Ryan Roxie

Ryan Roxie (born in Sacramento, California, December 1, 1965 is an American guitarist/singer-songwriter currently residing in Stockholm, Sweden. He is the founding member of Roxie 77 and probably most well known for his guitar work with Alice Cooper, Slash,^[1] Casablanca, Dad's Porno Mag plus many more. Along with his writing, recording, and touring schedule, he currently hosts 'The Big Rock Show with Ryan Roxie'.

Early life

Roxie was born in Sacramento, California and grew up in the East Bay in a small town called Pleasanton. Ryan's father, Polish, used to play trumpet and his mother was a drummer in her high school marching band. Around age five Roxie picked up the guitar but was more interested in drums. It wasn't until he was around eleven or twelve that he started taking guitar seriously. Roxie often sites Keith Partridge as an early influence.

"When I was a kid, there was a show on TV, called The Partridge Family. One character, Keith Partridge, was played by David Cassidy. When people ask me who's my biggest influence, I always say 'Keith' and people assume I mean Keith Richards....in reality, I always wanted to be Keith Partridge."

All of Roxie's heroes were in magazines like Circus and Kerrang and it seemed like they had the easiest and best jobs. Roxie's first electric guitar came as a Christmas present one year, a cream-colored Stratocaster. After the Strat, Roxie acquired his first Gibson Les Paul, and to this day Roxie still considers the Gold Top his "first girlfriend". He went on to form a band called Star Fire with friends Matt Clarke and Mike Pavlick.

Roxie learned to play guitar from an old record player and invented his own form of scratching, going through many records in the process, picking out guitar parts. He was influenced by albums like Van Halen and has had many guitar heroes including Brian May from Queen, Steve Stevens, Elliot Easton from The Cars, Neil Geraldo from Pat Benatar and Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick.

Candy

Candy were a band featuring original members Kyle Vincent, Jonathan Daniel, John Schubert, and guitarist Geoff Siegel. Gilby Clarke replaced Siegel after 6 months. They had an album release in 1985 titled Whatever Happened To Fun. Later that year, Gilby Clarke replaced Kyle Vincent as lead vocalist, and guitarist Roxie joined the lineup. After Gilby parted to form his own band Kill for Thrills the rest of the guys joined up with new lead vocalist Shane and became the Electric Angels.

Electric Angels

Roxie joins up with Shane, Jonathan Daniel and drummer John Schubert to form the band Electric Angels. They moved to New York where they signed to Atlantic Records. The show they are signed at is opening for Dogs D'amour and Mother Love Bone (some of whose members went on to form Pearl Jam) and their self-titled album is released in 1990 produced by Tony Visconti (best known for his work with T Rex, Bowie and Thin Lizzy to name a few). The band works on a second album to be called New York Times but is dropped by Atlantic before it is released.

Hired Gun

Between '94 and '96 Roxie worked with various artists. He provided guitar on Gilby Clarke's albums, Pawnshop Guitars, Blooze, The Hangover and Rubber. Roxie also lent his guitar styling to the un-credited work with Tal Bachman. Roxie's guitar work is displayed on the hit single "She's So High" produced by Bob Rock. Roxie played guitar on James Michael's Inhale release as well. In 2000 Roxie also wrote and recorded on Slash's Snakepit's second album Ain't Life Grand.

Dad's Porno Mag

In 1997 Roxie joined up with long time friends, drummer Mike Fasano and bassist Will Effertz and created the band Dad's Porno Mag. After Effertz left, guitarist Keri Kelli and bassist Stefan Adika joined. The album was released on Wax-Tone Records. This item is now out of stock but was re-released in 2000 from Robinson Records. Produced by Jim Mitchell of Ugly Kid Joe fame and Mark Schulman (Simple Minds) with additional production by Alex Woltman and friend Gilby Clarke. The album has fourteen tracks and one special hidden track entitled "My Bad Knee" on track 77. It is currently available at this site: ([1])

Alice Cooper Era

Roxie began working with Alice Cooper in 1996 after a few good words were put in for him by Gilby and a shady character known as 'Bobby from Mates' while proving himself in an audition. He was offered a 'one year tour' playing with Alice. His first show with the Cooper band was at Sammy Hagar's Cabo Wabo club in Cabo San Lucas.

In 2000 Roxie recorded his first studio album with Alice Cooper, Brutal Planet. Through 2000 to 2005 Roxie collaborated with Cooper on several albums including Dragontown, The Eyes of Alice Cooper and Dirty Diamonds. In this time Roxie featured heavily on the co writing side of things, with his name attached to the majority of the songs from "Eyes" and "Dirty Diamonds".

In March 2006 Roxie made the announcement that he was taking time off to be with his wife Viktoria (now ex) and his children Lennon and Natashia Grace which suspended the Alice Cooper / Ryan Roxie partnership.

Roxie 77

R77 formed in 2002 and wrote a bunch of songs whose influences lie somewhere in between The Beatles and the Beastie Boys. They played the usual suspect clubs around the L.A. area for the next year, and then recorded their debut CD.

Roxie 77's 11 song debut CD is entitled Peace, Love & Armageddon and is released under the small indie Wax-Tone Records label. The spectrum of music and song subject matter span from acting like a punk-ass kid to facing the reality of actually having a kid.

A new album "Two Sides To Every Story" was released in July 2009 - available as downloads only through the bands webspace at bandcamp.com [2]. The band added a new song every week, so that it comes to a total of 24 Songs. Each song is downloadable as a regular and also as an acoustic version.

"The truly unique thing about "Two Sides to Every Story" is that you will actually get to experience TWO versions of each song released simultaneously in both ELECTRIC and ACOUSTIC formats. Same song, but different keys, different approach, and different feelings." - Ryan Roxie on the bands website.

Every week there are two different songs available for free download ("Conscience Free Download"). By buying single songs or the whole album, half of the money goes to charity.

"It's that simple: Roxie 77 will 'split the profit' of anything you donate with a charitable organization. But no worries. We honestly just want you to experience the music and tell as many people about the 'Conscience Free Download' and 'Splitting The Profits' concepts as you can."

—Ryan Roxie on the bands website.

The Number 77

Roxie has been well known to sign things with his name followed by the number 77. It also features in promo shirts for Dads Porno Mag which featured a red, white and blue number 77, in the name of his band Roxie 77 and numerous other places. Roxie explained the use of the number;

It all started a few years back when people I was touring with would put whatever year it was next to their name, so I just started leaving the year 1977 next to my signature. Well, the more I did the research, the more I begun to discover that the year 1977 had a profound influence on me musically. So many important albums and events happened that year that shaped me musically" For example – Cheap Tricks Debut Album, Queen – News of the World, Kiss – Love Gun, Eagles – Hotel California not to mention Elvis passing away and Star Wars (the movie, not the missile defense system).

Current Endorsements

Roxie consults for The Gibson guitar company as a Product Specialist/Cinician. Past endorsement companies include GMP guitars, Crafter Acoustic Guitars (which include the signature Roxie SS and Model R77 guitars), Fender Amps, Oakley Clothing and Equipment as well as Serious Clothing.

Other projects

Roxie's Blog

Roxie jumped into the world of online blogs. The blog mainly started as an 'insiders' view of the writing and recording of the Alice Cooper album "The Eyes of Alice Cooper' with news being reported by Roxie under the guise of "The Mole". The blogs continued until February 2005 which saw the wrapping up of the Eyes of Alice Cooper world tour and announced Roxie's move to Stockholm Sweden at which point the posts became more of a "heads up" for Roxie's new Podcast. Because of Twitter and other social networking tools, Roxie's updates are now being published in a variety of media gateways.

Big Rock Show Podcast

On July 7, 2005, Roxie aired the first Roxie 77 podcast – Roxie's Big Rock Show. There were seven Podcasts in total which featured interviews with long time friend Stefan Adika, as well as Calico Cooper, Damon Johnson, Eric Singer, Alice Cooper and Cheap Tricks Rick Nielsen and Bun E. Carlos. The podcast also featured Roxie's favourite songs, some rare tracks and two un-released Roxie tracks including "Consequence of the City" with ex-Alice Cooper band member and friend Eric Dover on vocals. As quoted from Roxie's first podcast

"The real reason why I'm doin' this Podcast I think, is for the children... actually namely...my children. Because this whole Podcast thing although it is 2005 & the whole technology is brand new and it's ABSOLUTELY free. Just like everything else in this world it will one day cost a nickel, a penny, a dime, a quarter and obviously I don't like to work, I don't mind working but, I don't like to work that hard. This seems like doing something I really like to do & maybe someday can help the children, like I said our children...maybe some other children too."

In 2010, The Big Rock Show podcast shifted gears into a broadcast program and has thus changed its name to simply, 'The Big Rock Show with Ryan Roxie'. The show's formula is essentially the same- combining Top Music stories, rare and sometimes never before heard or seen music videos, plus candid interviews with some of the worlds best known rock n rollas.

The Art of Elysium

The Art of Elysium, a non-profit organization founded in 1997. It encourages working actors, artists and musicians to voluntarily dedicate their time and talent to children who are battling serious medical conditions. Roxie has performed for children at the hospital and in and also had his iconic dreadlocks cut off as part of the Operation: Dreads for Bread fund raiser for The Art of Elysium.

Radio and Magazine Work

October 2006 saw Roxie hosting his own radio show on Rocket 95.3 FM (The Rock Home of Stockholm) The show runs every Wednesday from 2pm to 4pm (Stockholm time) and plays a variety of music. The website features live streaming, an online chat and webcam of Roxie in the studio. He also appears on "Rockklassiker – 106.7" in Stockholm Sweden on Thursday mornings with his "Roxie Rock Report"

Powerplay magazine also features a monthly column called 'Roxies Big Rock Show'

Roxie also contributes occasional columns for Guitar INK, a Swedish guitar magazine.

Discography

Major Releases

With Gilby Clarke

With Alice Cooper

In Collaboration with Other Artists and Compilations

References

External links

• Official Ryan Roxie Homepage
• Ryan Roxie on Myspace