Foxtales Gets Back on Stage After Bicycle Accident and Spinal Surgery

Jonathan Fox of Foxtales

On March 31, Jonathan Fox, the 33-year-old artist behind the indie-pop act Foxtales, was headed to a family lunch on his bicycle. On West 29th Street near the Breed & Company hardware store, he was struck by a van.

“It was a three-second event, maybe less than that, that changed my life,” Fox says. “I had done that exact route hundreds of times. I was watching the van for any signals that it would turn right, there was nothing, and then it just happened.”

Upon impact, the musician was immediately concerned about what the accident would mean for an upcoming Foxtales performance. “I was thinking, ‘My legs are broken; I’m not going to be able to play the show,’” he remembers. After waking from emergency spinal surgery, Fox became painfully aware that his legs weren’t broken, but his injuries were far more severe.

The impact put him in critical condition, shattering his vertebrae and breaking multiple bones. The accident would not only mean canceling Foxtales’ April 1 show, but it “put everything on halt.” Before Fox could think about performing again, he had to regain the ability to walk.

Jonathan Fox in the hospital after his bike accident

After a week in the hospital, and four months of recovery, Fox returns to the stage this Friday, July 21, at Empire Garage with his fivepiece band. Known for integrating chillwave and synth stylings on the 2021 EP Perfect Landing, Foxtales plays alongside Austin acts Caleb De Casper, Glass Mansions, and Lena Luca. The show slots into the totally-free Downtown music festival Hot Summer Nights.

Now 14 weeks into recovery, having just gained doctor’s approval to hold the electric guitar whilst standing, Fox looks forward to getting back on stage. Typically a vivacious performer, the vocalist will have to adapt to his physical limitations. “For these first few shows, it's more about just focusing on the music, not so much about dancing, that’s kind of out of the question right now,” he says. “I’m going to be more attentive to getting into the emotions of every song, vocally.”

In the busy months before the crash, Foxtales had headlined at Empire Control Room for Free Week, and played for sizable crowds at South by Southwest. “We were making a lot of headway,” he says of Foxtales’ growth. His accident froze that momentum.

In the weeks following the incident, Fox received support from his family, friends, and the Austin music community at large. “My parents were pretty unbelievable, and my close friends in the community. I also had a lot of support through social media,” the artist says.

But there was another force keeping him going: music. “It was something I went to. After not listening to music for a week, I was listening every single day to this playlist that I made,” says Fox. The melancholic playlist consisted of songs by Beck, Blaze Foley, Nick Drake, and Maggie Rogers. “It made me feel a lot, and realize how important [music] is to me in a visceral way.”

There is no assured timeline for Fox’s recovery, as healing from the spinal surgery alone could take 6 to 12 months. The musician’s haste to return to the stage can be partially attributed to his mindset towards the situation: Fox’s innate mental toughness keeps him grateful rather than spiteful. “When you're working on anything, whether it's physical or mental, you have to do the work without seeing results for a while,” he says, “you have to, whenever you can, accept the reality and not try to spend time thinking of the way things used to be.”

The singer intends to pick up where he left off with Foxtales and will continue to put out new music later this month. Fox hopes to channel his deeply emotional recovery into future songs. “I think, in the future, I am gonna write about it,” he says. “I want to make songs that are meaningful, and that do for me, from a writing perspective, what those songs did for me in recovery.”

In addition to his Friday show at Hot Summer Nights, Foxtales’ live comeback continues at Antone’s on July 29 for Me Nd Adam’s American Drip Part II album release. Foxtales also plays at South Congress Hotel on August 3, and the Continental Club on August 17.