Mouthing Off

Ruby Mazur says he was a rambunctious child. He had a fear of boredom, which, to some, could be seen as fore- shadowing for his successful art career, though to his mother, it was a nuisance.

Upon a visit to his grandparents’ house, where he was presumably begged to “please behave,” his dad was put in charge of idling the restless mind of then-5-year-old Mazur.

“My dad said, ‘Come here, Ruby. I’m going to teach you how to draw,’” recalls Muzur, who turns 76 this October. “He had no knowledge of drawing or art or anything like that. He said, ‘You see this glass filled with water? You’re going to draw an oval for the top, an oval for the bottom, two vertical lines — and there’s the glass.’ I started drawing all kinds of glasses with crayons, pencils and ink.”

Soon, Mazur’s childhood refrigerator had not a patch of white left to bare. His mother, happy that her son found a hobby and proud of his newfound knack for art, covered the kitchen appliance with his drinkware drawings for all to see. Mazur calls it his “first exhibition.”

“I knew from that moment on that I was going to be an artist,” he says.

Mazur attended art schools on the East Coast, but, staying true to himself, got bored and left in his third year. He heard from a friend that Paramount Records was opening an office in Manhattan and coaxed the president into a meeting with him. Before the interview was over, Mazur was named the creative director.

“I had never done an album cover, I had no idea what I was doing, but I learned very quickly,” he says.

In his first year, Mazur was nominated for a Grammy Award for rock band Crowfoot’s album cover, which created enough buzz that he was able to open his own design studio in New York City and later Los Angeles. He cranked out 30 album covers a week — his clients include Elton John, Billy Joel, Steely Dan, and Ray Charles — but he’ll never forget one in particular. On a sunny day in California, his secretary peered around the corner and said, “Ruby, I have Mick Jagger on the line for you.”

“I thought it was one of my friends screwing around, so I got back to work,” says Mazur. “The next day, she said, ‘Ruby, Mr. Jagger is here to see you.’ I started screaming vanity at her and, with that, the door opened, and Mick walked in.”

Mazur was invited to join The Rolling Stones to witness the recording Tumbling Dice. He came up with the now-iconic mouth and tongue image — and the rest is rock and roll history.

Decades later, Mazur celebrates the 50th anniversary of his creation that, to this day, serves as an emblem for one of the biggest bands there ever was. Though he phased out of album artwork when CDs took over, Mazur is still very much active in the music- and-art scene by painting portraits of classic rock stars.

The Ruby Mazur Gallery, 280 Beach Walk, Ste. 104, 808-210-7024, therubymazurgallery.com