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Sonic Reducer

"You can't always get what you want"

But sometimes you get what you need, and what Unauthorized Rolling Stones front person Rudy Columbini believes this city – and Polk Gulch, in particular – needs is his Bay Area Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame. His Music City plans for a recording studio, live music venue, school, rehearsal space, living quarters, and hall of fame in the old Plant Warehouse space have been in the works for a while. But these days, Columbini says – pulling his plans out of his car, parked beside racks of "Mick" costumes – he's facing opposition from the Board of Supervisors, as well as neighbors fretting about possible noise, after passing through Planning Commission with flying colors.

"This isn't a dead museum – it's a living museum," he tells me, walking me through the gutted warehouse space. "In the studios bands are playing – you can't hear the bands because we're lead-lined. But all this shit is happening. Then we have a school – thinking of possibly bringing in Blue Bear [School of Music]. People could come here, they can live, they can rehearse." He's dreaming big and drops Herbie Hancock's name as a possible in-house producer.

So why the guff from the 'hood, McDuff? "Wanna know the truth?" he blurts. "It's the musicians! The idea of musicians coming into this neighborhood! And I wanna tell you, people sleep in this door, and the back alley is full of syringes." He says he's owned the 18-room basement rehearsal space (called Fern Alley or Marvelous Show, depending on whom you talk to) for 13 years, and he's "never had a police incident there. E-ver. So we're not bringing in trash! This is an economic injection in the neighborhood."

The 51-year-old musician and developer ("I guess I wouldn't call myself a developer, but I am a developer. You call it the pudding when you taste it") of the Fitzgerald Hotel and Nob Hill Hotel hopes music fans, musicians, and supporters will represent when he appears before the board Sept. 13, and he wants to complete the project by spring or summer 2006.

And in case you were wondering, Columbini has no favorite Stones song, but when it comes to a favorite Stone, he has to pick the guitar slinger over the man he plays onstage. ("A tribute band, c'mon, you know, but it works. I never had a $7,000 show before this") "Keith got the heart!" he cries with palpable enthusiasm. "Mick looks out at you and he looks straight through you. Keith loves you. No doubt about it." And naturally, Columbini loves the new album: " 'Rough Justice,' omigod. Great quote: 'I used to be a little red rooster, now I'm just one of your cocks.' Very incorrigible." A bit like another never-say-die player himself.