The vice president of Live Nation's D.C. office said at the Fillmore Music Hall's groundbreaking today in Silver Spring that it was Lee Development Group, and not Montgomery County, that approached the live entertainment company about operating the Colesville Road rock club.

Critics of the county's weird, three-way deal with the two companies have long suspected it was Bruce Lee's firm that, after a deal with the Birchmere music hall fell through, steered the county toward Live Nation. But now Ted Mankin, speaking to TBD's Elahe Izadi after the groundbreaking, has confirmed it. Two county councilmembers contend that County Executive Ike Leggett and LDG should have considered other companies, like Bethesda-based I.M.P., which operates the 9:30 Club (and whose co-owner, Seth Hurwitz, is suing Maryland officials over public funds committed to the Fillmore's construction).

Live cuts from the Byrds, Neil Young, and Creedence Clearwater Revival — all recorded at the Fillmore East or West — serenaded about a hundred people, most of them in suits or skirts and dripping sweat, at the groundbreaking. County Executive Ike Leggett, meanwhile, sang a different kind of tune, promising that taxpayers "will realize the full benefit of live entertainment" and will see the rock club's impact on economic development.

"Most importantly," he added, "you will see a return on your investment."

That, of course, is what has some taxpayers concerned. The state has allocated $4 million and the county, which originally committed $4 million,  is paying $7.4 million (and counting) for Lee Development Group to build the club, at which point it will become the county's.

As you might expect, music references abounded in the nearly a dozen speeches delivered on the scorching blacktop behind the future Fillmore. Leggett said about the club, "I won't see it as a success until you get Sly and the Family Stone," joking that Live Nation should "unearth" Sly Stone if necessary. (Stone isn't dead.) David Dise, director of general services, appealed to the would-be rock star in all of us, saying, "Every one of us, when no one was watching, played an air guitar." Even Bruce Lee, whose music tastes I've tried several times to discern (without success), got into the act, beginning with a misquote of the Grateful Dead: "What a long strange road it's been."

Live Nation's Ted Mankin did not make a music reference.

Elahe Izadi contributed reporting to this article.