Wes Freed, an artist who created album covers for numerous rock bands, has died. He died Sept. 4 at the age of 58.
Did Wes Freed have kids? It’s not known if the artist had children as there is no mention of his children.
Freed’s works appeared on album covers of Lauren Hoffman and numerous American rock bands, including Cracker and the Drive-By Truckers.
After meeting Drive-By Truckers in the late ‘90s at Capital City Barn Dance—a music festival, he co-founded—the first of their many collaborations was the artwork he created for the band’s 2001 double LP Southern Rock Opera, which featured a red-eyed owl flying over a burning field.
He later went on to design posters, t-shirts, backdrops, and other merch for the band. More so, the “Cooley Bird” character he created would become visually synonymous with the band (and guitarist Mike Cooley).
In 2019, he published The Art of Wes Freed: Paints, Posters, Pin-Ups & Possums, a coffee-table book collecting a wide range of his works.
A staple of the Richmond, Virginia, rock scene, Freed also played in several local bands including the Shiners, Dirt Ball, and Mud Helmet.