The World's Highest-Paid Country Acts 2015
Country Cash King: Garth Brooks earned $90 million in 2015, more than any other country act over the past year–or any other year.
by Zack O’Malley Greenburg, Forbes Staff
Garth Brooks may have friends in low places, but his earning power is quite the opposite.
The country legend pulled in $90 million over the past year, making him No. 1 on our annual Country Cash Kings list. In addition to being the highest total this year, it’s also the biggest single-year payday FORBES has ever recorded for a country act.
Together with wife Trisha Yearwood, Brooks has spent much of the past year playing arena shows across the U.S. in his long-awaited return from semi-retirement. That pent-up demand has allowed the duo to sell out arenas multiple nights in a row, sometimes while playing back-to-back shows in a single night.
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“The live show is like something you’ve never seen in your life,” says Yearwood. “But if you just play the music and close your eyes, it’s countrier than anything you’re ever going to hear.”
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The genre’s traditionalists may disagree, but Brooks’ music is indeed sounding more and more country when compared to some of his top-earning peers. Toby Keith, who ranks No. 2 with $53 million, has always had an eye on the larger pop prize with hits from “How Do You Like Me Now” to “Red Solo Cup.” No. 3 Jason Aldean pulled in $43.5 million on the strength of a pyro-drenched live show more reminiscent of Metallica than Merle Haggard.
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“Country, like a lot of different kinds of music, has sort of evolved over the years,” says Aldean. “The country music that I grew up on isn’t necessarily what’s out right now.”
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He’s followed on the list by another non-traditional voice: Luke Bryan, who earned $42.5 million, fueled by his pop country live show. Kenny Chesney rounds out the top five at $42 million, boosted by the beginning of a wildly successful stadium tour and endorsement deals with Corona beer and Costa sunglasses, as well as his own Blue Chair Bay rum.
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To create this year’s Country Cash Kings list, we looked at income from June 2014 to June 2015. That includes concert tickets, merchandise sales, recorded music and publishing, endorsement deals and other business ventures. We used data from Pollstar, Nieslen, industry insiders and some of the artists themselves. Our estimates reflect pretax income before deducting fees for agents, managers and lawyers.
Also included: earnings from an increasingly diverse set of sources. Keith Urban (No. 11, $28 million) nabbed a seven-figure payday for his gig as an American Idol judge, as did Blake Shelton (No. 9, $28.5 million) for his role on The Voice. His soon-to-be-ex-wife Miranda Lambert (tied with Shelton for the ninth spot) boasts partnerships with Red55 Wine, Pink Pistol and Dixie Darlin, as well as her own line of clothing and pet accessories.
“I think it is not that country music artists have been more open to aligning themselves with a brand, I think that brands are more open to using country music in their mainstream branding,” says Yearwood. “Kenny Chesney is a prime example. If you know anything about his music and his career and his history, him representing a rum drink or sunglasses or suntan lotion and all that stuff would make sense … that’s who he is.”
As country moves more toward the mainstream, it’s enjoying newfound popularity in unlikely places. Aldean, Bryan and others have started to find receptive audiences abroad; even in the U.S. new markets are opening up in areas like New York, which recently hosted the Farmborough country festival. Thousands of onlookers braved the rain and wind to see acts from Justin Moore to Dwight Yoakum to Brad Paisley.
“One of the most common misconceptions growing up in Arkansas or anywhere else in the south is that that’s the only place where country people are, which is obviously not the case,” Moore told FORBES before his set. “There’s a ton of country fans here, and they’re no different than any other country fan in South Carolina or Georgia.”
Additional reporting by Maddie Berg. A shortened version of this piece appeared in the August 17th edition of FORBES magazine.
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