In a recent interview with That Metal Interview Podcast, former Anthrax and current Armored Saint vocalist John Bush shed some light on the unreliability of celebrity net worth estimations. These estimations, often found on certain online pages, are notorious for their inaccuracies.
Bush humorously recounted how friends jest about a purported $40 million net worth listed for him, a figure he finds absurdly inflated.
“There’s some weird thing on Wikipedia or somewhere that says I’m worth, like, 40 million dollars, and a few of my friends just are constantly busting my chops about it. ‘Then where’s my money?’ And I’m, like, I just laugh. It’s, like, man, that is really far off. I wish. It’s just comical, and it’s, like, wow. Like, why don’t you put something that’s viable, like maybe a couple million? But 40 — it’s really silly,” he quipped.
Bush‘s comments offer a real perspective on the disparity between public perception and financial reality in the entertainment industry. Despite his successful career, he emphasized the modest truth: “I mean, don’t get me wrong — we do okay. We’re gonna go on the road, we’re gonna sell some merchandise and we’re gonna do okay. But you come back, you pay some bills and then you’re, like, ‘Man, where did the money go?'”
The allure of wealth in the music industry is undeniable, yet Bush remarked on a deeper truth: the passion for the craft often supersedes the financial gain.
“Like everybody else, that’s just trying to get by and live life. But the music is, I think, a big catalyst. And I know that can sound cheesy — ‘We do it for the music’ — but we do, because that’s really the main reason. We love playing these songs and our records. And when somebody tells me that this song on this record really touched them, that’s enough for me. That’s the reason right there,” he stated earnestly.
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