Lil Wayne, Chris Brown and Alice in Chains are reportedly among the artists who spent US tax-payer funded COVID relief grants on luxury items, travel, and parties.
The funding, called the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant, was signed into law by President Donald Trump in 2020, and aimed to subsidise musicians and venues who were impacted by pandemic-related closures.
Now, a new report from Business Insider has found that a handful of big artists, including Wayne, Brown and Alice in Chains claimed millions from the grant before spending it in lavish ways.
The publication reveals that Wayne received $8.9million from the tax-payer-funded grant, spending over $1.3million on private-jet flights and over $460,000 on clothes and accessories, including many from luxury brands like Gucci and Balenciaga.
The rapper reportedly put $175,000 towards “a music festival promoting his marijuana brand, GKUA” as well as “flights and luxury hotel rooms for women whose connection to Lil Wayne’s touring operation was unclear, including a waitress at a Hooters-type restaurant and a porn actress.”
Insider also alleges that Wayne claimed $88,000 for a concert in Coachella, California that he didn’t end up performing at. They report that, when reaching out to him via text to comment, Wayne responded with “a sexually explicit overture to a reporter and did not respond to questions.”
Elsewhere, the artist and athlete management firm NKSFB received at least $207million in grant money, of which they took $7million. From this funding, Chris Brown’s touring company, CBE Touring, allegedly received $10million, with Brown himself getting $5.1million.
The publication alleges that Brown spent $80,000 of the grant to throw himself a birthday party, which reportedly included a $3,650 LED dance floor and $2,100 “atmosphere models”, which were nude women in body paint, according to expense reports and a blog post by the party planner. Elsewhere, over $29,000 was spent on hookahs, bottle service, “nitrogen ice cream,” and damages involving burn holes to rented couches.
Brown also reportedly spent $24,000 taking his tour bus to Mexico, where he stayed for a month and did not perform, though he filmed a music video with Jack Harlow. He has not commented on the claims listed in the report.
It does appear that both Brown and Wayne used some of the SVOG money on touring-related expenses. Contractors for Wayne’s shows received over $327,000, while Brown spent more than $383,000 on crew payroll.
Marshmello (real name Christopher Comstock) reportedly received nearly $10million – the highest amount of any single musician – as he had made more than that amount from touring in 2019.
Insider also alleges that members of Alice In Chains were paid $3.4million, with frontman and guitarist Jerry Cantrell receiving $1.4million and drummer Sean Kinney and bassist Mike Inez taking around $682,000 each.
Some of their grant went towards paying staff and various contractors (like equipment rental firms and videographers), but records allegedly show the funding was not spent on benefits like health insurance for their touring crew, including Scott Dachroeden, a guitar tech and tour photographer for the band who received a cancer diagnosis in late 2022.
The band circulated a GoFundMe page for Dachroeden’s treatment on Twitter/X, which read “He has no health insurance and now cannot work to pay his bills”. He has since passed away.
NME has reached out to representatives for Alice In Chains for comment
