He was born in Chorley, Lancashire, England, UK, as Dennis Leigh, 26 September 1948. His father was a coal miner and pugilist, his mother a millworker. During his youth he was a mod and a hippie, and at the same time he was also interested in album covers, Pink Floyd experimentalism, futurism and surrealism. His first band was called Woolly Fish.

In 1973, he was in Manchester, singing while playing a 12-string guitar, supporting Stack Waddy, but decided to go to London. In London, by means of a scholarship, he entered the Royal College of Art.

With the bands Tiger Lily (2) and Ultravox!, he experimented with different genres of music, such as glam, reggae, synth pop and industrial, influenced by Roxy Music, New York Dolls and Kraftwerk.

He left Ultravox in 1979 for a solo career, releasing his first album Metamatic in 1980, which showed an electronic style derived from synthesizers. He released three further solo albums, before taking a break from music in 1985 and concentrating on visual work.

In 1990, inspired by acid house, Foxx briefly returned as Nation 12, a collaboration with Tim Simenon of Bomb The Bass (and later with the late Shem McCauley / Streets Ahead). Foxx fell silent again until 1997, when a chance meeting with Louis Gordon resulted in a batch of duo albums (1997-2008) and a new phase of Foxx’s solo career.