The Rolling Stones -- money-grubbing weasels?

In 1989, The Rolling Stones came to town on their "Steel Wheels" tour.  I did this  design for an "event" T-shirt that some folks wanted to sell before and during the Concert.

But we needed permission from the Rolling Stones. 

I called the Stones' manager in L.A., and he told me that under no circumstances would we be allowed to sell T-shirts of any kind relating to the concert.  He warned me that the Stones were serious about cracking down on "bootleggers" during this tour, and that Federal Marshalls would haul me to jail if I tried to sell just one.

I should never have asked for permission. 

We saw several bootleggers selling unauthorized T-shirts out of backpacks at the concert.

Later, I called the Stones' manager back to report this; I complained that he was being unfair and that my T-shirts were of a much better quality than the ugly "authorized" ones.  He told me that the Stones had paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to artists who had designed the shirts under the watchful artistic eyes of the band members.

What's more, the Stones had hired 200 agents specifically to ignore murders and muggings just to get the bootleggers; he doubted that any bootlegging scalawags had escaped their net.

He even claimed that their shirts were printed on "beefy T's."

Huh.  He was not only a bully, he was a liar. 

The authorized shirts looked flimsy to me.