THUNDERBALL was created in 1988 by Los Angeles scene veteran Rik Fox (real surname Sulima-Suligowski) on bass, vocalist Kelly Reno, guitarist Joey Price and drummer Cecil Free. The bassist had enjoyed terms with the very first W.A.S.P. line-up of 1981, JAGWIRE, a brief tenure with HELLION, the classic STEELER alongside Ron Keel and YNGWIE MALMSTEEN, his own band SIN and a brief tenure with Arizona's SURGICAL STEEL. THUNDERBALL actually made it onto the big screen, as "PUTRID RAGE" in a nationally televised Western Union Commercial in 1988. The group, substituting Kelly Reno for Mike Cordet, folded in 1989.

In later years Fox would be known as "Chevalier Don Ryszard di Lis, Prince di Sulima, of Lechistan", a member of the Royal Spanish Court Guild, portraying a knight-errant-ambassador from Poland residing in Spain.