labor pains

To: W. Axl Rose
From: The Estate of Upton Sinclair

Dear Mr. Rose,

Thank you for your recent interest in the works of Upton Sinclair. Unfortunately, at this time we are unable to authorize your proposed broadway musical "Welcome to the Jungle" based on his most famous book, The Jungle. As you can guess, we receive many licensing requests for his works, and cannot grant permission for all of them. Please do not take this as a rejection of your band's musical style. If anything, Mr. Sinclair would have been excited by your guitarist's decision to call attention to unsavory practices in the meat industry by wearing a Kentucky Fried Chicken bucket on his head.

As part of our mission to protect the intellectual property of Upton Sinclair, we feel it is important not to flood the market with too many works. Between P.T. Anderson's upcoming film adaptation of Oil! and the Kool & The Gang/Twyla Tharp meat industry musical "Jungle Boogie," we do not feel it would be prudent to release another Sinclair work at this time.

If you are still interested in the project in a few years, perhaps we can revisit the idea. In the meantime, we would like to congratulate you on having contacted the correct estate. Last month we fielded an inquiry from the band Aerosmith, which had us mistaken for the estate of Sinclair Lewis.

Best wishes,

Upton Sinclair III