George “Buddy” Guy was born on 30 July 1936, in Lettsworth, Louisiana, USA. He is a singer and guitarist, known for becoming one of the biggest influences of the blues genre. He has played with artists such as Muddy Waters and Junior Wells. All of his efforts have helped put his net worth to where it is now.
How rich is Buddy Guy? As of mid-2016, sources inform us of a net worth that is at $2 million mostly earned through success in the music industry. He is considered as one of the greatest guitarists of all time, and has also published his own autobiography. During his prime he toured around the world – and all of these have ensured his current wealth.
Buddy Guy Net Worth $2 Million Dollars
Guy was mostly self-taught when it came to the guitar. He created his own guitar when he was young, and was eventually given a Harmony acoustic guitar. He continued honing his skills when he moved to Baton Rouge during the early 1950s, and worked at the Louisiana State University as a custodian while performing with various bands. In 1957 he moved to Chicago and was influenced by the music of Muddy Waters. A year later, he signed a record contract after winning a competition and was soon making music with Cobra Records. He played under the pseudonym Friendly Chap, and started working with artists such as Junior Wells.
Despite his popularity in live shows, Chess Records prohibited him from recording the same style of music which inhibited his career for a while. In the 1960s, he became a solo artist for the record company and released his only album with Chess entitled “Left My Blues in San Francisco”. He was mainly used as a backup guitarist for other artists including Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Koko Taylor, and many more, but during this time he also participated in the American Folk Blues Festival which toured around Europe. Eventually his popularity as a guitarist became more profound, and many guitarists who were actually influenced by him started inviting him to perform. In 1969, he became part of the “Supershow” which included Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton, Misunderstood, Roland Kirk, Glenn Campbell, and many others. His music then started to decline in popularity, but found a revival during the late 1980s up to the early 1990s. He continued to work with Eric Clapton and then signed with Silvertone Records. He now usually performs at his Chicago blues club called Buddy Guy’s Legends.
Buddy has won various awards throughout his career and was given several honors. In 1996, he became part of Guitar Center’s Hollywood Rockwalk. He has won six Grammy Awards over the course of his career, and was also given the National Medal of Arts, awarded by the President of the United States. In 2004, he received Billboard Magazine’s Century Award and is the second recipient of it. A year later, he became an inductee of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame, and also of the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame. He has recorded 18 solo albums throughout his career and won a Grammy Award for his latest entitled “Born to Play Guitar”, for Best Blues Album in 2016.
For his personal life, it is known that Buddy married Jennifer Guy in 1991, but it ended in divorce during 2002; their two children have also become musicians.
