How Bono Achieved a Net Worth of $700 Million

Most people won’t recognize the name Paul David Hewson. However, a fair number of them will be familiar with him under the stage name Bono, seeing as how he is one of the most successful singer-songwriters that can be found on the face of the planet. In fact, Bono has earned so much money over the course of his career that his current net worth is estimated to be around $700 million by some sources.

Bono was born to a Roman Catholic father and a Church of Ireland mother. For those who are unfamiliar with that name, the Church of Ireland is a part of the Anglican Communion that happens to be the second biggest Christian church in Ireland, being behind the Roman Catholic Church but none other. Said church considers itself to be both Catholic and Reformed in nature, but for historical reasons, it tends to be classified as a Protestant church. Regardless, what is interesting is that Bono’s parents agreed that their first child would be raised Anglican while their second child would be raised Catholic. Bono was their second, but he often went to Church of Ireland services with his mother as well as his older brother anyways. This religious upbringing had a significant impact on Bono’s music, as shown by the religious imagery that is sometimes incorporated into his lyrics.

How Did Bono Reach His Current Net Worth?

By the mid 1970s, Bono and a number of others had formed the rock band that would become U2. Amusingly, it turned out that the band wasn’t very good at playing covers of other bands’ music, which is what convinced them to start writing their own material. Initially, Bono started out as the guitar player, but eventually, the rest of the band broke it to him that he wasn’t very good at guitar playing, which is how he got turned towards singing and songwriting instead. Of course, Bono didn’t exactly live up to his stage name in those days because most people need plenty of both time and practice to get good at whatever it is that they want to do.

Nowadays, U2 is one of the most famous rock bands that can be found on the planet. Naturally, this means that Bono and the rest of the band are some of the richest musicians that can be found on the planet as well, seeing as how they have managed to bring in huge amounts of money through their music, their merchandise, and their related operations. However, while it seems certain that the bulk of Bono’s wealth has come from his music, it is interesting to note that he has been involved in other endeavors as well. For example, he and one of his band-mates bought a two-star hotel in Dublin before turning it into a five-star and then a four-star hotel. Likewise, Bono is on the board of a private equity firm called Elevation Partners, which has a fair amount of interest in entertainment companies. In fact, it is interesting to note that some sources once claimed that Bono’s stake in the firm was worth $1 billion in 2012, though a Forbes article in 2015 claimed that this wasn’t the case because those sources had been mistaken about the shares attributed to Bono. Whatever the case, it is clear that while most of Bono’s wealth has come from his music, he hasn’t exactly been shy about getting involved in other endeavors in other fields.

Further Considerations

Summed up, there is no way to tell Bono’s exact net worth with absolute certainty for the simple reason that it is private information that is not available to the public. However, there are decent sources that estimate his current net worth to be around $700 million, which should be useful for giving interested individuals a general idea of the scale of his wealth if nothing else. Having said this, it will be interesting to see how Bono’s wealth will change in the time to come because U2 is still very much active in the world of music. After all, the band literally started out on a new tour in May of 2018, meaning that there are bound to be further changes to the band members’ net worth.