Have you ever wondered what you would be worth after you’re dead? Well these famous musicians are worth millions and keep earning millions every year, even though they are no longer with us. Creative works do not stop earning money just because its creator has died and these deceased musicians earn as much now as they did when they were alive, some even more; this list will serve to illustrate that point. The reported earnings for these deceased musicians are highly subjective and depend largely on the reporting source and the year that it was reported. This guide is based on averages and potential earnings power for the future.
10. Kurt Cobain
Cobain was born on the 20th of February 1967 in Hoquaim, a small town south-west of Seattle. Early in his life Cobain’s parents divorced and he was shuttled back and forth between relatives and largely felt unloved. Once, in this formative time in his life, Kurt was completely homeless and actually lived under a bridge.
Cobain’s time in high school was rocky, and his artistic and moody attitude caused endless problems. He would get beat up and was labeled as gay. During that time, Kurt greatly admired Joy Division a nihilistic post-punk band that some say Nirvana are directly descended from in form of mood, melody and lyrical quality.
Cobain formed and reformed a series of bands before Nirvana came to be in 1986 and by 1988 Nirvana was doing shows and had demo tapes going around.
Despite their anti establishment and punk tendencies, Nirvana made the leap to a major label in 1991 when they signed with Geffen Records.
Kurt developed a heroin habit in the early nineties; he said he used it to stop the pain of stomach ulcers. Despite the fact that his personal life was in turmoil, Cobain had continued success professionally. Nirvana’s highly acclaimed album “In Utero” was released in September 1993. Guitar Player magazine described the album as having “a startling level of anger, energy, and jaded intelligence.”
On March the 4th, 1994 in a hotel room in Rome, Italy; Cobain tried an unsuccessful suicide attempt; he had swallowed about fifty prescription painkillers with champagne; he was rushed to the hospital in a coma. The suicide attempt was officially called an accident. Cobain’s wife, friends and managers convinced him to enter a detox program in L.A. but this lasted only a few days before Cobain fled the clinic. On April 5, 1994, in the guest house behind his Seattle home, Cobain committed suicide. He placed a shotgun into his mouth and fired, killing himself instantly.
Kurt Cobain debut at the top of Forbes’ list of Top-Earning Dead Celebrities with an estimated $49 million income in 2006, it came after Courtney Love sold part of his catalog for a reported $50 million. To date the Cobain estate has dropped in value, but I’m still keeping him at number 10. As mentioned previously, earning are subjective and I still believe that Kurt’s earnings are considerably more than reported by many.
9.Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash was born February 26, 1932, in Kingsland, Arkansas. He made his first single, “Hey Porter”, for Sun Records in 1955. In 1958 he moved to Columbia Records. He had long periods of drug abuse during the 1960s, but later that decade he successfully fought his addiction with the help of singer June Carter, a member of the famous Carter Family. Cash married June in 1968. In addition to his music, Cash made some movies and did numerous television shows when “The Johnny Cash Show” premiered in 1969, on ABC. According to CMT the show was taped at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, the show featured an eclectic mix of guests ranging from Bob Dylan and Neil Young to Louis Armstrong and Merle Haggard.. In 1975 Cash wrote his autobiography, “Man In Black”, which is now out of print. Later in his career Johnny’s renewed record sales made him a millionaire and he used his earnings to support many charitable causes.
Cash was in bad health for several years and eventually died of complications from diabetes on 12 September 2003, at Baptist Hospital in Nashville, Tenn.
The original “Man in Black” made $7 mil in 2005 and since then was able to build up more revenue after the Oscar nominated “Walk the Line” grossed in over $120 mil in ticket sales.
8. Tupac Shakur
Born in New York City, Tupac grew up primarily in Harlem. In 1984, his family moved to Baltimore, Maryland where he became good friends with Jada Pinkett Smith. His family moved again in 1988 to Oakland, California. His first breakthrough in music came in 1991 as a member of the group Digital Underground. Tupac became a leading figure of the gangsta permutation of hip-hop, with references to cop killing and sexual violence. His short lived career included two movies, “Juice” in1992, and he co-starred with Janet Jackson in “Poetic Justice” in 1993
Following the Tyson vs Seldon fight in Las Vegas, Nevada, he was hit by four bullets while riding in a car driven by Death Row Records chief executive Marion ‘Suge’ Knight. His right lung was removed in emergency surgery and, after six days in a medical coma, he died.
After his death, Shakur raked in $12 million from June 2002 to June 2003, $5 million more than his 2001 take-home pay. Tupac made $7 mil in 2005 alone. Combined they sold tens of millions of dollars, which his mother, Afeni Shakur, gained control of after suing Death Row Records. After the sale of catalog rights in May for upward of $5 million. More than a decade after his unsolved 1996 murder in a drive-by shooting, Tupac remains a hot commercial property. Said to be in development are a Tupac biopic, video game and — gasp — Broadway show. Tupac’s earnings are estimated to be around $9 million dollars to date.
7. Bob Marley
Bob Marley’s recording career stretches back over 20 years with his first recording attempts coming at the beginning of the sixties. Bob first hit the Jamaican charts as a founding member of the “Wailing Wailers.”
It’s difficult to properly understand Bob Marley’s music without considering Rastafari. His spiritual beliefs are well known and do not necessitate further explanation. Rastafari is at the very core of the Wailers’ music. In 1972 Bob Marley and the Wailers were signed to Island Records, this marked the start of his international fame and recognition. In 1979 the Survival LP was released and their European tour came the following year:
At the end of the European tour, Bob Marley & The Wailers went to America for an opening slot with Stevie Wonder. Bob played two shows at Madison Square Garden but, immediately afterwards he was seriously ill and cancer was diagnosed.
Very few musicians have had the social and musical impact that Bob Marley was able to achieve in a relatively short career. “Bob Marley brought reggae music to the forefront of the world stage, but his most powerful contributions extends far beyond his albums,” states Hank Risan, BlueBeat.com’s CEO, “He was able to transcend personal suffering in order to empower people as a whole. His image and impact can be found in every corner of the globe; he is a true international icon.”
Although his life was cut short by cancer in 1981, the reggae legend continues to be prolific after death: A new, previously unreleased single has been excavated and added to a compilation album. Marley has also collaborated, via the miracle of digital technology, with dead hip-hop icon Christopher “the Notorious B.I.G.” Wallace in a duet this year. He grossed $6 mil in 2005 but his catalog is valued at $100 mil, including his 1984 Legend which has sold over 20 million copies to date.
6. Ray Charles
When Charles was an infant his family moved to Greenville, Florida, and he began his musical career at age five on a piano in a neighborhood café. He began to go blind at six, possibly from glaucoma, completely losing his sight by age seven. Ray’s family was very poor and in his 1978 autobiography, “Brother Ray” Charles recalled “Even compared to other blacks…we were on the bottom of the ladder looking up at everyone else. Nothing below us except the ground.”
At 7, Charles became a charity student at the state-supported school for the deaf and blind in St. Augustine, Fla., it was at this school that he received his formal musical education and learned to read, write and arrange music in Braille.
At age 15, Ray’s mother died and it was at this time that he dropped out of school and began touring on the “Chitin’ Circuit” with several bands that played in black dance halls. Over the years Ray Charles became successful in a number of musical genres, jazz, pop, country and of course soul. Ray recorded numerous hits in several charts, did movies and television shows and created several well known commercial, such as one for diet Pepsi. Despite his successes, he had his lows as well, including a drug problem, which led to his arrests in 1964 and1966. In his well-traveled career, Charles won 12 competitive Grammies, earned three Emmy nominations, scored the Kennedy Center Honors, the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, the National Medal of Arts and inductions into the Rock, Jazz and Rhythm and Blues halls of fame.
Ray Charles died from acute liver disease Thursday June 10, 2004. He was 73. He left behind a long list of hits and Grammy awards and the musicians he influenced are as diverse in genre as the music he wrote, arranged, performed and recorded.
In addition to royalties from his music, a large part of Ray Charles $ 10 million dollar earnings is due in part to a 2004 biopic starring Jamie Fox. It was decided in May of 2009 that the Ray Charles Foundation will hold all rights to the late singer’s name, likeness, celebrity and other intellectual property.
5. Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix was born Johnny Allen Hendrix in Seattle, Washington, on November 27, 1942, the son of Al Hendrix and Lucille Jeter. His father, a gifted jazz dancer, bore much of the responsibility of raising the boy and his brother, Leon, as did their grandmother and various family friends. This was due to the unreliability of Lucille, who drank excessively and who would disappear for extended periods. Al Hendrix changed his son’s name to James Marshall Hendrix in 1946. Al and Lucille divorced in 1951; Al Hendrix won custody of his sons.
After dropping out of Garfield High School in Seattle, Hendrix enlisted in the United States Army in 1961 and trained at Fort Ord in California to become a paratrooper. Even as a soldier, he found time for music, creating a band named The King Casuals. Hendrix served in the army until 1962 when he was discharged due to an injury.
After leaving the military, Hendrix pursued his music, working as a session musician and playing backup for such performers as Little Richard, Sam Cooke, and the Isley Brothers. He also formed a group of his own called Jimmy James and the Blue Flames, which played gigs around New York City’s Greenwich Village neighborhood.
Hendrix died on September 18th, 1970, from drug-related complications. While this talented recording artist was only 27 years old at the time of his passing, Hendrix left his mark on the world of rock music and remains popular to this day.
In Hendrix’s case, it seems money could have actually been the cause of his death. There are lingering suspensions that his manager Michael Jeffery had been involved in his drug overdose. Jeffery served in the British Intelligence Corps in the 50s, and years later boasted of underworld connections. As Hendrix’s manager Jeffery had control of millions of dollars earned by Hendrix, much of which was diverted by Jeffery to offshore bank accounts. Recent information has surfaced that Hendrix had taken out a 2 million dollar life insurance policy inking Michael Jeffrey as the beneficiary, allegedly, Jeffrey deciding to cash in on that money once catching wind that Hendrix was planning to let him go.
While alive, Jimi Hendrix released just four albums. But now there are over a dozen official albums featuring his music thanks to the musician’s family. Hendrix’s father and stepsister couldn’t actually take full control of Hendrix’s estate until 1995 after a long battle with family lawyer Leo Branton, whom the elder Hendrix had originally hired to manage his son’s legacy. Branton had tried to sell Hendrix’s music rights to various record labels without his family’s approval. With a $5 million loan from Microsoft co-founder and Hendrix fan Paul Allen, the Hendrix clan was able to fight the court case. Since the family’s takeover, the licensing and merchandising of Hendrix products have “Kissed the Sky.” With earnings that top $10 million dollars.
4. George Harrison
Harrison was an English rock guitarist, singer-songwriter and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist in The Beatles. Following the band’s breakup, he had a successful career as a solo artist and later as part of the Traveling Wilburys, and also as a film and record producer.
Harrison left school at 16 and worked as an apprentice electrician at local department store Blacklers for a while. When The Beatles were offered work in Hamburg in 1960 but the trip was cut short when Harrison was deported for being underage. This however, did not deter the group; The Beatles went on to become one of the most prolific pop bands in history.
After years of being restricted in his song-writing contributions to The Beatles, All Things Must Pass contained such a large outpouring of Harrison’s songs that it was released as a triple album, though only two of the discs contained songs – the third contained recordings of Harrison jamming with friends. The album is regarded as his best work; it was a critical and commercial success, topping the charts on both sides of the Atlantic, and producing the number-one hit single “My Sweet Lord” as well as the top-10 single “What Is Life”. The album was co-produced by Phil Spector using his “Wall of Sound” approach, and the musicians included Eric Clapton, Dave Mason, Billy Preston, and Ringo Starr.
Harrison was later sued for copyright infringement over the single “My Sweet Lord” because of its similarity to the 1963 Chiffons single “He’s So Fine”, owned by Bright Tunes. Harrison denied deliberately stealing the song, but he lost the resulting court case in 1976 as the judge accepted that Harrison had “subconsciously” plagiarized “He’s So Fine”. When considering liable earnings, “My Sweet Lord”‘s contribution to the sales of All Things Must Pass and The Best of George Harrison were taken into account, and the judge decided a figure of $1,599,987 was owed to Bright Tunes. The dispute over damages became complicated when Harrison’s manager Allen Klein changed sides by buying Bright Tunes and then continuing the suit against Harrison. In 1981, a district judge decided that Klein had acted improperly, and it was agreed that Harrison should pay Klein $587,000, the amount Klein had paid for Bright Tunes – so he would gain nothing from the deal, and that Harrison would take over ownership of Bright Tunes, making him the owner of the rights to both “My Sweet Lord” and “He’s So Fine” and thus ending the copyright infringement claim. Though the dispute dragged on into the 1990s, the district judge’s decision was upheld
George passed away at the home of a friend in Los Angeles, California on Thursday, November 29, 2001, at the age of 58, death being ascribed to a brain tumor. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered in the River Ganges.
George Harrison’s earnings are currently estimated to be around $22 million dollars for the year.
3. John Lennon
When he was four years old, Lennon’s parents separated and he ended up living with his Aunt Mimi. Lennon’s mother, Julia, remarried, but visited John and Mimi regularly. She taught John how to play the banjo and the piano and purchased his first guitar. Julia was fatally struck by a car in 1958, devastating John. As a child, John enjoyed drawing grotesque figures and cripples. John’s school master thought that he could go to an art school for college, since he did not get good grades in school, but had artistic talent. John grew to hate art school and became increasingly interested in music, eventually, in the late 1950s; Lennon formed his own group called ‘The Quarry Men’, which later became ‘The Beatles.’
The Beatles were discovered by Brian Epstein in 1961 at the Cavern Club, where they were performing on a regular basis. As their new manager, Epstein secured a record contract with EMI. In 1964, The Beatles became the first band to break out big in the United States, beginning with their appearance on TV the Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964. Lennon left The Beatles in September 1969, just after the group completed recording Abbey Road. The news of the breakup was kept secret until McCartney announced his departure in April 1970, a month before the band released Let It Be, recorded just before Abbey Road.
After the Beatles broke up, Lennon released Plastic Ono Band, with a raw, minimalist sound and in 1971, Lennon followed that up with ‘Imagine’, the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed of all John Lennon’s post-Beatles efforts. The title track was later listed as the third all-time best song by Rolling Stone magazine. In 1980, Lennon returned to the music world with the album Double Fantasy, featuring the hit single (Just Like) Starting Over. Unfortunately, just a few weeks after its release, Lennon was shot by a deranged fan in front of his apartment complex in New York.
During his lifetime, the Beatles front man and solo artist earned 22 million a year and supplemented album sales with artwork, a Broadway Musical, kid’s toys, and jewelry.
Lennon was shot to death outside the apartment building where he and Ono lived on the night of December 8, 1980.
Mei Fong and Debra Lau who wrote the article “Earnings from the Crypt” for Forbes gave this insight into the financial situation of Lennon after his death. Since Lennon co-wrote most of the Beatles’ hits with McCartney, his estate pulls in half of all publishing rights, which are paid each time a song airs on the radio, as well as 25% of all royalties from record sales. Not a bad net for a “Hard Day’s Night.” This pretty much sums up the earning potential that will continue with the legacy of John Lennon. The Lennon estate is currently pulling in around $44 million dollars.
2. Elvis Presley
While he was alive, Elvis Presley hated the business side of entertainment. He turned over important decisions as to his monetary affairs and career moves to his manager Colonel Tom Parker and later in life to close associates known as the Memphis Mafia. Parker had negotiated a contract that gave him an unprecedented 50% of Presley’s earnings.
Parker was an excessive gambler and was always having Presley signed up to commercially lucrative contracts, but this may have adversely affected the course of Presley’s career.
Marty Lacker, a member of the Memphis Mafia, regarded Parker as a “hustler and scam artist” who abused Presley’s trust, but Lacker did acknowledge that Parker was a master promoter.
Priscilla Presley noted that “Elvis detested the business side of his career. He would sign a contract without even reading it.” Elvis made an estimated $4.3 billion in earnings during his lifetime, but he never acquired a concept of financial responsibility.
Sometime on the morning of August 16, 1977 Elvis Presley died of heart failure. He was 42 years old. His autopsy detected fourteen different drugs in his bloodstream, ten in significant quantity.
When Vernon (Presley’s father) died, all of Presley’s estate passed on to Lisa Marie. This spawned 4 lawsuits which resulted in numerous court battles.
The court battles ended in June 1983… One of the terms of the agreement called for Parker to turn over most of his interest in Presley’s audio and video recordings to RCA and the Presley family in return for a large monetary settlement. Lisa Marie’s court-appointed guardian, Blanchard Tual, wrote in his report on Presley’s financial affairs that Parker had “handled affairs not in Elvis’ but in his own best interest.” Parker died of a stroke in February 1997 at the age of 87.
Priscilla Presley assumed control of the estate and through a number of business moves made the Presley estate many times more valuable than it had ever been during Elvis’ lifetime. The cornerstone of the Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc. (EPE) financial empire is the Tennessee state law Priscilla Presley pushed for that guarantees to heirs the commercial rights to a deceased celebrity’s image and likeness. As a result, the name Elvis Presley is, technically speaking, a trademark, and anyone selling Presley-related merchandise in the U.S. must pay EPE an advance fee plus a royalty on every item sold.
Graceland was added to the National Register of Historic Places and at last count, around 600,000 people visit Graceland annually. In the mid-’90s, the Presley estate was estimated to have been worth over $100 million. At the turn of the century, it was estimated that the presence of Graceland was responsible for bringing $100 million into the local Memphis economy. The Elvis Presley Charitable Foundation was created in 1985 by EPE to support various causes.
Presley’s sole heir, Lisa Marie, in August 2005, sold 85 percent of her share of the Presley estate to CKX Inc., which also owns 19 Entertainment, the company responsible for the American Idol TV show. Lisa Marie kept the Graceland property and most of its belongings. In February 2006, CKX announced its plan to increase Graceland’s tourist-destination profile.
The money keeps rolling in!
1. Michael Jackson
In light of recent developments, I would have to rate Michael Jackson as the top earning deceased musician. Jackson’s total lifetime earnings from royalties, solo recordings and music videos, revenue from concerts and endorsements have been estimated at $500 million. Now that he has died it is estimated that he will earn more than any other celebrity in the market today. Tim Arango of the New York Times has reported that he has already earned $100 million through a film deal and various merchandising contracts, and the executors expect another $100 million to roll in by the end of the year.
Born in Gary, Indiana on the 29th of August 1958, Michael Jackson grew up to be the lead singer and focal point of the Jackson 5, making his first national television appearance with his brothers at age 11. In 1968 Michael and his brothers got an audition with Berry Gordy of Motown Records and the rest id history. The Jackson 5 recorded 14 albums and Michael recorded 4 solo albums with Motown. Eventually Michael began his solo act after recording his first solo album with Quincey Jones for Epic Records After going solo, Michael Jackson became the most celebrated performer of the eighties and nineties; his influence was phenomenal at best. No other person has influenced the music business more than Jackson.
In an article written for Forbes, Brett Pulley reflects on the ups and downs of the ‘King of Pop’. “Michael Jackson has earned half a billion dollars over his career. In the 1980s and 1990s he was a music deity, pulling down $50 million a year. Now the Gloved One, looking meek and passé in a macho, rap-dominated music scene, is caught in a financial squeeze caused in part by his own refusal to cut back on the superstar lifestyle he can no longer support.”
Michael Jackson, one of the most popular artists of all time, died suddenly of cardiac arrest on June 25, 2009 in Los Angeles just before he was set to appear at the O2 Arena beginning July 8, 2009. He was 50 years old.
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