Exclusive Interview: Erica Fox on Touring with Maren Morris, Staying Grounded on the Road, & Paving the Way for Female Guitarists
- Abby Anderson
- Oct 7
- 7 min read
Erica Fox is changing the narrative on success for female musicians. A self-proclaimed "rock chick in a pop world," Fox has spent the last five years hustling as a professional guitarist like it's nobody's business - she was playing three tours simultaneously when she landed the gig as the lead guitarist for Maren Morris. But behind the tougher-than-nails onstage persona, the jaw-dropping guitar solos, and the cool-girl tattoos and mini braids, in the comfort of her home in Nashville on a stretch of a few days off from the North American leg of The Dreamsicle World Tour, Fox is as down-to-earth as they come.
Surrounded by guitars, music posters, and greenery, Erica joined us for a Zoom call to talk about everything from getting her first guitar for her tenth birthday, seeing her success as an avenue for inspiring the next generation of female musicians, her mantras for balancing success and staying grounded on the road, and how she landed the gig with Maren Morris.
Growing up in Montréal, Erica had the humble beginning that so many musicians do. She simply fell in love with playing music as an imaginative kid growing up in a music-filled household. "I used to play air guitar in the back of my parents' car to whatever CDs they were listening to at the time before I even really realized what I was doing. I asked for a guitar and for guitar lessons when I was probably around seven or eight, and at the time, my mom was like, 'Oh, you want to do something different every week. Like last night, you told me that you wanted to be an astronaut.' So she was like, 'If you stick with this, and you prove that you really want to play guitar, then I'll get you one when you turn 10.'" But playing guitar wasn't just another childhood fantasy to Erica. "Sure enough, on my 10th birthday, I got my first guitar. And it was just the thing that made me the happiest in the world. My mom always tells me, even to this day, that she remembers me coming home from school in a funk, and if I went up to my room and played guitar for a couple hours, I'd come downstairs as a completely different human being."
So she took the natural joy she got from playing guitar and started looking for ways to make playing her dream instrument her reality. She started playing in bands around Montréal as a teenager before branching out to Toronto to build her network of connections. "People saw that I was playing guitar, and my community of friends in the music industry started reaching out to me and asking me if I would play guitar for them. They'd be like, 'I need someone to play for me for X, Y, Z.' And I would always say yes. Then people started seeing me play more and more, or someone would catch me at a gig and go, 'Hey, can you play for me? I just decided that I would never say no to anyone asking me to play guitar for them." Within a few years, Erica had quit her part-time job, gone all in on music, and booked her first tour opening for Canadian alt-pop band Valley with Devon Cole.
And the touring never stopped. Erica continued to book tours backing artists like Goldie Boutilier, Ari Hicks, and Fefe Dobson, learning the peaks and valleys of life on the road for a young woman. At the forefront of her mind was always that mantra to keep saying yes and that drive to keep building connections in the industry, sometimes playing with upwards of four artists simultaneously and flying directly from the end of one tour to the start of another. She was at the crossroads of wrapping a North American tour and preparing to take another overseas to Europe when the gig with Maren Morris entered her field of vision. "I had a few different people in this network send me an Instagram story, and it was a story from Maren's musical director saying that he was looking for a female guitarist for a project who could also sing. And so these people in my network were like, 'Hey, you should reply to this story. We've also put your name forward. This seems right up your alley, and this guy [David Cook] is a big deal.' And so I messaged him and I got a response back from him saying, 'Hey, saw your stuff, can we set up a call?' And so we had a call on which he told me that it was for Maren Morris. I didn't hear back for a while, and then he texted me and he was like, 'Okay, we like what we see, so can you film a three-song audition where you're playing guitar and singing?'" Showcasing her skills and diversity in style, composition, and technique, from matching riff-tones on 'GIRL' to ripping a self-composed solo on '80s Mercedes,' Erica recorded the audition from the basement studio of a music director friend and edited the videos on a pre-tour flight to Europe, turning around the whole audition in a week and a half while simultaneously rehearsing. "It was an insane time in my life. I was rehearsing three different artists and then I was going on three consecutive tours, one in Europe, then one through middle America, and then a headline tour across Canada. And I remember getting this email from him asking me to do this. And I was like, 'Okay, timing's gonna be tight, but I can do it. This is something I'm willing to stay up all night for and just push myself."
And she did. Erica soon found herself in Nashville, surrounded by a small group of female guitarists, playing a new set of songs for a room full of people who would ultimately decide her fate. "I was so nervous. It was the craziest experience in my life. And then afterwards, David gave me a huge high five and texted me and was like, 'You did great. Congrats.' And I was like, 'Honestly, if I don't get it, that's enough for me. I'm just so happy and proud of myself that I got to this point and was able to like perform in front of these people." Even after the biggest audition of her life, her humility and talent remained her guiding principles. But Erica didn't need to let that be enough: "I got a call while I was at lunch. It was David, and he was like, 'Just wanted to say that you did a great job today.' And then there's a long pause, and he goes, 'And Maren wants you in her band.' Yeah, I had to go outside and like jump up and down a little bit."
From there, Erica has been all about finding the balance, personally and professionally, that comes with the responsibility of being the lead guitarist for a Grammy-winning, multi-platinum-selling artist. Touring the Dreamsicle Tour in North America, Europe, and Australia/New Zealand is Erica's current reality, and in prepping for a tour of this magnitude, Erica set her sights on remaining grounded and centered as much as possible while waking up in a new city every day. "I like to be extremely prepared. I isolate myself a little bit. Before just jumping into all the music stuff, because it's so easy to just get out of bed and be on my phone or pick up a guitar right away, I need to take an hour and center myself. And so I like to take that time and stretch, I'll do some yoga, sometimes I'll meditate a little bit. And I'll try not to be on my phone. I have my morning matcha. Sometimes I journal a little bit. I'll do affirmations to remind myself who I am and bring myself back into my body. I'm so obsessed with it all, so it is really easy to get a little bit delusional about the whole thing. But that's when I start to lose myself." Erica is obviously someone who has worked for every bit of success she's had, so finding the balance between prioritizing work and herself has been a journey in itself. "You're allowed to take a break and call a friend. It's okay to have some phone time and doomscroll on TikTok for 20 minutes and then get back to it. Because actually, you will function better if you give yourself that time off."
Playing for Maren's camp has brought Erica closer to her own priority of being intentional with keeping her humanity as a musician. "I've learned that you have to be so careful about the energies that you have in your daily life and how much that affects you. People don't realize how much that stuff affects you, so it's been so cool to be a part of her camp. She's super cool and just loves to hang out with us. And she's an awesome human through and through." And while playing for an artist of Morris's magnitude may be how many musicians measure their success, Erica views success as the platform she's been given through music to connect with people. "It just makes me feel so empowered for anybody who ever doubted me. I'm like, 'Look at me now.' You know? And then when I have young girls come up to me and say, 'I want to be like you when I grow up.' Or sometimes it'll be a mom coming up to me and showing me a photo of her daughter and being like, 'This is my daughter, and she plays guitar. I'm going to go home and show her videos that I took of you tonight because you were so inspiring.' The fact that I can pay that back and inspire other people is just so rewarding and empowering to me in an unimaginable way. It literally keeps me going."
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