Guns N’ Roses cover artist Billy White Jr dies

His tattoo became the cover of one of the most important records of the 80s. “Longtime friend of the band,” Slash writes. “We will miss you”

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Cover singer Billy White Jr dies Thirst for destruction Guns N’ Roses. Slash reveals on his Instagram account, “RIP #BillyWhiteJr, original designer of GNR’s cross logo and longtime friend of the band. We will miss you”.

As you know, there are two versions of the 1987 Guns album cover. The first is devoted to a 1978 work by Robert Williams, titled precisely Thirst for destruction

. This is a cartoon depicting a robot rapist, his victim and a vigilante robot looming over him. Being very strong, it was heavily criticized and was promptly replaced with one designed by Billy White Jr. with Axl Rose.

The latter depicts a cross with the skulls of the then band members on a black background: Axl, Slash, Izzy Stradlin, Stephen Adler, Duff McKagan. White is the author of the tattoo on which the cover is based. Cross and skulls – the idea of ​​the singer. Instead, the plot inside the cross was a tribute to Thin Lizzie.

It would have remained a tattoo if the cover of Williams had not caused so much negativity. The final version is made in watercolor, gouache and ink. The first pencil sketch of a cross with skulls sold at auction in 2009 for nearly $7,000.

Thirst for destruction has sold over 30 million copies worldwide. Only the first 30,000 copies were printed with the Williams cover. Even before using the robot comic, Axl Rose wanted to put on the cover a photo of the Challenger spaceship explosion that could be seen on the cover of the magazine. Time.