Shane MacGowan Net Worth

What was Shane MacGowan's Net Worth?

Shane MacGowan was an English-born singer, songwriter, and artist who had a net worth of $1 million at the time of his death in November 2023. Shane MacGowan was best known for being the lead singer and songwriter of the punk band The Pogues. With The Pogues, Shane released the studio albums "Red Roses for Me (1984), "Rum Sodomy & the Lash" (1985), "If I Should Fall from Grace with God" (1988), "Peace and Love" (1989), and "Hell's Ditch" (1990) and the live album "The Pogues in Paris: 30th Anniversary Concert at the Olympia" (2012). After MacGowan was kicked out of the band in 1991 for unprofessional and unreliable behavior, he formed Shane MacGowan and The Popes and released the albums "The Snake" (1994), "The Crock of Gold" (1997), "The Rare Oul' Stuff" (2001), and "Across the Broad Atlantic: Live on Paddy's Day — New York and Dublin (2002).

Shane permanently returned to The Pogues in 2005, and the band re-released the 1987 single "Fairytale of New York," which subsequently reached #3 on the UK Singles Chart. MacGowan has performed on songs by artists such as Nick Cave, Sinéad O'Connor, The Jesus and Mary Chain, and Dropkick Murphys, and he formed the band The Shane Gang in 2010. He has appeared in the films "Straight to Hell Returns" (1987), "Eat the Rich" (1987), and "The Libertine" (2004) and the TV movie "The Ghosts of Oxford Street" (1991), and he starred on the 2009 RTÉ reality series "Victoria and Shane Grow Their Own" with his then-fiancée Victoria Mary Clarke. He co-wrote the 2001 memoir "A Drink With Shane MacGowan" with Clarke, and in 2022, he published the limited edition book "The Eternal Buzz and The Crock of Gold," which is described as "the first publication of the art of Shane MacGowan with handwritten lyrics and unpublished writing."

Early Life

Shane MacGowan was born Shane Patrick Lysaght MacGowan on December 25, 1957, in Pembury, Kent, England. He is the son of Therese and Maurice MacGowan, Irish immigrants from Tipperary and Dublin, respectively. Therese was employed as a typist at a convent and had formerly been a model, singer, and traditional Irish dancer. Maurice worked in the offices of the C&A department store and referred to himself as a "local roustabout." Shane's younger sister, Siobhan, is a songwriter, musician, and journalist. MacGowan lived in London and Brighton during his youth, and spent his summers in County Tipperary. He earned a literature scholarship from the Kent preparatory school Holmewood House, graduating in 1971. Shane then enrolled at London's Westminster School, but he was expelled during his sophomore year after being caught with drugs. At a 1976 concert by The Clash, Shane's earlobe was damaged by Jane Crockford, future bassist of the Mo-dettes. A photographer took a photo of MacGowan after the incident, and the picture of Shane covered in blood was published in a local paper with the headline "Cannibalism at Clash Gig." Later that year, MacGowan joined The Nipple Erectors, a punk band that later came to be known as simply The Nips.

The Pogues

Shane formed The Pogues in 1982. The band's name is a reference to the Irish slang term "pogue mahone," which means "kiss my arse."

The Pogues released their debut album, "Red Roses for Me," through Warner Music Group in October 1984. The album was certified Silver in the U.K. and reached #89 on the UK Albums Chart. Their next three albums, "Rum Sodomy & the Lash" (1985), "If I Should Fall from Grace with God" (1988), and "Peace and Love" (1989), went Gold in the U.K. "Rum Sodomy & the Lash" featured the Silver single "Dirty Old Town," and "If I Should Fall from Grace with God" included the single "Fairytale of New York" (featuring Kirsty MacColl), which topped the Irish Singles Chart. The album's title track reached #4 on the Irish Singles Chart, and the "Peace and Love" track "Misty Morning, Albert Bridge" reached #8 on that chart. "If I Should Fall from Grace with God" and "Peace and Love" both reached the top 10 on the charts in Sweden and the U.K. In 1990, The Pogues released the Silver album "Hell's Ditch," and the following year, MacGowan was kicked out of the band. Shane formed a new band, Shane MacGowan and The Popes, in 1992, and they released the EPs "The Church of the Holy Spook" (1994), "My Way" (1996), and "Christmas Party EP" (1996) and the studio albums "The Snake" (1994) and "The Crock of Gold" (1997). Shane was one of many artists to perform on a 1997 cover of the Lou Reed song "Perfect Day," which was released as a charity single to raise money for Children in Need. The single spent three weeks at #1 in the U.K. and raised £2,125,000 for Children in Need.

In 2001, MacGowan reunited with The Pogues for a sold out tour, and he rejoined the band permanently in May 2005. In 2006, readers of "NME" magazine voted Shane #50 in the publication's list of "Rock's 50 Greatest Heroes. As of this writing, the most recent live performance by The Pogues took place at the Fête du bruit dans Landerneau" festival in France in August 2014, and in a 2015 "Vice" magazine interview, MacGowan stated, "We were friends for years before we joined the band. We just got a bit sick of each other. We're friends as long as we don't tour together. I've done a hell of a lot of touring. I've had enough of it." MacGowan formed The Shane Gang in 2010, and the band performed at Ireland's The Red Hand Rocks music festival in June 2011. In June 2019, Shane performed with Chrissie Hynde and the Pretenders at Dublin's RDS Arena. In October 2022, London's Andipa Gallery held an exhibition of MacGowan's art entitled "The Eternal Buzz & The Crock of Gold Exhibition."

Tristan Fewings/Getty Images

Personal Life

Shane married journalist Victoria Mary Clarke on November 28, 2018, in Copenhagen after more than 30 years together and an 11-year engagement. MacGowan has referred to himself as a "religious fanatic," and he has described his faith as "free-thinking Catholicism."

In 2001, singer Sinéad O'Connor reported Shane to London police for drug possession in an attempt to get him to stop using heroin. MacGowan was initially angry, but he later credited this incident with helping him kick the drug. Shane used a wheelchair from 2015 until his death as a result of fracturing his pelvis when he fell as he was leaving a music studio in Dublin. He told "Vice" later that year:

"It was a fall and I fell the wrong way. I broke my pelvis, which is the worst thing you can do. I'm lame in one leg, I can't walk around the room without a crutch. I am getting better, but it's taking a very long time. It's the longest I've ever taken to recover from an injury. And I've had a lot of injuries."

MacGowan has often been described as having bad teeth, and after losing all his natural teeth, he got a new set of teeth in 2015. The process took nine hours and was documented for the hour-long TV special " Shane MacGowan: A Wreck Reborn."

Shane started drinking alcohol when he was just 5 years old due to his parents giving him Guinness to help him fall asleep. In 2016, Clarke wrote in the "Independent" that MacGowan was sober "for the first time in years." She stated, "Shane has been a singer all his life, singing in bars and clubs and other venues where people go to drink and have fun. If anyone is not drinking, it is unusual in these places. So the drinking has not just been a recreational activity, his whole career has revolved around it and, indeed, been both enhanced and simultaneously inhibited by it." Victoria went on to say that a few months earlier, MacGowan had a "lengthy hospital stay" while suffering from pneumonia and excruciating hip pain. With the hospital stay came a "total detox," and Shane continued to avoid alcohol after he was released. In December 2022, MacGowan was hospitalized after contracting an infection, and on New Year's Eve, he posted an Instagram video in which he informed his fans that he was "suffering from encephalitis," an inflammation of the brain.

Unfortunately Shane died on November 30, 2023 at the age of 65.

Awards and Honors

In 2018, Shane received the Ivor Novello Inspiration Award. In January of that year, a concert gala was held at Dublin's National Concert Hall in honor of MacGowan's 60th birthday, and Irish President Michael D. Higgins presented him with a Lifetime Achievement Award. The Pogues received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2006 Meteor Ireland Music Awards.