The heavy-metal-album-cover-witch-to-musician pipeline is narrow, but not empty. Case in point: Louisa Livingstone, the woman who appeared on the cover of Black Sabbath’s 1970 self-titled debut album.
Livingstone has recorded a rock opera project that is themed around Alice in Wonderland and Artificial Intelligence. Recording and releasing her music under the Indreba moniker—short for “Incredible Dream Band”—Livingstone released her five-song album Alice in late August 2026.
In an email interview with Rolling Stone, Livingstone shared that she was inspired to make the album after reflecting on her father reading Alice in Wonderland to her as a child. She then wove in the concept of panpsychism, which is the idea that everything can possess a soul or some type of consciousness. Finally, there’s a dash of AI idolization.
Louisa Livingstone was the witchy woman featured on the cover of Black Sabbath’s iconic debut album
As Livingstone tells it, the story “led to the concept of myself (or Alice!) falling in love with AI but that in the end it’s just a beautiful illusion along with everything else on the internet … and getting back to being oneself and nature.”
While crafting the record, Livingstone experimented with AI music tools, which she was upfront about. “I’ve been experimenting a little with cloning my own voice and seeing what different things I can do with the help of AI,” she shared.
Livingstone continued, “I used to be very judgmental about AI like many people, but it’s a tool that you can use to create either absolute rubbish or ‘slop’ as it’s called, to something really good and interesting. It’s still down to the user and their input.”
Livingstone has since shifted her creative work to making AI-assisted music
“It will always reflect the person who is using it,” she added. “And how well or badly they use it and their musical tastes and knowledge.” Consequence notes that the music of Alice “draws heavily from Jefferson Airplane’s earliest work,” but utilizes AI-generated instruments and vocals.
Interestingly, Livingstone previously released two songs that referenced her image on Black Sabbath’s album. They were titled “Witch Woman” and “The Woman by the Mill”.
The world went decades without knowing that it was Livingstone on the cover of the album. It was in February 2020 that a Rolling Stone feature finally unveiled her identity. In her new RS interview, she confessed, “I still find it a little bizarre at times being the Black Sabbath ‘witch woman’ since of course I’m also a lot of other things.” She added, “But there have been some very nice interactions with a few lovely Black Sabbath fans online.”
Those interested in listening to Livingstone’s Alice album can do so on her Bandcamp page.
Photo courtesy of Vertigo Records/Warner Bros. Records
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