Stones play for free -- on Bing’s dime

So how exactly do you get the most famous (and most expensive) rock band in the world to play for free? And why do you have a fund-raising concert and then give away the tickets for free?

These questions will be answered Thursday at Staples Center, where the Rolling Stones will deliver their hits and licks in a free public concert for the first time since a certain ill-fated show at Altamont in 1969. The crowd will most certainly be older and tamer this time around and, instead of Hell’s Angels, the partnering presence in this show is film producer Steve Bing and an environmental advocacy group called the National Resources Defense Council.

Bing was the linchpin of the show’s creation -- it is his friendship with the Stones, especially Mick Jagger, that got the band on board for a performance under the banner of the NRDC. An heir to a $600-million real estate fortune, Bing has a middling career in film (including co-writing the new movie “Kangaroo Jack”) and has been known more for tabloid coverage of his romantic liaisons, such as his fathering of actress Elizabeth Hurley’s child.

Bing’s other claim to fame is his moneyed support of activism and charity and his ability to get high-profile friends to lend their fame quotient to events. He has given between $10 million and $15 million to the National Resources Defense Council through the years.

This Thursday he scores on both counts -- he is footing the bill for the Stones show and “donating the event, gift wrapped, to us,” says NRDC spokesman Jon Coifman.

Once given the show, the organization offered up 12,000 tickets via sweepstakes to anyone who wanted them. The point? Media coverage of the event and the chance to get the thousands of hopeful Stones fans who visited the NRDC Web site to enter the giveaway to consider global warming and supporting the nonprofit group with money or activism.

In addition, an undisclosed number of tickets was held back by the NRDC to present to attendees at a “green carpet” gala at the arena in the hours before the show. There, the well-heeled and star-studded crowd will be handed its ducats and reminded that donations are tax deductible.

“This is a new way, a new idea, a new place for us,” Coifman said. “It’s made us a lot of new friends. We are very, very pleased and excited.”

Jagger, Keith Richards and their Stones bandmates presumably are thrilled, too, by the prospect of collecting a paycheck while plugging in for a good cause. It’s not clear if Bing got a serious discount on the performance, but many in the music industry doubt it, noting the considerable production expenses involved in the band’s road runs.

The fund-raising gala is at 6 p.m. Opening act Susan Tedeschi goes on at 8 p.m., followed by the Rolling Stones.

-- Geoff Boucher