What Has Rock And Roll Ever Done For You?
Michael Strickland naturally wakes up around 4am. There’s no computer in his home near Knoxville, TN, so the pile of messages waiting for his attention are all monitored through his phone. There will be emails from his contacts in Asia & Europe, many of which he’ll respond to before he gets to the office around 8am. Emails, phone calls, messages — this will continue throughout the day until the US West coast starts to quiet around 1am. It’s a blessing the Pacific Ocean is so wide or it’s not clear if Michael would sleep at all.
The days haven’t always been like this. Michael leads his company, Bandit Lites, and its team of highly skilled professionals, to provide lighting and supporting infrastructure for concert tours. If you’ve gone to a concert for Garth Brooks, Jimmy Buffett, Aerosmith, Carrie Underwood or Shinedown and looked up into the lights, you’ve seen Bandit Lites at work.
As Chairman and founder of the company, a typical work day for Michael earlier this year might have involved reviewing new projects with clients and checking on teams that were out with shows. Bandit Lite’s staff and crews know their roles well and teams spend months on the road together refining their craft. But even a well oiled machine needs Michael’s oversight to keep stars like Rob Thomas looking fabulous on stage. Everyone in that effort is rewarded with a company that treats them like family.
I expect for the team at Bandit Lites, Michael’s daily schedule prior to the pandemic looks like a vacation compared to the work he’s doing now.
On March 13th, 2020, the company’s trucks and crew were headed back to Nashville as every show Strickland’s company supported was cancelled due to the Covid-19. This is when Michael started a new role for himself, as an industry crusader.
Michael knew a great deal more about what was happening to his company as shows all around the world were being cancelled. He has served on the board of the University of Tennessee Medical Center for 15 years and was well aware of the threat the novel coronavirus posed to the world, let alone the concert touring industry. Bandit Lite’s gear wasn’t going back out any time soon and he needed a plan. The industry as a whole was going to need help. So Michael picked up the phone and called his Senators.
Not everyone has the access to their state’s US Senators that Michael has. Strickland’s reach into politics might hint to his legal and business academic background, the success of Bandit Lite’s 52 year history, or his community presence in Tennessee. But access doesn’t equate to understanding. And a single phone call doesn’t fix a problem like coronavirus.
Michael told me, “I’ve known Lamar Alexander and Marsha Blackburn for a long time. They understand how important the music industry is to the state of Tennessee. Neither had any understanding that that pandemic response meant those entertainment industry businesses and professionals would be at zero income as of March 13th.”
Michael continued, “They assumed the entertainment industry was like most other industries, and contracts for existing projects would be paid out. They didn’t understand we only get paid if we do the work.” This is the beginning of Michael’s long campaign to get the US Government to understand a hidden community of millions of entertainment professionals who are out of work and without income due to the pandemic.
As late as March 6th of 2020, Bandit Lites was doing a lot of work, up 35% from 2019. And just 10 days later, all of Bandit’s offices, save one that supported construction installations, went silent for the shutdown period in March and April. Bandit Lites is one of the very few entertainment companies that has made it this far without laying off employees. Currently 96% of entertainment companies have cut staff and/or wages with 77% of entertainment workers having lost all of their income.
Michael and his executive team prepared Bandit Lites for a crisis, but Michael’s company can’t operate in a vacuum. Lighting is only one part of a live event production that requires: performers, staging, audio, trucking, catering, security, rigging, marketing and more. A single concert represents approximately 500 jobs. Bandit Lites might survive the pandemic, but what does the entertainment industry look like if many other necessary companies don’t?
So when Bandit Lite’s offices went silent, Michael went to work. Michael shifted his efforts creating awareness about the plight of the live event industry, not only to support his company, but to support the community. “This isn’t about the companies, it’s about people. I don’t think about who they work for or what they do, we’re here to help people,” Michael told me.
Stepping up to reach beyond Bandit Lites into all aspects of the businesses and people of the live entertainment production community, that requires a different kind of dedication altogether. Michael calls it Humanomics. “It’s not about the bottom line,” he says, “it’s about the people we touch with what we do.”
For Michael that meant contributing to the language of the CARES Act, of SBA’s PPP Loans, and to three treasury revisions. He’s been building relationships with industry organizations like PLASA and NAMM and motivating teams of people around America to engage with community leaders and politicians to bring awareness to the live entertainment community.
If you saw your local theater lit in red on September 1st, you have seen the result of Michael’s efforts. When RESTART eventually passes in congress, then too will you see the result of Michael’s efforts.
When we spoke about the future, Michael sees three critical factors to getting back to concert touring: Medical, Political, and Social.
“First, we need a vaccine. I am hopeful by January we’ll see vaccines with good efficacy getting distributed. Next, I expect the political condition will calm with the election in November. That leaves the social factor. When will audiences be ready to risk going back to a show?” Michael believes with a series of successful single event shows the public will be ready to return to touring concerts in March or April. You can see the same expectation around the industry as more bands announce spring tours for 2021.
“In the meantime, we still have an emergency on our hands. I’m concerned that the businesses and professionals that create these events aren’t going to make it until January,” says Strickland. “They have spent their six month reserves and don’t have the resources to wait out the pandemic any longer without government support.”
Michael also sees the mental health cost on our community is high and will have lasting impacts. “These are highly skilled professionals that we need to create these shows and they are going to leave our industry to find other work elsewhere. They need support for their mental wellness for being capable people who have not been able to find other work. We have to get Congress to take action and pass RESTART. Once that happens I intend to shift my focus onto mental health support.”
I asked Michael how he stays motivated. RESTART is struggling for attention in Congress with the pressing issue of a pending government budget vote before September 30th and the political circus of a vacant seat on the Supreme Court. Besides his constant push to keep pressure on our legislators, he is in regular contact with people in our community, personally helping them find financial aid resources and giving them much needed hope that our industry will return.
“What we do today, until we are back, that’s what matters.”
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If you can help us, we’re not asking for donations, we only ask for your voice. Write your Senators and your Congressional Representative on our behalf. Let them know you support RESTART. Post to social media. Below are links to toolkits to assist getting our message heard.
Use these hashtags:
#WeMakeEvents #RedAlertRESTART #ExtendPUA #DoNotAbandonUs #TheTimeIsNOW #SaveOurStages
