Sunday Morning: Loverboy’s ‘Get Lucky’ Cover Butt’s Untold Story
We've all seen the cover of Loverboy's 1981 album 'Get Lucky.' And many of us have had similar reactions to it over the years, ranging from "Hmm ..." to "What the hell?" But there's more to that cover than just a red-leather-clad ass and crossed hairy fingers. There's a backstory worth sinking into. And as CBC Music notes, that story is a "surprising and tragic" one.
For starters, that butt does not belong to Loverboy singer Mike Reno. It doesn't belong to guitarist Paul Dean either. Even though Dean kinda hints that he's the cover model in the band's video for the album's hit song 'Working for the Weekend,' CBC Music astutely points out that "his pants are baggy compared to the pants on the cover, which don’t leave a crack of breathing room for the model."
Turns out that it's not Reno sporting those pants either. The album -- which cracked the Top 10 in the U.S. and remains one of the biggest-selling records in Canada, Loverboy's home -- lists the credit as “Bottom by: T.K.” But for years nobody has spoken up about the identity of T.K. ... or even if T.K. was a real person.
CBC Music has finally gotten to the bottom of the mystery, revealing that the cover butt belongs to -- ready for this? -- a 13-year-old girl. So, yes, you can now add "eww" to your list of reactions to this famous cover.
T.K. was Tymara Kennedy, the daughter of photographer David Michael Kennedy, who shot pics of Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, among others. Apparently nobody else could squeeze into the only pair of red leather pants they were able to find for the shoot, so 13-year-old Tymara got the job.
And here's the double-eww part: Nobody can remember who's hairy arm is draped across the barely teenage girl's butt. It doesn't belong to anyone in the band. It doesn't belong to her dad. "We just looked at different models’ hands, and we found this one guy whose hand I liked,” Kennedy recalled. “So he's just standing to the side with his hands back in there.” Again, eww.
Unfortunately, Tymara was killed in a car accident 10 years later, when she was just 22 years old. The 'Get Lucky' cover was the only time she ever modeled. “She was really proud of it," Kennedy said. "It was one of the special pictures in her house. And even if it's not your face, it’s a pretty cool thing to be on a Loverboy cover. In a way, it's a little bit of a memorial for her now that people know.”