Road Eyes Tee

PRINTED ON LOS ANGELES APPAREL CHARCOAL UNISEX GD1801 TEES. 

LIMITED TO 75 TOTAL PIECES.

ALL ITEMS TAKE BETWEEN 3-6 WEEKS TO PRODUCE AFTER THE ORDER PERIOD ENDS. All items are final sale. We are not responsible for lost, stolen, or misplaced packages.

Upon its release, Rust Never Sleeps was hailed as a commercial and critical revitalization for Neil Young, and the successful, bizarre tour featuring oversized amps, roadies dressed as Jawas from the then new Star Wars film (called Road-eyes by Neil), sound technicians in lab coats, audio recordings from Woodstock played from disintegrating tapes.

 
As the house lights were extinguished, Jawas from Star Wars swarmed the stage, moving equipment into position as Coneheads took their places at the mixing boards on stage. The feeble house public address system blared out Jimi Hendrix's guitar version of the U.S. national anthem while three Jawas dragged a ten-foot tall cardboard replica of a 1926 Electrovoice microphone to centre stage, struggling to right it “Iwo Jima” style. Hendrix's "Anthem" suddenly swirled into the Beatles' "A Day In The Life." The large blue instrument case up stage left was lifted to reveal a prone human figure in foetal position clutching a Guild 12-string. The figure rose and broke into the song "Sugar Mountain".Neil also released a film version of the album under the same title. Later on in 1979, Neil Young and Crazy Horse released the album Live Rust, a compilation of older classics interweaving within the Rust Never Sleeps track list.

The thing to keep in mind about the Jawas in Star Wars is that they are scrap dealers, so they were symbols for the tour and LP.  Neil has confirmed that he got the phrase "Rust Never Sleeps" from Mark Mothersbaugh of the band Devo, the title is borrowed from the slogan for Rust-Oleum paint (a rust inhibitor) and is also an aphorism describing Neil Youngs musical self-renewal to avert the threat of irrelevance.  The Jawas are a representation of that idea.
 
Not so surprisingly, George Lucas threatened legal action at the unlicensed use of his characters, however, this was settled amicably out of court with little fuss.  Suspiciously though, a few years later in 1982, a story appeared in The Empire Strikes Back Monthly comic (issue156 by Marvel UK) about scrap yard droids and Jawas which had the title "Rust Never Sleeps", giving a subtle nod towards Neils music album.