Ken Kelly

The death of the American artist Ken Kelly was announced in 2022. He was 76 and was known for creating album artwork for a number of rock bands such as Kiss and Manowar, but most importantly for those of us here (I suspect) he was the man behind the iconic Rainbow Rising cover art.

A few years ago he commented on his work for the project – “Rainbow itself was a very simple cover to do but I don’t want to misrepresent that. It was a difficult cover, it was a unique cover, but I have to give Ritchie Blackmore the credit for it. He knew exactly what he wanted. So, when I came into his office and after we greeted each other and sat down and started talking about the cover, I believe it comes from one of the songs – the actual reaching of the hand out to the rainbow. I had just been completely overwhelmed with KISS and what I did for them, so I was very prepared when Rainbow called and then I went into their office and they dictated the cover.

So I left the office with a complete painting in my head, I simply had to go home and use the disciplines that we’re taught as artists and do what Ritchie said and that’s what I did. I didn’t think about it much at the time, but it’s stayed alive for forty years, it’s amazing, it’s incredible and it was a masterpiece because that’s what Ritchie asked for. He still knows what he’s doing to this day and he did back then. I would love to say I created everything and it’s all mine, but that’s simply not true.” 

Blackmore himself was moved to comment on Kelly’s passing – “He was a very nice man. Very easy to work with. I gave him a simple idea, which he turned into a magical picture.  He shall be greatly missed. RIP Ken Kelly “

The pencil sketches for the sleeve survived, although I do not know where they ended up, but the scan above gives an idea of Ken’s initial thoughts on paper.