David Byrne Biography, Net Worth and Everything You Need To Know

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David Byrne is a legendary pop star who developed strong interests in music from the tender age of 3. He took up his interest and pursued it until it became a career for him. His major musical interest lies in experimental pop and African tunes. Byrne is also popular for co-founding the 1975 group The Talking Heads.

The pop star is very successful and has prestigious awards to his credit such as Oscars, Grammys, The Golden Globe Awards and he has also been honored by his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

David Byrne’s Biography

David Byrne was born on 14th May 1952 in Dumbarton, West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. By the time he was two, his parents moved to Hamilton in Ontario, Canada and later to Arbutus, Maryland in the United States when he was about nine years old. He was born to his father, Tom, who was an electronics engineer at Westinghouse Electronic Corporations and his mother, Emma, who was an instructor. He was also the eldest of three children.

His interests in music started at the early age of 3 as he reportedly started playing his phonograph at this age and by 5, he started playing the harmonica. By the time David Byrne was in high school, he could play the violin, guitar, and the accordion. He attended the Lansdowne High School, Maryland and attempted to join the school choir but was rejected on the grounds that he plays his instruments off key and has withdrawn behaviors. However, he didn’t let this set back discourage him as he went on to start his musical performance in high school.

After high school, he attended the Rhodes Island of Design for his university education in 1970-71, however, he dropped out to enroll in the Maryland Institute College of Arts. He didn’t stay long there either, as he dropped out again in 1972. After this, he went back to Providence to start a musical band called The Artists in 1973 with his friend, Chris Frantz, and his girlfriend, Tina Weymouth. This group didn’t last more than a year before they split.

Their split, however, was the beginning of a successful musical journey for the trio as they reassembled in New York and founded the new wave group The Talking Heads in 1975 under Sire Records. The group released their first album, Talking Heads 77 in 1977 with singles like Psycho Killer and Pulled Up. In the same year, the group welcomed Jerry Harrison, a multi-instrumentalist. In all, the group released eight albums before their split in 1991 which includes Remain Light (1980), Speaking in Tongues (1983), Stop Making Sense (1984), Naked (1988) among others.

Before they split, David was involved in some other solo works which sometimes involved other musicians. One of this was a critically acclaimed album titled My Life in the Bush of Goats with Brian Eno. After The Talking Heads, David went solo and produced his first album Rei Momo in 1989.

The album mainly featured song styles like Afro-Cuban, Afro Hispanic and Brazillian. He had an eventful solo career as he produced a handful of albums some of which include Uh-Oh (1992), David Byrne (1994), Feelings (1997), Look into the Eyeballs (2001), and Grown Backwards (2004) among others. While producing these albums, he established his own record label dubbed LuakaBop.

Aside from his career in music, David is also known for his roles in theatre and film. One of his first film productions was the disco musical Here Lies Love with DJ Fatboy Slim. The musical was about the life of Imelda Marcos, a Filipina political figure. In 1981, he partnered with choreographer, Twyla Tharp to produce the musicals for the ballet The Catherine Wheel. In the same year, he produced In Spite of Wishing and Wanting for the dance company, UltimaVez. He also produced various other soundtracks for several movies in subsequent years.

David Byrne has other achievements accredited to him. He has authored several books, founded his own online radio, wrote songs that contributed to the fight against AIDs, and had some voice acting roles.

 

Net Worth

The frontman of The Talking Heads has recorded extreme success in his endeavors and is not popular for any financial scandals. Hence, the Scottish born musician has accrued a lot of wealth over the years and has been estimated to be worth a whopping sum of $40 million.

Family Life of David Byrne

David Byrne has been romantically involved with a number of ladies. He was first involved with Toni Basil in 1981; he later dated Twyla Tharp, a choreographer between 1981 and 1982 before he got married to Adelle Lutz, a costume designer, who he met in 1987. The couple had a daughter in 1989 – Malu Abeni Valentine Byrne.

The marriage ended in 2004 and he went on to date Louise Neri, an art curator. He broke up with Louise soon after and was again romantically engaged with Cindy Sherman from 2007 – 2011. Currently, he is not married and he lives in New York City after attaining dual citizenship of UK and US.

Also Read: Top 10 Richest People in the world with full biography and details.