oz Fox in honor of Ozzy Osbourne due to being able to emulate the vocals of the Osbourne while playing Black Sabbath covers in his pre-Stryper days. He was recruited by the Sweet brothers in 1983 to form what would become Stryper. As a founding member of the band, Fox recorded and toured with Stryper until the band's first break up in 1993.
Having been influenced by artists from many styles of music including country, Fox's style can best be described as having been heavily influenced by the style pioneered by Edward Van Halen. In fact, it is a little known fact that Fox would often warm up by playing Van Halen's "I'm On Fire" note for note before Stryper shows. He led the trend in LA guitarists to heavily incorporate tapping, sweeping, string skipping and wild tremolo use along with peers such as George Lynch, Warren DeMartini, Jake E. Lee, Mick Mars, and Tony Palacios. Fox recorded the majority of the guitar solos with Stryper while additionally providing background vocals for the group. He later took up the main vocal duties for a periord of four months in 1992 after founding member Michael Sweet decided to leave the band and pursue a solo career.
After Stryper, Fox played in several projects, including his own band, Sindizzy where he played rhythm guitar and sang lead vocals. SinDizzy, which released an album in 1998titled He's Not Dead,included former Stryper bassist Tim Gaines, drummer John Bocanegra and LA guitarist Bobby MacNeil. SinDizzy was a departure for Fox as it allowed him to explore his writing and playing from a much different perspective than in his prior work. SinDizzy would be put on hiatus however due to Fox and Gaines being asked to rejoin Stryper for their reunion in 2003 in support of the album 7 after the widespread accpetance and excitement generated by the first 'Stryper Expo'. Though Gaines would elect to leave the band, Fox, together with brothers Robert and Michael Sweet and new comer bassist Tracy Ferrie, is still recording and touring with the group.
Fox has hosted Rewind on JCTV.
He recently joined the band Bloodgood.
