U.S. Senator Rails Against Millions Of Dollars In Covid-19 Relief Money Given To Slipknot, The Smashing Pumpkins, Nickelback & Others

During the pandemic, numerous recording artists and organizations were entitled to apply for financial aid through an act dubbed the Small Business Administration’s Shuttered Venue Operators Grant. A wealth of artists and venues applied for the grant, the accounting for which has recently come under fire from U.S. senator Rand Paul.

According to a report Paul recently delivered on spending grievances by the U.S. government, Paul railed against what he sees as various wasteful spending measures enacted by the aforementioned government in recent years, the aforementioned grant included.

While that grant was intended to help support venues and the like impacted by the COVID lockdowns, numerous touring artists also took advantage of it to stay afloat. Per a report published yesterday (December 22nd) by the New York Post, the likes of Slipknot, The Smashing Pumpkins and Nickelback all received millions of taxpayer dollars through that program.

Paul stated,  “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.”

Per the aforementioned report, Slipknot received $9.7 million via the grant, while Melissa Etheridge received $3.9 million, Usher received $3.1 million and Leann Rimes received $2 million. Numerous other recording artists were also awarded funds.

Paul‘s concerns over the grant stem from the accounting side of how that money was actually used, as he stated, “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.”