With the 30th anniversary of Alice In Chains‘ Dirt coming upon us, the band’s social media accounts have been sharing some real special gems with fans. One of those gems involves some photos associated with the Dirt album cover photo shoot. One of these photos really catches our eye, for it could have made for one hell of an alternative album cover.
Rocky Schenck is the photographer behind the Dirt photo shoot, and over on the Alice In Chains Instagram account, several photos and insight into the shoot have been shared. Rocky provided a brief statement about the shoot, and additional context is provided regarding how he went about taking these photos.
“On creating the album art for #Dirt: ‘I wanted this cover to have a rather ‘Hellish’ atmosphere. It was (the band’s) idea to have a nude woman, half-buried in the desert. She could be either dead or alive. All of my experiences with Alice in Chains have been great, life-changing experiences. I’m very thankful for the truly brilliant times that I’ve had with these amazing guys.’ – Rocky Schenck
“Instead of shooting the album cover in an actual desert, Rocky built one in his Hollywood studio so he could control the aesthetics and lighting. He painted the sky backdrop, constructed miniature mountains, and made the desert floor from foam core and clay. Rocky also left a body-shaped hole in the ‘ground’ just big enough for model, Mariah O’Brien, to climb into.”
You can find the photos associated with this Alice In Chains’ photo shoot below. We think the first photo could have made for a real striking alternative album cover.
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Could you imagine if that first photo was used as the album cover instead? In other Alice In Chains’ related news, Slipknot singer Corey Taylor recently shared that Dirt is one of the greatest heavy metal albums of all time. Do you agree with him?
The other day, we shared some incredible live footage from one of the band’s performances; this footage involves the band playing their song “Them Bones” and took place in the ’90s.