Louisa Livingstone, the woman who famously featured on the cover of Black Sabbath’s debut album, is now set to be immortalised as a Funko Pop! figure based on the iconic photoshoot as part of a new line devoted to classic albums.
Despite the legendary self-titled album being released way back in 1970, Livingstone’s identity was only discovered earlier this year, with the cover star speaking to Rolling Stone about her experience shooting the iconic cover when she was “18 or 19 years old” with photographer Keith Macmillan.
“I had to get up at about four o’clock in the morning, or something as ridiculously early as that,” Livingstone told the publication.
“It was absolutely freezing. I remember Keith around with dry ice, throwing that into the pond nearby, and that didn’t seem to be working very well, so he was using a smoke machine. But it was just one of those very cold English mornings.”
Macmillan shot the haunting cover art at the Mapledurham Watermill, a 15th-century structure in Oxfordshire, and also spoke to Rolling Stone about the behind-the-scenes workings of the photoshoot.
“[Louisa] was a fantastic model,” he said. “She was quite petite, very, very cooperative. I wanted someone petite because it just gave the landscape a bit more grandeur. It made everything else look big.”
“She wasn’t wearing any clothes under that cloak because we were doing things that were slightly more risque, but we decided none of that worked,” he added. “Any kind of sexuality took away from the more foreboding mood. But she was a terrific model. She had amazing courage and understanding of what I was trying to do.”
Love Metal?
Get the latest Metal news, features, updates and giveaways straight to your inbox Learn more
Macmillan added that he had brought some props to the shoot, including a taxidermy crow which features on the album’s back cover.
“We had him wired onto a tree,” he says. “His name is Yorick. He used to sit in my studio.”
The news of Livingstone’s Funko Pop! figure comes following the announcement in September that a new Ozzy Osbourne figure was being released in celebration of Ordinary Man, the rocker’s first album in ten years.
While the Black Sabbath frontman has featured in previous Funko figurine forms, the new addition was a Hot Topic exclusive and featured Ozzy dressed in the same attire and wings that he sports on the cover of Ordinary Man.
Other artists who’ve been turned into Funko Pop! Rocks figures include Metallica, Slipknot, Guns N’ Roses, Iron Maiden’s Eddie, Slayer, Motley Crue and Dee Snider.
The Black Sabbath album cover Funko Pop! Figure is titled “Black Sabbath” and will be released Dec. 26th, though you can pre-order it now.
Check out ‘Black Sabbath’ by Black Sabbath:
