Joe Petagno Parts Ways With MOTÖRHEAD

Joe Petagno Parts Ways With MOTÖRHEAD

Longtime MOTÖRHEAD cover artist Joe Petagno has sent BW&BK the following statement:

"The Kiss Of Death rather befittingly signals the end of an era. I will no longer be doing cover art / versions of the 'head' which I created in 1975 for the band Motörhead. This is due to irreconcilable differences between myself and the bands current Management Singerman Entertainment. It has been a long, exciting and industrious journey, full of art and intuition, difference in repetition, and creative innovation. I feel I accomplished something unique in Metal history over the last 31 years by breathing life again and again into a figment of my own imagination, an image or better an entity which has taken on a life of it’s own, which I actually believe goes beyond the music it was created to represent. I’m damn proud of that! Nonetheless everything comes to an end, and officially announce that there will be no more 'heads' from my hand. I will of course continue doing the 'Metal As Fuck Album Cover Art' that I am known and respected for world wide, until they have to pry the brush from my dead left hand! THE HEAD IS DEAD! R.I.P!"

According to Wikipedia, Petagno worked with Hipgnosis (LED ZEPPELIN, PINK FLOYD, BLACK SABBATH) before meeting Motörhead's Lemmy Kilmister in 1975 - he designed Snaggletooth for the band's Motörhead album and has continued to design the majority of the album and single sleeve covers for the band.