How Andy Warhol’s zipper cover for The Rolling Stones’ 'Sticky Fingers' actually worked

The cover of Sticky Fingers is basically a photo of a man’s crotch in tight jeans, shot by Andy Warhol and designed with a real working zipper that you could pull down to reveal underwear printed underneath. The concept came from Warhol’s fascination with packaging and pop eros — he wanted the record to feel like something you’d rip open like a pair of pants. The photo itself was taken by Warhol’s assistant, with the model being a man named Jed Johnson (who later became Warhol’s lover), although some fans still misidentify it as Mick Jagger.

That zipper wasn’t just a gimmick — it actually worked, but it caused endless headaches during production. Each sleeve had to be assembled by hand because the zipper would snag or tear the vinyl inside. The original pressing also featured the zipper fully functional, meaning if you yanked it too fast, you could scratch the record. Later reissues glued the zipper shut, but the first 1971 copies still let you unzip the cover and peek inside at a pair of briefs and a bulge — a detail that got the album banned in several record shops.