A Bunch of Your Favorite Bands Got Small Business Bailouts
A few months ago the SBA and the Treasury Department gave out over half a TRILLION dollars in “loans.” I put “loans” in quotation marks because that money would be forgiven if the businesses didn’t cut jobs or payroll. Also, I SHOULD have put “small business” in quotes because many, many, MANY large businesses got millions while actual small businesses got bupkis.
You might remember hearing that national chains like Ruth’s Chris and Shake Shack got millions but were SHAMED into giving it back, proving that the American public knows the definition of “small business” better than the Small Business Administration does.
You can’t put the musicians on the following list in the same category as Shake Shack, though. Unlike Shake Shack, they KEPT the money.
Rolling Stone.com scoured the SBA and Treasury Department's data and identified “about 50” musical acts that received PPP. They include Tool, Nickleback, Papa Roach, My Chemical Romance…wait, MCR is back together?! Also, The Eagles, Green Day, Pearl Jam and Guns N’ Roses.
It’s not just rock bands.
Rappers like ‘Lil John and Wiz Khalifa and country artists like Rascal Flatts and Luke Combs are on the list.
These are just a few of the bands mentioned in the Rolling Stone Magazine article. AND, the government disclosures only include “loan” recipients that got more than $150K from the program. Who knows how many other acts AREN’T on the list because they ONLY got 148 or 148 thousand.
If The Eagles got a million bucks, I can imagine Tommy Tutone might have been able to finagle a few grand. Nobody knows, though, because any recipients under 150K weren’t revealed.
I’m not suggesting that any of this money needs to be returned and I’m not suggesting there was anything improper about the PPP. I mean, if you own a factory that employs forty people you legitimately have a fair claim to be able to pay your people. The same goes for these musical acts.
Rolling Stone even offers the example of The Eagles specifically being able to retain 50 jobs. On the other hand, MOST small businesses didn’t get anything before the program ran out of money. But, hey, what do you expect? Does a billionaire like Kanye having to open up his OWN wallet to keep his Yeezy employees from starving?