Geddy Lee Net Worth And What To Know About His Wife & Family

Geddy Lee is considered to be one of the most popular singers in the world, and while money isn’t everything, Geddy Lee’s net worth surely proves the consideration right. Starting with the Canadian progressive rock band Rush, Lee has made his mark in progressive rock, hard rock, and heavy metal genres. His prominence and impact in the music industry earned him and his group an induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013. But the awards go way back before that. On May 9, 1996, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada alongside his bandmates Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart. He got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2010 and won the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012.

How Geddy Lee Made His Money

Geddy Lee began his foray into music in his teen years. With a desire to help his single mother (his father passed away due to health complications from being a Jewish Holocaust survivor) and a strong passion for music, Lee joined friends at school to form a band. Geddy joined forces with Alex Lifeson, Jeff Jones, and John Rutsey to form the rock band named Rush in 1968. However, Jones would leave the group before long. By the following year, the band had begun to play professionally, earning an income for their performances at high school events, coffeehouses, and other places. With its steady rise in popularity, Lee decided to drop out of school and focus on his music full-time.

By 1971, they started playing original songs in small clubs and bars like the Abbey Road Pub. Deciding to aim higher, the band started opening concerts for the rock band New York Dolls, and in 1972 they started performing original songs at full-length concerts in cities like Toronto and Detroit. With their rise in fame, they started to open for such bands as Aerosmith and Kiss.

Earnings From Album Sales With Rush

Forming their independent label, Moon Records, the band released its eponymous debut album in 1974. Enjoying local popularity at first, Rush was re-released by Mercury Records in the US after WMMS, a Cleveland, Ohio radio station began regularly playing the song, Working Man. Before the end of the year, Rutsey left the band due to health complications and was replaced by Neil Peart. The band matched up the energy by releasing two albums the following year; Fly by Night and Caress of Steel. By this time, Rush was already becoming an international sensation with their brand of rock music.

The band continued to release albums as the years passed, releasing 2112 in 1976. Their next albums were A Farewell to Kings (1977), Hemispheres (1978), Permanent Waves (1980), Moving Pictures (1981), Signals (1982), Grace Under Pressure (1984), Power Windows (1985), Hold Your Fire (1987), Presto (1989), Roll the Bones (1991), Counterparts (1993), Test for Echo (1996), Vapor Trails (2002), Snakes & Arrows (2007), and Clockwork Angels (2012). Altogether, the band released nineteen studio albums before their eventual disbandment in January 2018. They also had nine compilation albums, eleven live albums, ten video albums, an EP, a remix album, and six box sets.

In all, it is believed that they sold over 40 million units of their album across the globe.

Solo Career and Other Endeavors

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Though most of his work has been with the band Rush, Geddy Lee has also ventured out as a soloist. In 2000, the heavy metal vocalist released his debut solo album titled My Favourite Headache on the 14th of November. It was distributed by Anthem Records in Canada and Atlantic Records outside the country. Singles from the album include Grace to Grace and Home on the Strange. The album peaked at number 52 on the Billboard 200, with My Favourite Headache and Grace to Grace receiving a lot of air time on mainstream rock radio.

Geddy Lee has also worked as a producer, he produced the first and only album from the Toronto new wave band Boys Brigade. Lee also lent his vocals for the song Tears Are Not Enough on the USA for Africa’s 1985 album We Are the World. He appeared in the documentary films Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage and Metal: A Headbangers Journey, and has shown up on several episodes of VH1 Classic’s Metal Evolution.

In 2018, he published his book, Geddy Lee’s Big Beautiful Book of Bass, a collection of over 250 basses as well as interviews with leading bass players and technicians.

Analysis of Geddy Lee’s Net Worth

With a solo album, guest appearances in several TV shows, multiple studio albums, videos, and of course his production and songwriting credits, Geddy Lee’s net worth is unsurprisingly in the tens of millions. With several of Rush’s albums getting certified platinum, it’s not surprising to learn that the musician’s net worth is estimated at a cool $50 million.

Rush made $550,000 from the record sales of their eponymous debut album which was certified gold by RIAA and Music Canada. For their second and third albums, they made another $550 thousand and $1.1 million respectively. In 1976, ’77, and ’78, the band made total record sales of $4.4 million, $1.2 million, and $2.2 million from live albums, box sets, and studio albums. Throughout the 1980s, with several albums certified platinum by both RIAA and Music Canada, Rush made an estimated $13.82 million in record sales.

The band’s biggest earner was their video album Rush in Rio released in 2003; it was certified platinum seven times by RIAA and made the progressive rock band $8.3 million in sales. Their next big winner was in 2005, the video album R30: Anniversary World Tour made $5.9 million in record sales.

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Thanks to his massive net worth, Geddy Lee can live a lavish lifestyle. He’s a watch and wine collector (with five thousand bottles in his collection) and likes to take annual trips to France to indulge in cheese and wine. The rock star doesn’t spend it all on himself. Lee also has a charitable side, giving donations to charities and helping out at fundraisers. In 2011, the Geddy Lee Scholarship was created by Grapes for Humanity (a foundation Lee supports) for winemaking students at Niagara College.

A Look At The Rock Star’s Family Life

Geddy Lee has been married to his wife Nancy Young for decades. It’s always beautiful to see a celebrity couple that stays strong together after so many years. It’s not quite clear when they met each other, but the couple got married way back in 1976. Even though he describes himself as an atheist, Lee married his wife at a Jewish ceremony, remarking that he knew it would make his mother happy. The couple had their first child together, a son named Julian, not too long after their marriage.

All was quiet and calm for them at first as they lived in a middle-class neighborhood known as the Beaches. However, with Rush’s major rise in fame, fans eventually learned where the bassist and his family lived and began to harass them. With no other choice, Geddy Lee moved his family to an affluent downtown in Toronto area. Lee guarded his family’s privacy for over a decade after this, refusing to let the media come into his home or try to discuss personal details about him that weren’t connected to his music.

Later, the married couple had another child, this time a daughter named Kyla. Even though the family has been together at public events and occasions, Lee has still managed to keep the lid on with regards to personal info about his kids and wife.