It cannot be overstated the impact that both #ironmaiden and #derekriggs had on my life. Derek Riggs was my first artistic love, he was the first artist to make me consider a person's body of work. I loving recreated every single Iron Maiden album and single covers. I drew them on folders, lined paper and eventually skin. Today I'm putting the finishing touches on a "killers" tattoo and I've been looking forward to it all week.
Iron Maiden were the first band that I hunted down their discography. I bought any singles and imports I could find. I discovered the "b-side" through them. Which as an avid music collector is really a monumental moment. "Powerslave" was the first new release album during my fandom and it will always be special to me because I remember thinking: "I'm hearing this before some other fan somewhere is!" It is arguably their best album as well (though that argument is rarely won with such a large and influential canon). It was 1984, I was twelve and had already been wearing a "piece of mind" back patch on my treasured denim jacket for months, I was hoping to grow my hair long (I hadn't yet started that battle with my parents). That jacket was my freak flag in junior high and I flew it proudly. I got in fist fights with former co-football players. I was angry and headbanger culture made me feel threatening, the inverse of my home life. It was powerful stuff. I caught the band live again this past winter in Canada, thirty years almost to the day since the first time I saw them perform at the Aud in Buffalo for this album. It brought tears to my eyes, how good they still were and all the shit in my life they had been a soundtrack too and here they were: still around and still important to me. I often long for stability in life, things that remain constant. Maiden had done that for me. #uptheirons
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