"German is party to all sort of Stones' doings, many of which are enjoyable, quite a few of which are scandalous. <b>Great rock 'n' roll Babylon stuff</b>."<br>- Booklist (Starred Review)<br><br>"The <b>epic tale </b>of an obsessive teenager who launched a <i>Rolling Stones </i>fanzine and spent the next two decades capturing the band's whirlwind metamorphosis from behind the scenes….<b>First-rate, firsthand account </b>of the world's greatest rock 'n' roll band, and a disenchanted chronicle of its increasingly crass commercialization."<br>- Kirkus Reviews<br><br>As a teenager, Bill German knew exactly what he wanted to do with his life: chronicle the career and adventures of his favorite rock band, the Rolling Stones. And in 1978, on his sixteenth birthday, he set out to make his dream a reality. Feverishly typed in his Brooklyn bedroom, and surreptitiously printed in his high school's mimeograph room German's Stones-only newsletter, Beggars Banquet, was born. His teachers discouraged it, his parents dismissed it as a phase, and his disco-loving classmates preferred the Bee Gees, but, for German, this primitive, pre-Internet fanzine was a labor of love. And a fateful encounter with his idols on the streets of New York soon proved his efforts weren't in vain.<br><br>Impressed with Beggars Banquet, the Stones gave the 'zine instant cred on the rock scene by singing its praises–and by inviting German to hang with the band. At first a fish out of water in the company of rock royalty, German found himself spilling orange juice on a priceless rug in Mick Jagger's house and getting pegged as a narc by pals of Keith Richards and Ron Wood. But before long he became a familiar fixture in the inner sanctum, not just reporting Stones stories but living them. He was a player in the Mick-versus-Keith feud and was an eyewitness to Keith's midlife crisis and Ron's overindulgences. He even had a reluctant role in covering up Mick's peccadilloes. “In the span of a few months,” German recalls, “I'd gone from wanting to know everything about my favorite rock stars to knowing too much.”<br><br>In this warts-and-all book, which includes many never-before-seen photographs, German takes us to the Stones' homes, recording sessions, and concerts around the world. He charts the band's rocky path from the unthinkable depths of a near breakup to the obscenely lucrative heights of their blockbuster tours. And ultimately, German reveals why his childhood dream come true became a passion he finally had to part with.<br><br>Under Their Thumb<i> </i>is an up-close and extremely personal dispatch from the amazing, exclusive world of the Rolling Stones, by someone who was lucky enough to live it–and sober enough to remember it all.