End Times Eddie: Riggs’ full painting for the cover of Live After Death, (below) his initial concept for the Brave New World album, and (inset) the front cover of biographical art book Run For Cover.
Wicker Man (inspired by the classic British film of the same name) but long-standing creative differences eventually came to a head. “You see, everyone thinks they can de-
sign a picture but they can’t,” Riggs stresses. “Steve [Harris] said he wanted it ‘really heavy, like the one in the movie.’ I came up with a series of three pictures of Eddie being like a cathedral and then being burnt. Then the manager said, ‘Why not have one more picture of Eddie burnt like a giant matchstick in the cartoons.’ He wanted a crowd of people dancing around it like the characters do in the movie. … I was actually in the mid- dle of creating a bunch of figures to go around the fire, and to have some- one basically screaming at the end of your email twice a day really fucks with your concentration. I decided that I’d had enough and I wasn’t going to work under those conditions anymore. … The manager showed the picture – what there was of it – to the band [members], who decided they didn’t like it much and they went off to use the city thing. I didn’t work for Maiden for several years after that mess.” All seemed lost, a legacy broken, but to the delight of the devout, Riggs
returned last year to provide the art for Flight 666, a documentary on the record-breaking Somewhere Back in Time tour. Though Maiden’s art since he left has been occasionally inspired, it’s inevitably missing that Riggs magic. Some might even argue that if it weren’t for Riggs’ fusion of work- ing class edge, surrealism and comic wit (check out the reference to British horror film Psychomania tucked between the tombstones on the cover of Live After Death), Iron Maiden may not have become the monsters of rock they are today. Having been haunted by Eddie for 30 years now, does the artist ever
double-take at his creation and see another monster staring back? “Frankenstein and his monster is me and Eddie,” Riggs says. “He will
pursue me to my death in the Arctic.” Run for Cover: The Art of Derek Riggs is available from
derekriggs.com.
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