John "Willie" Wilcox (born September 21, 1951, in Trenton, New Jersey) is an American drummer, vocalist, producer, recording engineer, sound designer, composer, and senior audio director.
Willie would sit in the front row as a 16-year-old kid watching Count Basie, Woody Herman, Duke Ellington, Max Roach, and Gene Krupa playing live.
After Willie graduated high school, he won a scholarship to the Berklee College of Music, performing a percussion piece with a resident pianist and composer Dr. Maurice Whitney.
During this time period, Willie also played drums on albums for Meat Loaf ”Bat Out of Hell,” Todd Rundgren solo records, Shaun Cassidy, and Steve Hillage.
Willie had a significant songwriting career composing and producing songs with artists like Luther Vandross, The Pointer Sisters, Natalie Cole, Kylie Minogue, Hall and Oates, Meat Loaf, Manny Pacquiao and scoring a #1 hit with dance artist Stacy Q, “We Connect.” He would continue his production and composing career at NBC Universal Television writing theme songs for shows like Jim Cramer's “Mad Money.” He spent the next 10 years as the senior audio director at Bally Technologies and Scientific Games, where he produced and remixed all the original tracks from Michael Jackson's hits for the Michael Jackson games in 5.1 surround sound.
Throughout his career with Utopia, Wilcox has been photographed playing multiple drumsets by companies such as Sonor, Yamaha Recording Series, Leedy, and Ludwig.
Built in 1985, and designed by Wilcox and Rick Downey (the then-drummer for Blue Öyster Cult), it consisted of Clavia ddrum electronic pads and sample modules, as well as Sabian acoustic cymbals.
[5] For the 2018 Utopia reunion, Wilcox announced that he was returning to the Ludwig Drum Company, and played a turquoise sparkle kit on the tour.