What Is Aaron Neville's Net Worth?
Aaron Neville is an American R&B and soul singer who has a net worth of $4 million. Aaron Neville was a member of the group The Neville Brothers, and he has released numerous solo albums, including the Platinum albums "Warm Your Heart" (1991), "The Grand Tour" (1993), and "Aaron Neville's Soulful Christmas" (1993). Aaron gained prominence in the late '60s with his first hit, "Tell Like It Is," which reached #2 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart and sold over one million copies worldwide. Neville went on to release hit singles such as "Everybody Plays the Fool," "Somewhere Somebody," and "Don't Take Away My Heaven," and he dueted with Linda Ronstadt on "Don't Know Much," "All My Life," and "When Something Is Wrong with My Baby" and with Trisha Yearwood on "I Fall to Pieces." The Grammy-winner has also appeared in the films "Zandalee" (1991), "Posse" (1993), "F.T.W." (1994), "Mulholland Falls" (1996), "The Fan" (1996), and "Sandy Wexler" (2017) and the television series "Ellen" (1997), "Men Behaving Badly" (1997), and "Treme" (2012). In May 2021, Neville announced his retirement from touring, stating, "I love singing for others, it provides so much joy for me, at least as much as for those listening, if not more. Unfortunately, the grueling nature of travel and the schedule needed to make a tour work has become less than desirable."
Early Life
Aaron Neville was born Aaron Joseph Neville on January 24, 1941, in New Orleans, Louisiana. He is the son of Amelia Landry and Arthur Neville Sr. Aaron grew up in the Calliope housing project with his brothers Art, Cyril, and Charles. Sadly, Charles died of pancreatic cancer in 2018, and Art passed away in 2019 "after years of declining health." Neville's uncle was George "Big Chief Jolly" Landry, the lead vocalist of a Mardi Gras Indian group called the Wild Tchoupitoulas. Aaron has a tattoo of a sword on his face, which he got at the age of 16. In a 2019 interview with "Billboard," he stated, "My dad made me scrub it with Brillo Pads and Octagon Soap. The skin came off, but the tattoo stayed. But some years later, I had an album out called 'The Tattooed Heart,' and we were doing a special thing in a tattoo parlor, so I let them go over it and outline it – freshen it up."
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Career
In 1960, "Over You" became the first of Neville's singles to receive airplay outside of New Orleans, and it reached #21 on the "Billboard" Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. His next single, 1966's "Tell It Like It Is" (from his debut album of the same name), reached #2 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart and #1 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. Another single from the album, "She Took You for a Ride," peaked at #92 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart. Aaron followed his debut with the 1967 album "Like It 'Tis," and in 1976, he formed The Neville Brothers with his siblings. The Neville Brothers released nine studio albums between 1978 and 2004, such as "Fiyo on the Bayou" (1981), "Brother's Keeper" (1990), and "Valence Street" (1999), and their singles include "With God on Our Side," "A Change Is Gonna Come," "Drift Away," and "Fly Like an Eagle." Aaron released his third solo album, "Orchid in the Storm," in 1986, and his next three albums, "Warm Your Heart" (1991), "The Grand Tour" (1993), and "Aaron Neville's Soulful Christmas" (1993), were certified Platinum in the U.S. and Gold in Canada. All three albums reached the top 50 on the "Billboard" 200 chart, and "Warm Your Heart" featured the top 10 singles (on the "Billboard" Adult Contemporary chart) "Everybody Plays the Fool" and "Somewhere Somebody." "Everybody Plays the Fool" reached #1 on that chart and #8 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart. "The Grand Tour" included the single "Don't Take Away My Heaven," which reached #4 on the Adult Contemporary chart and #56 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart.
In 1989, Neville performed on four tracks on Linda Ronstadt's "Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind" album, and the duo won Grammys for the songs "Don't Know Much" and "All My Life." In 1994, Aaron appeared on the album "Rhythm, Country and Blues," which featured duets between country and R&B artists. He teamed up with Trisha Yearwood for a cover of Patsy Cline's "I Fall to Pieces," which earned him another Grammy. In 1995, Neville released the cover album "The Tattooed Heart," and it went Gold in the U.S. Next, he released the albums "To Make Me Who I Am" (1997), "Devotion" (2000), and "Humdinger" (2002), and his 2003 albums "Believe" and "Nature Boy: The Standards Album" reached #2 on the "Billboard" Top Gospel Albums chart and #1 on the "Billboard" Top Jazz Albums chart, respectively. The 2005 album "Christmas Prayer" reached #3 on the Top Gospel Albums chart, and that year Aaron also released the album "Gospel Roots." He recorded covers by artists such as Marvin Gaye, Sam Cooke, and Otis Redding for the 2006 album "Bring It On Home… The Soul Classics," and he released the album "Mojo Soul" the same year. Neville then released the albums "I Know I've Been Changed" (2010), "My True Story" (2013), and "Apache" (2016), with "My True Story" reaching #7 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. In 2023, he won his fifth Grammy for "Stompin' Ground," a collaboration with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band.
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Personal Life
Aaron married Joel Roux on January 10, 1959, and they welcomed four children together, Ivan, Jason, Ernestine, and Aaron (better known as "Fred"). Ivan and Jason went into the music business, and Ivan had a Top 40 hit with the 1988 single "Not Just Another Girl." Neville and Roux remained married until Joel's death from lung cancer in January 2007. Aaron met photographer Sarah A. Friedman during a photo shoot for "People" magazine in 2008, and they married on November 13, 2010. Neville is a devout Catholic and has credited God with his survival. He wears a St. Jude medal as an earring, and he told the "St. Anthony Messenger" in 1999, "One day, I remembered my mother telling me about St. Jude, and I started going wherever I heard they were having a St. Jude novena." The article mentioned that Aaron dedicates his albums to St. Jude, who is the patron saint of lost causes. In 2015, he was honored with the Laetare Medal, which is awarded to an American Catholic "whose genius has ennobled the arts and sciences, illustrated the ideals of the church and enriched the heritage of humanity."
Awards and Nominations
Neville has earned more than a dozen Grammy nominations, winning Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for "Don't Know Much" (shared with Linda Ronstadt) and Best Pop Instrumental Performance for "Healing Chant" (shared with The Neville Brothers) in 1990, Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for "All My Life" (shared with Ronstadt) in 1991, Best Country Vocal Collaboration for "I Fall to Pieces" (shared with Trisha Yearwood) in 1995, and Best American Roots Performance for "Stompin' Ground" (shared with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band) in 2023. In 2003, he won an Annie Award for Best Animated Television Production for Children for "Little People: Big Discoveries," a show he performed the theme music for. In 1994, Aaron received CMA Award nominations for Album of the Year for "Rhythm, Country & Blues" and Vocal Event of the Year for "I Fall to Pieces."
Real Estate
In 2005, Neville spent $755,000 on a 5,450 square foot, six-bedroom home in Brentwood, Tennessee. In 2008, he sold that home for $775,000 and purchased a 5,000 square foot New Orleans home for $460,000. Aaron sold the New Orleans home for $400,000 in mid-2013, and the following year, he paid $1.44 million for a two-bedroom, two-bathroom duplex in New York City's Greenwich Village neighborhood. He put that home on the market for $2.5 million in September 2016. In April 2015 Aaron paid $1.275 million for a 12-acre farm in Pawling New York. On the property Aaron and his wife Sarah Friedman operate a business called Freville Farm.
