Evelyn Rose, the enigmatic one-time girlfriend of Pink Floyd’s Syd Barrett, has died.
The official Syd Barrett Facebook page and The Holy Church of Iggy the Inuit website report she passed away yesterday at the age of 69.
Nicknamed “Iggy the Eskimo” for her alleged Inuit heritage — she was born in Pakistan and lived in India and Aden before moving to England — Rose is the nude woman on the back cover of Barrett’s 1970 “The Madcap Laughs” album.
In the February 2011 issue of MOJO magazine, she told writer Mark Blake she’d helped Barrett paint the striped floor of his apartment the morning of the photo shoot, before photographer Mick Rock and sleeve designer Storm Thorgerson arrived.
In the article, Rose said, if you examine the photo closely, “I have paint on the soles of my feet.” She also stated when Rock and Thorgerson arrived, she left the room to dress, but stayed sans clothes at the insistence of Barrett. “That was his wicked sense of humor,” she said.
Photos: “The Madcap Laughs” back cover (Photo: Mick Rock), top; Iggy in 2011 (Photo: Chris Lanaway)
