Led Zeppelin

This was to be my first (only?) cover for Rolling Stone magazine. I got the call on my birthday, and I thought it was a friend playing a joke on me. Anyone who knew me when I was a kid knows how much I loved Zeppelin, and the cover of Rolling Stone has always been the brass ring of my illustration career.

So, I got the call and was like, "Yeah, suuuure, I'll draw a little picture for you. But the guy on the other end sounded sincere, and the small part of me that hasn't been turned to blackened stone held out a little hope that it was the real thing. Turned out it was.

After about a dozen sketches, a final was approved and I went to work on the final...uh, final. The trouble with working digitally is that clients feel free to ask for changes more often than they did before Photoshop was so widely used. So, after I finished the "final" and sent it, more changes, etc. No big deal at all, though. This was a COVER for Rolling Stone.

After I sent the final final final, I jokingly said to the AD, "So what are the chances this thing will actually see a newsstand?" He paused and said, "Well, you never know, usually Jan (Wenner, the publisher) comes in and says "I love it", or "I hate it". Well guess which one it was for me. They went with a colorized black and white stock photo instead.

The thing is, after spending so much time sweating over this thing, I can't even see it any more. It's almost as though I have no idea whether it sucks, or if it's just okay or what.

Anyway, here it is.