Has Iron Maiden always used backdrops and masks and giants puppets and stuff?
Yeah, I painted the first Eddie backdrop – actually the first three or four – and then I managed to get out of doing them because they were horrible to have to do. You end up getting shipped across London to some lonely, cold, wet warehouse with sheets of canvas and a bucket of paint. Were the early Eddie masks actually Eddie, or were they, like, converted Phantom of the Opera or monster masks? No, they were specially made. They had a few of them. Some of the masks were made by this bloke who made props for television, and a large puppet was made by a guy who did giants for theater productions. Not to get into the legalities of it, but did you design the masks and dolls and stuff, or did you get paid, seeing as it was your character? Well, I sold the rights to the paintings when I sold the paintings, and I got royalties for all the merchandise. Did you have any idea Eddie was going to take off the way he did? Actually, yeah, I did. When I did the first painting, before I met Iron Maide
