Shirley Ann Manson was born on 26 August 1966, in Edinburgh, Scotland, and is an actress, singer, songwriter, and musician, probably best known to be the lead singer of the band Garbage. She found a significant amount of recognition before getting invited to join Garbage and helped the band produce several hit albums. All of her efforts have helped put her net worth to where it is today.
How rich is Shirley Manson? As of mid-2016, sources inform us of a net worth that is at $16 million, mostly earned through a successful career in the music industry. She’s had multiple Grammy nominations for her albums with Garbage, and has also tried her hand at acting. As she continues her career, it is expected that her wealth will increase.
Shirley Manson Net Worth $16 million
Shirley made her first performance at the age of four alongside her older sister. They took part in an amateur show in 1970, and she would later start learning various instruments. She went on to become part of the City of Edinburgh Music School which is part of Broughton High School, Edinburgh. During this time, she also participated in the school’s drama group and appeared in several productions including “The American Dream”, and sang with a local choir called Waverley singers as well. After school, Manson did volunteer work at a local hospital cafeteria and later worked in stockrooms. She would then find work modelling, and also started building her name in the clubbing scene.
She sang with several local acts and was approached by the Goodbye Mr. Mackenzie’s lead Martin Metcalfe, and became a well-known member of that group, doing back-up vocals and playing the keyboard. She was part of their first album “Good Deeds and Dirty Rags” which had the hit song “The Rattler”. The band was then transferred to record company Parlophone, but it would decline their second album release. Eventually, the album was released by Radioactive, and was called “Hammer and Tongs”. However, no single got to the charts and they were eventually released from their contract. After hearing several demos from Manson, Radioactive signed her as a solo artist, and the remaining members of the band became a backing band.
This new band would be called Angelfish and they started using material done by Mackenzie. They released the album “Angelfish”, and the song “Suffocate Me” was well received. In 1994, they released “Heartbreak to Hate” and then toured several countries. The music video of “Suffocate Me” was aired through MTV’s “120 Minutes”, and it caught the attention of Steve Marker, who was looking to put a singer to his band Garbage.
Shirley sang a couple of tracks as an audition but was unsuccessful; according to her, she felt nervous because she was in front of producer Butch Vig who was responsible for creating Nirvana and other popular bands. After touring with Angelfish, she decided to give another audition to Garbage, and was then invited to become a full-time member. Their debut self-titled album was released in 1995 and went on to sell four million copies, and spawned several hit singles. She became the face of the band and then they would go on to make “Version 2.0” which also found a significant amount of success in 1998. They toured for two years to support the album, and while doing so Manson did modelling work. Their third album release was entitled “Beautiful Garbage” but it did not sell as well as the last two albums. They then toured around the world, but she discovered that she had vocal fold cyst which led to surgery. In 2005, they released “Bleed Like Me” which was a success. However, the band went on extended hiatus in 2005.
During this time, Shirley started doing solo work, though she had problems negotiating with several recording companies. She would go on and release demos through her Facebook page. In 2009, she stepped back from music and went into acting. Three years later, she confirmed that her album was cancelled.
For her personal life, Manson married record producer and Garbage sound engineer Billy Bush in 2010. It is known that Shirley was bullied during high school and suffered from depression, which led her to become rebellious.
