We don’t have a problem with bands and labels who make serious cash from their work; after all, pursuing punk music professionally is at best a risky business and those who succeed deserve to be rewarded for creating the albums we love. However, you may be surprised to see just how much some of these punks are worth.
Check the list out below.
10. Marky Ramone – $2 Million
Probably Spends It On: Leather Jackets, Depends
The long-running member of the Ramones is disappointingly low on this list. It looks like he probably doesn’t see a dime for any of the hundreds of thousands of Ramones t-shirts sold to people who probably couldn’t name a single member of the band if they weren’t part of the classic logo.
9. Lars Frederiksen – $10 Million
Probably Spends It On: His Own Tattoos, Suspenders(?)
This longtime Rancid guitarist also owns a share of an extremely popular tattoo parlor called NYHC Tattoo (founded by Vinnie Stigma of Agnostic Front and Jimmy Gestapo of Murphy’s Law) as well as the Skunx Tattoo Parlour in Japan. He’s also a tattoo artist on the side. Guess there’s a decent amount of money in the tattoo industry – sorta makes the forehead tattoo a little more understandable. Maybe.
8. Tim Armstrong – $13 Million
Probably Spends It On: Tim Timebomb studio sessions
The co-founder of Rancid, Operation Ivy, Transplants, and Hellcat Records certainly has earned his fair share of the punk market. Adding to his brand (and wallet), Gretsch makes a signature Tim Armstrong style guitar, which Tim surely sees some dough from.
7. Davey Havok – $20 Million
Probably Spends It On: Suits, Acting Classes
The AFI frontman might have once been a poor East Bay hardcore singer but let’s face it, the dude is a modern day rock star now. Music videos on MTV, major record labels, hell, he’s even appearing in movies alongside Rob Lowe – yeah, nobody saw that movie but you get the picture. The elitist might scoff at calling AFI punk these days but selling albums is their business, and business is apparently good.
6. Ian Mackaye – $25 million
Best known for his tenure as the vocalist of Minor Threat and vocalist/guitarist of Fugazi, as well as being the co-founder of longtime DIY label Dischord Records, Ian Mackaye has accumulated quite a hefty sum over the years. How exactly that’s possible, we have no idea.
5. Billie Joe Armstrong – $55 million
Probably Spends It On: Eyeliner, giant posters of himself
We are talking Green Day here, which we can all agree is a mainstream band. 55 million can’t be a surprising number. They’ve got their own musical for crying out loud. The whole smashing guitars on stage as a fuck-you though seems a little less defiant when you realize how many more he can buy.
4. Dexter Holland – $65 million
Probably Spends It On: Airplanes (he has a pilot’s license), Making Hot Sauce (does anybody actually eat Gringo Bandito?)
The Offspring frontman has a Bachelor’s degree in Biology and a Master’s degree in Molecular Biology and was a Ph.D. candidate in Molecular Biology at the University of Southern California, before abandoning it to focus on The Offspring. The dude is no idiot. I’m sure he’s got a million things going on that we don’t even know about but fronting a mainstream punk act, owning Nitro Records in the 90’s (when punk labels could actually make money) and starting a hot sauce company are pretty strong indicators that ol’ Dexter has a lot of zeroes appended to his net worth.
3, 2 &1: Blink 182
Barker Probably Spends It On: Tattoos, Not Plane Tickets
Delonge Probably Spends It On: Making Angels & Airwaves Movies
Hoppus Probably Spends It On: Football (of the Soccer variety) Tickets, Whatever Else Brits Spend Money On (he lives in London now)
Not surprisingly Blink 182 members are making bank. Aside from the mainstream success of their primary band all these dudes have musical side projects that have seen gained them more popularity (some more than others) and surely more dough. And let’s not forget their forays into film and/or television (Barker on his own reality show “Meet The Barkers”, Hoppus had a show on Fuse, and Delonge has his Angels & Airwaves feature films, though I’m not sure anybody went and saw them) . Mark and Tom co-own two companies (Atticus and Macbeth Footwear) and Hoppus does a lot of production work for other bands. Basically, the rich get richer. Mark Hoppus and Tom Delonge each have an estimated net worth of $60 million, and Travis Barker has an approximate worth of a whopping $85 million.
Honorable Mention: Fat Mike ($$$$???)
Probably Spends It On: BDSM Gear, Drugs
While we were unable to find any good estimates for the legendary Fat Mike of NOFX, he is the front man of one of the most well known bands in punk and co-owns punk rock’s most darling record label. He also sold his house for $5 million in 2008 so we’re pretty sure the dude isn’t broke, and most likely deserves a spot somewhere on this list.
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*Estimated net worths were obtained from TheRichest.org and CelebrityNetWorth.com, who acquire figures from publicly available information including salaries, real estate holdings, divorces, record sales, royalties and endorsements.
Rob
Billy Idol of Generation X, is worth between $40,000,000 and $65,000,000. Iggy Pop of The Stooges (and later “Iggy Pop and the Stooges) is worth pretty much about the same amount. Billy Idol has bought leather outfits, sports cars, motorcycles and mansions for himself. Iggy Pop on the other hand, I’m not sure about. I don’t think he spends a lot of money on cars and such, but he has made a lot of investments.