Eddie the Head

Eddie, whose full name is Eddie the Head or Edward the Head also known as Edward the Great (see below), is the British heavy metal band Iron Maiden's mascot. He is a perennial fixture in the often violent album cover art, as well as ever present in their live shows. Eddie also featured in a first-person shooter video game, Ed Hunter. He is also featured as an unlockable character in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4.

Background

The original Eddie was just a theatrical mask. It can be seen in the band photos on the first album and on the "Running Free" single picture sleeve. It was a face right next to the band's logo. It was connected to a pump that would eject various kinds of liquids, from food dye to paint, and would drool over Doug Sampson who was the drummer at the time. Fans would also try to throw things into the mouth at gigs.

Eddie's full name is Edward The Head (Edward T.H–– (the remainder of his surname is hidden by a clump of soil) on the Live After Death cover) and it comes from the following old joke:

Eddie was born with no body and no arms and no legs. Just a head. But despite this slight birth defect his parents loved him very much. So on his sixteenth birthday they run into a doctor that says "Hey, I can give Eddie a body"... so the parents are going totally nuts because finally their kid can have a body and be like other normal people. They go home and are really excited and say "Have we got a surprise for you. It's the best present ever!" and Eddie says "Oh, no, not another fucking hat!"

Iron Maiden gave the name "Eddie" to that mask. The character Eddie was created by Derek Riggs. In the artwork to the single Running Free, a silhouette of a large, skinny zombie-like creature can be seen. When the band was looking through potential artwork for their first album, they came across the artwork by Derek Riggs that would eventually become the artwork for the self-titled album. The band liked it, and felt that it was what the silhouette actually looked like.

The artwork for the second album, Killers, was also an original Riggs painting before he started creating bespoke album covers from The Number of the Beast onwards. Derek Riggs claimed - in the Maiden documentary 12 Wasted Years - that the design for Eddie the cartoon was based on (what was supposedly) an American head he saw on the news, hung on the side of a Vietnamese tank.

Trivia

Roman Turek - a former NHL goalie with the Calgary Flames - who now plays in the Czech Republic, used Eddie as the main theme in all his masks from the different NHL teams he played with (Dallas Stars, St. Louis Blues and Calgary Flames) which created some very distinctive and interesting masks.

The cult hit television show Aqua Teen Hunger Force, among its numerous references to rock and roll and metal music, has made reference to Eddie in the episode "Super Sir Loin". After being tricked once again by subliminal messages in the music of his favorite rapper, MC Pee Pants, the character of Meatwad converts from rap to heavy metal and mentions Eddie in the following exchange with another character, Frylock.

Meatwad: Boy I feel like a fool. I ain't never again gonna do what no stupid rap musician gonna tell me what to do.

Frylock: That's a good idea, Meatwad.

Meatwad: From now on, it's only heavy metal bands that gonna boss me around. Them people speak the truth. They got this six-story skeleton named Eddie, and he like opens his mouth all crazy fang-like... He's crazy as hell.

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Eddie the Head

Background

Trivia

See also