Tony Fox Sales (born September 26, 1951) is an American rock musician and composer. Primarily a bass player, Sales has worked with Todd Rundgren, Iggy Pop, and in Tin Machine with David Bowie, often alongside his brother Hunt Sales, a drummer.
Early life and career
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, a son of 1950s/'60s TV comedian Soupy Sales (January 8, 1926 - October 22, 2009) and Barbara Fox (June 23, 1931 – May 28, 2017), Tony grew up in Detroit, Michigan, with his younger brother, Hunt Sales (born 1954).
Tony and The Tigers released the song "Turn It on Girl," which was a minor local hit in Detroit, and appeared twice on the show Hullabaloo: December 20, 1965, hosted by Jerry Lewis, and April 4, 1966, hosted by their father, Soupy Sales. The band also opened for The Animals at Steel Pier in Atlantic City in 1967.
Tony and Hunt went on to work with Chequered Past, David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Todd Rundgren, Bob Welch, Andy Fraser of Free, Harry Dean Stanton and The Cheap Dates, The Hunt Sales Memorial, Tin Machine (with Bowie), and others from 1989 to 1994.
He and Anulka Dziubinska were married on August 20, 1978, in Los Angeles.[3] He and his brother, Hunt, did some recordings together which were stored away after Tony had a car accident in 1979 so severe that he was all but dead for several minutes before being revived. He was consequently in a coma for over eight months but eventually recovered from his injuries and went back into music.
Sales and Taryn Power, daughter of the late movie starTyrone Power and actress Linda Christian, had two children, Anthony Tyrone "Tony" Sales (born September 4, 1982)[4] and Valentina Fox Sales (born September 10, 1983).[5]
In 1982, Sales joined a band named Chequered Past, which included singer/actor Michael Des Barres (later of Power Station), ex-Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones, and Blondie’s bass player Nigel Harrison and drummer Clem Burke. According to Des Barres, the choice of name was not an idle one. "All the members have been through a lot," he told the Los Angeles Times at his house in Hollywood, including the fact that Sales had fully recovered from a debilitating auto accident.[6] After an album released by Chequered Past in 1984 flopped the band broke up shortly afterward.
Sales joined David Bowie, Reeves Gabrels and Hunt Sales in Tin Machine in 1988. The New York Times said of the band's first album, "Tin Machine sounds as if it was made by people working together, not by a producer with a computer."[7] On November 23, 1991, Tin Machine appeared on Saturday Night Live, which was hosted by then child actor Macaulay Culkin. Tin Machine recorded three albums and did two tours before it broke up in 1992. Bowie later stated that his memories of Tony and Hunt Sales' contribution to Lust for Life led him to invite them to join Tin Machine.[8]
Sales and Hunt's recordings from the late 1970s were released in 2008 by Perseverance Records as a solo album, Hired Guns. An e-book about them, Quintessentially Soul Brothers: The Sales Brothers In Their Own Words by Stephanie Lynne Thorburn, was published in 2009.[9]
Instruments
Since the middle of the eighties Sales has used a Vigier Passion Bass.
^California Marriage Index, Groom: Tony F. Sales, Age: 26, Bride: Anulka M. Dziubinska, Age: 27, County: Los Angeles, Date: Aug. 20, 1978, Registrar No.: 27014, State File No.: 86878.
^California Birth Index, Name: Anthony Tyrone Sales, Date: Sep. 4, 1982, Sex: Male, Mother's Maiden Name: Power, Birth Place: Los Angeles.
^California Birth Index, Name: Valentina Fox Sales, Date: Sep. 10, 1983, Sex: Female, Mother's Maiden Name: Power, Birth Place: Los Angeles.
^"Pop Beat - Motley Musicians Team Up For Chequered Past." Los Angeles Times. Nov. 13, 1982. p. F 1.
^"And Now, The No-Frills David Bowie." The New York Times. Jun. 4, 1989. p. H 24.
