Stories

When I look at the Steppenwolf album covers I made, I did their first three or four, I think of a few important things. For the first time I was able to force my hand with the record company and get them to agree to my using special papers and effects on some of the covers.

As a result of Steppenwolf’s first album cover I met my dear friend and brother artist Rick Griffin because I had printed their first cover on reflective silver foil and at the same time up in San Francisco Rick had created a cover for Quicksilver Messenger Service that was also on silver foil. Great minds… and all that. Rick and I remained close friends and collaborators until his untimely death. Together we created some very cool art I am very proud of.

On this cover I had originally wanted to use reflective silver Mylar so it would be a perfect mirrored surface. There were so many technical difficulties that I wound up settling for using reflective silver foil. My idea was to create a piece of art that would draw the viewer into the art, and the experience of the music inside. How better than letting the viewer see himself reflected in the art itself. The star in the center was meant to be a mirror of the viewer as “star”. The early “psychedelic” background was created by several days of air brushing and the photo of the band I had shot by Henry Diltz. The angle of them looking down into the camera was also meant to be inviting the viewer in and helping to create the effect of depth.