Mastodon guitarist Bill Kelliher has revealed that the band are collecting unemployment benefits in order to pay their crew.
Speaking in a new interview, Kelliher discussed the effects the coronavirus is having on the music industry and how it’s impacting the livelihoods of musicians and their teams, adding that he’s been forced to collect unemployment to help pay the band’s out-of-work crew.
“Thereâs no money coming in,” Kelliher told the Metal Sucks Quarantinecast. “Thereâs no big royalty cheques that just come in every month. And thatâs the truth⊠because people donât buy the music.
“I mean, thereâs a little bit of residuals from publishing and stuff, but itâs peanuts. Itâs nothing. Itâs quarterly payouts of a couple thousand dollars⊠if weâre lucky. And itâs all taxable money, just like everybody else.”
He continued: “Just say to yourself, ‘Imagine if you couldnât work for over a year.’ I mean, Iâm on unemployment. Because I own a few businesses. Mastodon is a business and we have employees. Weâre all out of work. And we had the option to apply for unemployment; we pay into it [through corporate unemployment taxes], [so we] might as well use it if itâs there because if I didnât have it, I wouldnât have any income at all.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Kelliher shared his thoughts on the future of touring, saying that it may never be the same again.
“Weâre not selling records, weâre not touring,” he said. “Thatâs where all our income comes from: getting up every day and going up on stage and playing for an hour and doing it over and over and over all over the world. We canât do that right now and I donât know if we ever will be able to do that again.
“In some capacity [we will be able to play live again], but even if they can get everybodyâs shit together as far as promoters and booking agents and venues and all that stuff, itâs going to be like two years [from now]. And when they do, if theyâre even still open, how are people going to pay their rent on a club that they own [during the down time]?”
He continued: “If no-oneâs going there for a year, two years, I mean, these places live paycheque to paycheque, I know they do. Theyâre not just owned outright by the promoter or whatever, itâs a whole network of people.”
Earlier this month, members of Mastodon, Megadeth, Baroness and Mutoid Man joined forces for a rousing rendition of Fleetwood Macâs âYou Make Loving Funâ.
The video of the performance features former Megadeth guitarist Marty Friedman, Bill Kelliher of Mastodon, Johanna Sadonis and Nicke Anderson of Lucifer, Nick Jost of Baroness and Stephen Brodsky of Mutoid Man.
It also features appearances from Gwarsenio Hall and Hard Melissa, the alter-egos of comedians Jordan Olds and Emily Panic, respectively.
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