Benjamin Scott Folds was born on 12 September 1966, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina USA, an is a record producer, singer, and songwriter, but probably best known for being part of the alternative rock band, Ben Folds Five. He has also performed as a solo artist, and has toured around the world. All of his efforts have helped put his net worth to where it is today.
How rich is Ben Folds? As of late-2016, sources estimate a net worth that is at $20 million, mostly earned through a successful career in music. Ben Folds Five reunited in 2011, but he’s also been known to collaborate with other musicians. As he continues his career it is expected that his wealth will increase.
Ben Folds Net Worth $20 million
At a young age, Ben was interested in learning how to play the piano, after his father brought one home and Ben learned how to play it by ear. He attended Richard J Reynolds High School, where he played in several bands as a drummer, pianist, or bassist. In the late 1980s, he would form the band Majosha with Millard Powers, and they would release several songs. They performed at the 1988 Duke University Battle of the Bands, winning the competition, and then played at various venues and eventually self-produced an EP entitled “Party Night: Five Songs About Jesus”. Their following recording was “Shut Up and Listen to Majosha” in 1989, which contained re-recorded versions of their EP’s songs. Ben’s net worth was established.
After the band broke up, Folds started performing in a new band called Pots and Pans, but it was short lived. He eventually got a music publishing deal in Nashville, and decided to move there in 1990. He played drums for Power Bill, and would also continue working as a session musician. He got a percussion scholarship from the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music, but dropped-out before graduating, and moved to New Jersey where he began to act with various theatre troupes, but he also continued to play music. In 1994, Ben moved back to North Carolina and would form Ben Folds Five.
They released their self-titled debut album the following year, followed up two years later by “Whatever and Ever Amen”. In 1998 they released the compilation “Naked Baby Photos”, and then “The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner” the following year. The band would gain a strong following in Australia and the United Kingdom, but failed to make any headway in reaching the Billboard Hot 100. They made their first charting song in the UK entitled “Underground” which reached the Top 40, and this helped improve Folds’ net worth. They continued making a few more charting singles there, and the song “Brick” became a major chart placer in Australia – the album “Whatever and Ever Amen” reached number ninth spot in the country. Eventually the band would stop making new material, but would later reunite in 2008 nearly 10 years after their last performance. The concert proceeds were given to the charity “Operation Smile”, and in 2011 they released “The Sound of the Life of the Mind”.
Folds has also had a successful solo career, releasing six LPs and working on the experimental project “Fear of Pop” which increased his net worth too. He also worked at producing music, and has helped create the soundtracks for films. He toured to promote his music, and one of his latest projects is a piano concerto he composed with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra in 2014.
For his personal life, Ben married four times, firstly to Anna Goodman from 1987 to 1992; Anna was responsible for co-writing several of the Ben Folds Five Songs. In 1996, he married Kate Rosen which only lasted a short time. His next marriage was to Frally Hynes in 1998, and they had twins before divorcing in 2006. The following year, he married Fleur Stanbrook but it ended in 2011. He also dated singer Alicia Witt for two years.
