Kenny G net worth
Number of divisions: 18
What is Kenny G’s net worth?
Kenny G is an American adult contemporary jazz saxophone player with a net worth of US$100 million. To date, Kenny G has sold 75 million albums worldwide and is the most successful instrumentalist ever. This also makes him one of the 100 best-selling musicians overall.
Outside of music, Kenny is a very successful financial and real estate investor. According to reports, Kenny G made more money from Starbucks’ early investments before going public than he made from his music career, although we could not find actual confirmation of this claim or a record of Kenny’s own saying so. There is no doubt that Kenny is a pre-IPO investor in Starbucks. Since it was acquired very early, it is not yet clear how valuable the shares are. More information will be provided later in this article, but for your reference, the $1,000 invested in Starbucks on the day it went public will be worth $300,000 today.
early life
Kenneth Bruce Gorelick was born on June 5, 1956 in Seattle, Washington. In high school, he was actually rejected by the jazz band after his first audition. He had to wait for the audition for the second year before he was finally accepted and won his first chair. In high school, one of his musicians/classmates was Robert Damper, and he still plays (piano and keyboard) in his band today.
Kenny made his first professional performance at the age of 17 as the accompaniment of Barry White’s Love Infinity Orchestra. In addition to performing with White, Kenny G also recorded records with the Seattle funk band Cold, Bold & Together before becoming a member of The Jeff Lorber Fusion.
success
After cooperating with Lorber, Kenny G started his personal career. He quickly caught the attention of Clive Davis, who reached an agreement with Kenny and Arista Records in 1982. Kenny G’s first album was released on August 1, 1982. It won the gold medal. His next two albums “G Force” (1983) and “Gravity” (1985) both won platinum records, but his fourth album, “Duotones” in 1986, gave the saxophone a jump Become an international star. This album won a 5x Platinum Award, mainly due to the single “Songbird”, which is one of the only two musical instruments to enter the top five on the Billboard Hot 100 (the other is Jan Hammer in 1985 The theme song of Miami Vice).
Since then, Kenny’s career has developed rapidly. His next album sold 4 million copies. His 1992 album “Breathless” sold 12 million copies. At the time of writing, that album is still his best-selling work. His next album, “Miracle: Holiday Album” in 1994, sold 8 million copies and ranked first on the Billboard Top 100 Singles chart.
During his career, Kenny has worked with some of the most famous musicians on the planet, including Andrea Bocelli, Whitney Houston, Tony Braxton, Steve Miller, Michael Bolton, Celine Dion, Frank Sinatra, Smokey Robinson, Aretha Franklin, Katy Perry and Kanye West.
Kenny G is one of the most popular and best-selling musicians of all time, with global sales totaling more than 75 million records.
(Photo by Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images)
invest
Kenny actually studied accounting at the University of Washington. He deliberately didn’t study music because he wanted a solid degree, if needed.
Throughout his career, he has been studying the courses in these business courses, and now he is said to have an extremely valuable stock portfolio.
For example, in the early 1980s, Kenny was introduced to a budding Seattle entrepreneur Howard Schultz. Howard recently acquired a local coffee chain called Starbucks, and Kenny’s uncle was one of the early supporters. Kenny invested some of his early music royalties into his shares in this coffee startup.
It is impossible to know how much this investment is worth today, but in terms of its value-the $1,000 invested in the company’s IPO in 1992 is worth more than $300,000 today. If Kenny invested before the IPO, his shares could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
He later talked about his investment in Starbucks:
“I would say that I am more fortunate than smart. It is not luck that Starbucks succeeded, but luckily I decided to invest.”
Kenny told CNBC in 2015 that he holds shares in Apple, Microsoft and United Airlines.
Frederick Brown/Getty Images
real estate
Over the years, Kenny owned many houses across the country. In 1990, Kenny spent $8.8 million in three transactions to piece together a 3-acre estate in Hunts Point, Washington. In 1995, he built a 12,200 square foot mansion on this land. He listed the property for sale in 1998 for US$26.5 million. The house was purchased by mobile phone billionaire Craig McCaw at an undisclosed price in 1999.
Since 1998, Kenny’s main residence has been a magnificent cliff mansion/compound in Malibu. He bought the first part of the property in 1997 for $12.5 million. In 2000, he spent $3 million to buy the house next door and set out to demolish the old house to build a brand new mansion from scratch. According to reports, the construction cost of the second house is as high as 3.5 million U.S. dollars. The new second home still has its own address, with two bedrooms, four bathrooms, a 9-foot piano, tennis court, and a 1,500-square-foot recording studio. The main property has offices, screening rooms and a hotel overlooking the sea.
personal life
Kenny married Janice DeLeon from 1980 to 1987. He married Lyndie Benson from 1992 to 2012. They have two sons.
