A U.S. Senator Rand Paul has criticized the allocation of millions of dollars in Covid-19 relief money to bands like SLIPKNOT, KORN, NICKELBACK, and more. This criticism raises concerns about the appropriateness of providing relief funds to rock bands during the pandemic.
In a recent report by Paul addressing the U.S. government’s spending grievances, he criticized the wasteful expenditures made by the government, including the grant program.
While the grants were meant to assist struggling venues and artists affected by the COVID-19 lockdowns, several renowned touring artists, such as SLIPKNOT, THE SMASHING PUMPKINS, and NICKELBACK, also benefited from the program, receiving millions in taxpayer dollars.
Paul expressed his concerns about how the funds were utilized, noting that artists were not obligated to use the money to support their staff, and there is no transparency regarding how the funds were actually spent.
According to Paul, “so-called ‘small business owners,’ such as Post Malone, Lil Wayne, Chris Brown, and SMASHING PUMPKINS, received up to $10 million each. Even NICKELBACK received $2 million.”
As per the report, SLIPKNOT received a substantial amount of $9.7 million through the grant. Additionally, their ‘Knotfest’ festival was granted $1,050,736. KORN was awarded $5.3 million, Melissa Etheridge received $3.9 million, Usher received $3.1 million, and Leann Rimes received $2 million. It is worth noting that several other recording artists were also recipients of the grant funds.
Paul‘s apprehensions regarding the grant arise from the financial aspect of how the money was utilized. He expressed his concerns stating that although some may argue that these funds were used to sustain the support staff, there was no obligation for artists to do so. As a result, there is no means of ascertaining how these unrestricted funds were ultimately utilized.
