What was John Lennon's Net Worth?
John Lennon was an English musician, singer, and songwriter who had a net worth of $200 million at the time of his death in 1980. That's the same as being worth $620 million in today's dollars after adjusting for inflation. Over the next several decades, his estate would generate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue from royalties, merchandise, licensing fees, and more. Today, his primary heir, Yoko Ono, has a net worth of $700 million. Best known for his role in the immensely popular band The Beatles, John Lennon was one of the most renowned musicians of our time. In particular, John Lennon was celebrated for his excellent songwriting abilities. Outside of music, John Lennon was a political activist and a leader of the Peace Movement that began in the '60s.
John Lennon's life story has been recounted in countless biopics, books, and movies, and his legend and music have remained popular to this day. He has sold 14 million albums as a solo artist and wrote, co-wrote, or performed 25 #1 singles. He was tragically assassinated in 1980 at the age of 40, and the question of what he could have done musically and politically had he lived to a ripe old age has been asked again and again by fans worldwide. He started his first band, The Quarrymen, in 1956 while he was still in high school. The Beatles were born from that original group and went on to become the defining sound of the British Invasion of the 60s. Their meteoric rise and overwhelming fame began to take a toll on all of the members of the group, and they went their separate ways in 1970. Ten years later, John Lennon was gone, as well.
Estate Value At Death
At the time of his death in 1980, John Lennon's net worth was worth $200 million. That's the same as being worth $620 million in today's dollars after adjusting for inflation. At the time of John's death, George Harrison was worth $100 million, Ringo Starr was worth $80 million, and Paul McCartney was worth around $400 million.
Yoko Ono inherited John's entire estate and has earned hundreds of millions of dollars from licensing deals, royalties, merchandise, and more in the decades since his passing.
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Early Life
John Winston Lennon was born on October 9th, 1940, in Liverpool, England. His father was a merchant seaman in the war, and he was often away from home. When Lennon's father went AWOL, his mother became pregnant with another man's child. When John's father returned, a custody battle ensued, and his mother ultimately allowed her sister to raise the boy.
In 1956, shortly before John finished high school, his mother bought him his first acoustic guitar. Two years later, John Lennon's mother died after being struck by a car. After this incident, Lennon became known for his rebellious nature during his senior year in high school.
The Beatles
John Lennon was involved in music from the age of 15. His first group was called the Quarrymen, and they were founded in 1956. After meeting Paul McCartney at the band's second performance, Lennon asked him to join The Quarrymen. McCartney then recommended that his friend George Harrison join the band as well. Despite being just 14, Lennon accepted Harrison into the band. By 1960, the Quarrymen had changed their name to The Beatles.
In the early 60s, Pete Best joined the group as a drummer, and they toured throughout Germany. After their bassist decided to stay in Hamburg, McCartney started playing the bass. Eventually, Pete Best was replaced by Ringo Starr. These four members would make The Beatles famous.
Their first breakout single was "Love Me Do." Not long after, they released their debut album, Please Please Me. By 1963, "Beatlemania" was beginning to take full effect. They started appearing on television shows that aired in the UK and the States. Fans screamed so loudly during concerts that Lennon became concerned about whether or not they could actually hear the band play.
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In 1966, John Lennon controversially suggested that his band was more popular than Jesus, saying: "Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink … We're more popular than Jesus now – I don't know which will go first, rock and roll or Christianity." The quote was published in the Evening Standard. Although the quote was seen as relatively tame in the UK, various groups in the US took offense, including the KKK. After the band was threatened continuously, they decided to stop touring.
At this point, Lennon was consuming large quantities of LSD, and it was starting to influence the music of The Beatles. The track "Strawberry Fields Forever" is a prime example of this. In 1967, The Beatles released one of their most successful albums of all time, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. After their manager died, The Beatles produced, directed, and wrote their own film, Magical Mystery Tour. Their lack of business expertise made the film a flop, but the soundtrack was extremely successful.
Later, The Beatles became more business-savvy with the formation of Apple Corps, a corporation that owned and operated media companies such as Apple Records. In 1968, Lennon's drug use had escalated even further, and his pacifist ideas were proving to be untrendy among the leftist radicals who once saw him as a hero. He also started his relationship with Yoko Ono during this time.
In 1969, Yoko Ono and John Lennon were married, and they started to release various musical projects together. By this point, The Beatles had started to drift apart. Although John Lennon was the first to officially leave the band, McCartney's departure was the first that was publicized by the media. This enraged Lennon, who wanted credit for starting and ending the band.
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Solo Career
Lennon's solo career began in 1970 with a collaborative effort alongside Yoko Ono called John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. Although the album received critical praise, it was not a commercial success. He went for a more commercial sound with the 1971 album Imagine. After Lennon and Ono moved to New York City, they fell in with radical leftists and started criticizing America's handling of the Vietnam War. Nixon vowed to have Lennon deported and spent the next four years trying to accomplish this mission.
After releasing Some Time in New York City, John Lennon completely fell out of favor with critics. Although he had built his name on political activism, critics felt that his messages were now bordering on irrelevant, and his lyrics were extremely heavy-handed. In 1973, he and Ono decided to separate. By 1974, Lennon was drinking heavily. Although he collaborated with various artists and attempted to produce albums for them, his unpredictable behavior gave him an unprofessional reputation.
One positive moment during this period was when Lennon collaborated with Elton John to create the track "Whatever Gets You Through the Night." The track was Lennon's highest-charting single as a solo artist. Eventually, Ono and Lennon got back together and had a son. After his son was born, John Lennon took a long hiatus from music and spent as much time with the baby as possible.
This hiatus would last for five years. When Lennon finally returned to music in 1980, he was only able to release one album and a few singles before he was murdered.
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Death
On the 8th of December in 1980, John Lennon was shot four times in the back by a fan who wanted to become famous.
Real Estate
In 1970, John and Yoko moved into a NYC building called The Dakota. John was shot right outside of the building. Yoko continued living in the Dakota for the next several decades and even acquired several additional units to give herself 6,000 square-feet of living space that reportedly came with a $12,500 monthly HOA fee by the mid-1990s. Based on a comparable unit that sold years later, it's likely that Yoko's monthly HOA fee today is more than $20,000.
In 1978, John and Yoko paid $178,000 for a 600-acre farm near Franklin, New York.
