lit a candle 2h agoMy uncle had the 1984 W.A.S.P. album on vinyl and played it loud every time he visited when I was a kid, cover and all, Tony right there with the others. Found out about this on a plane and just sat with my headphones in, 69 is no age.
Their story
Tony Richards was an American heavy metal drummer, best known as the original drummer of W.A.S.P., the Los Angeles band led by Blackie Lawless. He played on the group's self-titled debut album, released on 17 August 1984, and appeared with the other three founding members on its cover. He was…
Tony Richards was an American heavy metal drummer, best known as the original drummer of W.A.S.P., the Los Angeles band led by Blackie Lawless. He played on the group's self-titled debut album, released on 17 August 1984, and appeared with the other three founding members on its cover.
He was born on 19 June 1957, and his real name was reportedly Anthony Richard Orlando. Richards played with several bands early in his career, and in 1980 he moved from Phoenix, Arizona, to the Los Angeles area. There he quickly made a name for himself as one of the most exciting drummers on the city's heavy metal scene with Dante Fox, the band that later became Great White. With Don Costa, Mark Kendall and Jack Russell he played the leading Hollywood rock clubs of the era, including the Troubadour, the Roxy, the Whisky a Go Go and the Starwood.
In late 1982 Lawless asked him to join a new band he was assembling, W.A.S.P., and Richards left Dante Fox, followed soon afterwards by Costa. He drummed on the band's debut album, which included early W.A.S.P. favourites, but he left the group at the start of its 1984 to 1985 tour, reportedly dismissed, and was replaced by Steve Riley. He later played with Max Havoc, and with the band DellaVella alongside Carl Della Vella and Lee Oliver.
Lawless never hid how much the band missed him. Speaking in 2022, he called Richards stunning as a drummer and performer, and said that the band had felt mortally wounded when he left. He explained that the first album cover showed all four members, while the next two showed only Lawless, because without Richards W.A.S.P. no longer felt like the same band.
Richards had not played for some time before his death. He died in November 2026, aged 69. His death was announced on 11 November 2026 by Lawless on the band's official social media, in a message saying that his personality was infectious, that watching him play riveted you wherever you were in the room, and that his personal stamp would forever be part of that first record. Former W.A.S.P. guitarist Chris Holmes, who had spoken to him every month for several years, and his wife Catherine also paid tribute and sent condolences to his brother John. No cause of death was made public.
He was the third former W.A.S.P. drummer to die, following Frankie Banali in 2020 and Steve Riley in 2023.
Biography adapted from Wikipedia (Tony Richards (musician), CC BY-SA 4.0), Blabbermouth.net, Sleaze Roxx, Rock and Roll Army. Wikipedia ↗
In their own words
“Tony was stunning as a drummer and performer.”
Blackie Lawless, speaking in 2022
Photos
1Tony Richards drumming with W.A.S.P.
by People Forever
that cover scared me as a kid too, in a good way