William Ray Norful, Jr. was born on the 31st October 1975, in Muskogee, Oklahoma USA, and is a gospel musician and pianist, and is two-time Grammy winner. Norful has been active in the entertainment industry since 2002.
How much is the net worth of Smokie Norful? It has been estimated by authoritative sources that the outright size of his wealth is as much as $3 million, as of the data presented in early 2017. Music is the main source of Norful’s modest fortune.
Smokie Norful Net Worth $3 Million
To begin with, Smokie grew up in Muskogee, the son of a clergyman of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. He came early to the church gospel, and sang from the age of four in the church community. At the age of ten, he made recordings for a regionally released album. Instead of music, he decided to study history at the University of Arkansas, and thus became a history teacher, but after four years in this profession, he moved to Chicago in 1998 and subsequently graduated from the Garrett Theological Seminary with a Master of Divinity degree. He stayed in Chicago and became a helper in the Rock of Ages Baptist Church, and was also active in various choirs; at the Thompson Community Choir, he appeared as a guest artist on an album recording.
In 2003, Norful released his first studio album “I Need You Now”, which immediately made it to the first position of the Gospel charts, and also into the official Billboard 200; the title song made it into the Hot 100 single charts. He was then signed to EMI and released a live EP in 2003, which also reached first place on the Gospel charts. Just a year later, the second album entitled “Nothing Without You” reached the top of the gospel charts like the debut album, and stayed in this chart for two years and was finally rewarded with gold certificate for half a million copies sold. He also received the award in the Best Pop / Contemporary Gospel Album category at the Grammy Awards 2005. Afterwards, Smokie released his third studio album, “Life Changing” in 2006, and the album “Smokie Norful Live” in 2009, neither of the two albums being as successful of the first two, but still adding to his net worth.
In 2010, Smokie released three preaching albums “Worship & Word”, which, in addition to a long sermon, contained a song, and were also quite successful. The same year, an album with the Victory Cathedral Choir was also released by Smokie, recorded live at the Sunday Baptist Church in Chicago. This was followed by “How I Got Over… Songs That Carried Us” (2011), an album with many guest singers, including his father. The following album, “Once in a Lifetime” (2012) continued his success, and with the album “Forever Yours”, he returned to the Top 100 of the official album charts in 2014. The song “No Greater Love”, which he had written himself with Aaron W. Lindsey, brought him his second Grammy Award for the Best Gospel Song in 2015.
Finally, in the personal life of Smokie Norful, he is married to Carla and they have two sons and a daughter. The family resides in Naperville, Illinois.
