Willie Wilcox

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. This kit appears with the band on their July 2018 performance on the Jimmy Kimmel Show.

As of 2017 Wilcox played a 4-piece Sonor Delite drumset with Sabian cymbals, Remo drumheads and Vic Firth drumsticks.

Wilcox's most memorable drumset was a motorcycle-shaped electronic percussion configuration nicknamed "Trapparatus". It consisted of pads and pedals which triggered electronic percussion sounds, mounted on an actual motorcycle frame and topped with conventional cymbals. Wilcox can be seen playing the Trapparatus in early '80s Utopia concerts, as well as an appearance on The Mike Douglas Show. According to Utopia keyboardist Roger Powell, the Trapparatus was destroyed in 1986 when a warehouse containing most of Utopia's touring equipment was set ablaze by arsonists.

In the early 1980s he became an endorser of Sonor drums, and is seen playing a Sonor Signature drumset in Utopia's concert videos An Evening With Utopia and Live In Boston 1982. Early in his career Wilcox played Zildjian cymbals, switching to Sabian cymbals in the mid-1980s.

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. He is best known for being a member of the band Utopia. He also has been the senior audio director for Bally Technologies and Scientific Games in Las Vegas, Nevada from 2010 to 2020.

Born in Trenton New Jersey in 1951, Willie was first inspired by his father who was a trombone and bass player. Willie would watch his dad playing concerts in the park and fondly remembers the feeling of going up on stage after the band’s performance and watch all the musicians packing up their instruments. There seemed to be something magical about being on that stage and at 10 years of age Willie was hooked!