Eddie the Head

Background

The very first version of Eddie was a mask made by an art student who was friends with Dave "Lights" Beasley, then in charge of lighting, pyrotechnics and other effects for Iron Maiden's live show. According to Beasley, the original mask was a papier-mâché mould of his own face, which was then used in the band's backdrop, consisting of lights and the band's logo. At the end of their live set, during the "Iron Maiden" song, a fish tank pump was used to squirt fake blood out of the mask's mouth, which typically covered their then-drummer Doug Sampson. After this initial incarnation, Beasley constructed a larger mask out of fibreglass, equipped with flashing eyes and the ability to release red smoke from its mouth.

The band's bassist and founding member Steve Harris states that the name "Eddie" comes from the fact that said mask was referred to as "The Head", which sounded like "Ead" in the band members' London accent. According to guitarist Dave Murray the name was also inspired by an old joke:

"A wife had a baby, but it was born with only a head and no body. 'Don't worry,' says the doctor. 'Bring him back in five years time, and we'll probably have a body for him'. So five years go by, and there's Eddie the 'Ead, as his parents have called him, sitting on the mantelpiece, when in walks his dad. 'Son,' he says, 'today's a very special day. It's your fifth birthday, and we've got a very special surprise for you.' 'Oh no,' says Eddie. 'Not another fucking hat!'"

Once Iron Maiden had secured a record contract with EMI, the band's manager Rod Smallwood decided that the band needed "that one figure who utterly stamped his presence and image on the band in a way that was obvious enough to make a good album cover." After seeing some of his artwork on a Max Middleton poster, Smallwood set up a meeting with Derek Riggs and asked to see some of his other illustrations, in the midst of which was the band's first album cover. Originally created as an idea for a punk record (which Riggs states in the 12 Wasted Years documentary was based on an alleged American's skull stuck to a Vietnamese tank), the band had extra hair added to the illustration, making it more suitable to their style of music, and transferred the name from the original masks they used onstage. Surmising that the creature had "great visual continuity," Smallwood decided it would be used for all of the band's artwork.

Smallwood claims that Rupert Perry, EMI's then managing director, came up with the idea that Eddie could become a more active part of the band's concerts, originally portrayed by Smallwood himself, wearing an Eddie mask and a leather jacket. The classic "walk-on" Eddie was created for The Beast on the Road tour by Dave Beasley after seeing a pantomime version of Jack and the Beanstalk, which used similar giants, consisting of "basically a bloke on stilts but dressed up to look about ten feet (3 m) tall." As the band's stage show expanded, an additional gigantic Eddie was also incorporated at the back of the set during "Iron Maiden", which, like the "walk-on" Eddie, would match the theme of the current tour, such as the 30-foot (9 m), mummified version used during the World Slavery Tour, which shot sparks from its eyes.

Eddie's debut appearance was on the band's first single cover, "Running Free," in which his face was covered by shadow to protect his identity before the release of the band's first album. Since then, Eddie has assumed a different guise for each cover, such as a "mummified Egyptian god" for Powerslave, a lobotomised mental patient for Piece of Mind, emerging from a grave in Live After Death, and a cyborg for Somewhere in Time. In addition to the band's album covers and live shows, the character also appears in merchandise including T-shirts, posters and action figures, as well as the group's two video games: the 1999 first-person shooter, Ed Hunter, and the 2016 role-playing game, Iron Maiden: Legacy of the Beast. On top of this, Eddie features as an unlockable character in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4.

Controversy

Some of the band's artworks have proved controversial, such as the cover of "Sanctuary," in which Eddie can be seen standing over the corpse of Margaret Thatcher. It was claimed that Iron Maiden were banned from releasing the single without censoring the cover, blacking out Thatcher's face, although Riggs has since claimed that this was fabricated by the band's management to gain publicity in the British tabloids.

The greatest controversy, however, was reserved for the band's third album, The Number of the Beast, whose artwork depicted Eddie controlling Satan like a marionette. Originally created by Riggs for the "Purgatory" single cover, but deemed too good by Smallwood and withheld for the next studio release, the image, along with the record's title track, led to the Moral Majority labelling Iron Maiden as Satanists and organising public burnings of their back-catalogue in the United States, which in turn gave them a large amount of publicity.

During the course of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, Eddie the Head, specifically as he appeared on the sleeve of "The Trooper", became an unofficial mascot of the Ulster Freedom Fighters loyalist paramilitary group and was the main figure on a number of the group's murals. During The Final Frontier World Tour in 2011, after Iron Maiden did not perform "The Trooper" in Belfast, Blabbermouth.net reported that there had been speculation amongst fans that this was due to the artwork's use in murals.

Recognition

Gibson.com described Eddie in 2008 as "the most recognizable metal icon in the world and one of the most versatile too," while in 2009 Gigwise called him "perhaps the most enduring band mascot of all time." Many artists who have been influenced by Iron Maiden hold their artwork in high regard, with Joey Jordison, former member of Slipknot commenting that he bought his first album "on the strength of the cover alone" and Corey Taylor, also of Slipknot, stating that "there wasn't a dude that I hung out with that wasn't trying to draw Eddie on their schoolbooks." Steve-O, from Jackass, says that they have "the coolest album covers in the music industry" and Lars Ulrich, of Metallica, comments that "they had the best packaging, the coolest T-shirts — everything." Mick Wall describes Eddie as "the immortal soul of Iron Maiden, the defining symbol of the eternally youthful, blissfully uncompromising spirit of the band's music."

In 2008, Eddie won the "Icon Award" at the Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards.

Other artists

From 1980 onwards, the band's Eddie artwork was provided exclusively by Derek Riggs until 1992, when the band decided to accept contributions from other artists, with Smallwood explaining that they "wanted to upgrade Eddie for the '90s. We wanted to take him from this sort of comic-book horror creature and turn him into something a bit more straightforward so that he became even more threatening." Since then, Riggs has contributed much less to the band's artwork, creating part of one studio album, one single and two compilation covers, while the band have employed a number of different artists: