Alicia Keys, photographed for her “Women who Rock” cover story feature alongside Eve and Missy Elliott in the October 30 issue of Rolling Stone magazine by Max Vadukul in New York, September 2003.

On the cover Alicia wears a jacket and belt by Dolce and Gabbana, pants by Jean Paul Gaultier, corset by Agent Provocateur, hat by Lola, and earrings by Jacob and Company. She is styled by Patti Wilson with hair by Nicole Tucker and makeup by Ayako.

The 934th issue cover story of Rolling Stone, titled “Women who Rock,” featured seven spotlight articles of women musicians including Dolly Parton, Missy Elliott, Eve and Lauryn Hill, who “play by their own rules,” and do so “brilliantly.”

In the corresponding interview with celebrity interviewer Jancee Dunn, Alicia’s described as wearing a pair of jeans, a brown/yellow/cream leather jacket and a pair of big sparkly black earrings. She speaks candidly about her forthcoming sophomore album The Diary of Alicia Keys, particularly how the record reflects Sixties and Seventies soul music: “That’s some of the best music ever created, period, end of story. I feel sometimes it’s a lost art—being a true artist, having different angles to offer, experimenting. Long songs that last forever, like eleven minutes—I’m really inspired by things like that.”

Dunn asks Alicia when she was most happiest in her career, and when she was most unhappiest, she intimately answers: “I’ll tell you what makes me the most happy about what I do: that I can be myself. And this is really important, because often times young women are pushed to be something other than they are, even if it’s just slightly. And the worst was probably dealing with so much upheaval with my first record company. I was like, ‘I don’t even know where I’m going to land.’ That was definitely a very hard, hard time in my life.”