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Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy begins donating 5% of royalties to social justice causes I don t have all the answers, said Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy. I just wanna do my part.
In a statement after the killing of George Floyd last summer, Tweedy wrote, The modern music industry is built almost entirely on Black art. The wealth that rightfully belonged to Black artists was stolen outright. He called for an industry-wide plan to address this enormous injustice.
This month, Tweedy, who s sold millions of records with his indie rock band, will begin giving away some of his songwriting income to social justice causes, contributing five percent of his songwriting royalties. In all honesty, [it] isn t a whole lot of money! he laughed. The point would be that, that would be multiplied by thousands of people at my level.
In a letter addressed to Pence on Thursday (January 7), members of the Music Artists Coalition (MAC), Black Music Action Coalition (BMAC) and Songwriters of North America (SONA) outlined the events that took place at the Capitol, which so far has resulted in at least five deaths, including a Capitol Police officer.
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“Not only is this a matter of upholding and enforcing our laws, but it is also a matter of ensuring that individuals who break the law and who trample the Constitution with the aim of denying civil liberties must not be treated more gingerly than those of us who advocate for our civil liberties, human rights, and the promise of the Constitution,” the letter reads. “Equal justice requires that when individuals commit federal felonies, particularly in plain sight, they are brought to justice.”