Back in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold, the U.S government signed into law the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant. It was envisioned as a lifeline to help keep artists and independent venues, etc. afloat during the lockdowns that brought the touring industry and more to a grinding halt.
That law, in addition to the Paycheck Protection Program — a federal loan program created in 2020 to help businesses, self-employed workers and more affected by the COVID-19 lockdown — was intended to help numerous artists and business retain their staff, etc. during the lockdown.
However, there’s long been allegations of bad actors abusing the program for their own financial gain. Back in December of 2023, U.S. Senator Rand Paul publicly railed against the lack of accounting transparency as to how artists who received aid through the grant and loan programs actually used that taxpayer money.
In his 2023 ‘Festivus’ Report On Government Waste, Paul also provided figures of some of the various musicians from heavier genres who took part in the relief programs. Among them were Slipknot ($9.7 million, while their ‘Knotfest‘ festival also received a $1,050,736 grant,) Korn ($5.3 million,) Nickelback ($2 million). The Smashing Pumpkins were also among the names, along with rappers Post Malone, Lil Wayne, Chris Brown and more.
While no wrongdoing was revealed in said report, Paul remained concerned about just how the money was actually used, stating at the time, “while some may claim these funds were used to keep supporting staff, artists were not required to do so, and we have no way of determining how these blank checks were used.”
A newly published report by Business Insider has now shed the light on where at least some of those funds were apparently directed. Citing accounting documents both verified and reviewed directly by the publication themselves, their report also added some new names to the list, including grunge legends Alice In Chains and multi-platinum hard rockers Shinedown.
While reviews of expenses on several high profile rap artists listed expenses such as elaborate birthday parties and more, no claims were outright deemed fraudulent in Business Insider‘s report. As for their findings regarding the accounting documents regarding Alice In Chains & Shinedown, Business Insider published the following:
‘On March 23, 2022, records show, the Alice in Chains singer and guitarist Jerry Cantrell took in $1.4 million as an “SVOG distribution.” The band’s drummer, Sean Kinney, received the same amount, and its bassist, Mike Inez, booked half that sum, about $682,000.
In all, $3.4 million of the $4.1 million the grant allotted for payroll went to the three musicians at the top.
Like other grant applicants, AIC Entertainment — the three band members’ touring business — had to tell the government only that the money was “necessary.” But the month before they took their grant payments, the band members recorded about $48 million in income from selling the copyrights on their catalog. They made hundreds of thousands of dollars more from merchandise sales and other profit distributions in 2022.
The band spent some money to pay its staff. It paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to sound-equipment-rental firms, videographers, and managers. But the precarious nature of working in the live-entertainment business didn’t change for some of its employees. Scott Dachroeden, a guitar tech and tour photographer who had worked with the band for years, received a cancer diagnosis in late 2022. The band, which records show did not spend grant money on benefits like health insurance, circulated a GoFundMe page on Twitter.
“He has no health insurance and now cannot work to pay his bills,” the page said. The band’s lead singer said on Facebook that Alice in Chains helped out behind the scenes, but a person familiar with the situation said that Dachroeden didn’t get much, if any, money from the band during the pandemic and that after his diagnosis, the band connected Dachroeden with a charity that helps with medical bills. Dachroeden died soon after his diagnosis.
Alice in Chains‘ publicists and manager didn’t respond to requests for comment.’
‘Three of the four members of the rock band Shinedown split at least $2.5 million of their $8.3 million grant. On top of those distributions, Shinedown‘s four members paid themselves more than $100,000 each out of the roughly $1.2 million of the grant that was allocated to payroll.
The band’s 15 touring-production workers, meanwhile, received a combined $650,000 of the grant money — less than a single member of the band got. Publicists for the band didn’t respond to requests for comment.’
