The Pimps

The Goodyear Pimps formed in Rockford, IL in 1997 and after honing their chops in Midwestern clubs they gained a fanbase that made national labels take notice. They were signed by Disney subsidiary Hollywood Records in 2000 for a two album contract worth $1 million.

The Pimps were promised no censorship and full creative control, but when they delivered the first of the two contracted albums, More Songs About Drugs With Curse Words, the suits at Disney balked at releasing it. The Pimps were dropped in 2001, but this major label tale has an oddly happy ending that allowed the Pimps to walk away from the label with $600,000 of their contract.

Beyond that the Pimps has other claims to fame, or at very least infamy, including having songs on major movie soundtracks for Mission Impossible 2 and Crazy Beautiful as well as having a song featured on the long running NBC drama Third Watch. Also noteworthy was the series of cease and desist letters from the Goodyear corporation that forced the band to change their name from the more imaginative and less misogynistic moniker of the Goodyear Pimps.

Despite their positive and negative brushes with the corporate world, the Pimps have remained independent. They spent their $600,000 payment from Hollywood Records to buy their own apartment building in Rockford that serves as living quarters for all the band members as well as housing the Pimps’ office and recording studio. They have achieved the noble goal of completely avoiding day jobs by investing their money wisely and keeping up a schedule of 160 shows a year during the entire decade mainly playing 2 or 3 day strings of weekend shows to fans throughout the Midwest.