David Callcott was born on the 9th May 1962, in Epping, Essex, England, and is a musician, singer-songwriter best known to the world as Dave Gahan, the lead singer of the electronic music group Depeche Mode, with which he came to prominence with hit song such as “People are People”, “A Question of Time”, “Personal Jesus”, “Enjoy the Silence”, and many others.
Have you ever wondered how rich Dave Gahan is, as of early 2017? According to authoritative sources it has been estimated that Gahan’s net worth is as high as $50 million, earned through his successful career in the music industry which began in the early ‘80s. Aside from a career as a Depeche Mode singer, Dave has also released two solo albums “Paper Monsters” (2003), and “Hourglass” (2007), which also improved his wealth.
Dave Gahan Net Worth $50 Million
Dave is of mixed heritage; his father Len Callcott is of Malaysian ancestry, and worked as a bus driver, and his mother, Sylvia worked as a conductress on London buses. However, his biological father left the family six months after Dave’s birth, and two years later officially divorced. He has an older sister Sue, and two of them alongside their mother moved to Basildon, Essex when she married Jack Gahan, and Dave grew up thinking Jack was his biological father. Unfortunately, Jack died when Dave was 10 years old, and his real father was back in his life, but only for a short time until he left again, this time for good.
Dave was a troublemaker in his teens and was three times in juvenile court for offences such as joyriding (car theft), stealing, criminal damage and others. As he said in later interviews, he enjoyed the thrill of stealing cars, driving them and then igniting them.
He went to Barstable School, however, he left in 1978 at 15, and started searching for a job in order to support himself. He had a number of jobs from selling soft drinks to working in greengroceries and as a cashier in Sainsbury’s petrol station. After some time he enrolled at Southend Technical College, and two years later received a Display Society Award, thanks to which he could find a job in shopping centres.
However, luck smiled upon him and in 1980 he joined the band, called Composition of Sound, consisting of Martin Gore, Andy Fletcher and Vince Clarke. It was Clarke who brought him into the band after hearing him sing Heroes, originally performed by David Bowie. Dave took the singing duties and the band took a new name, Depeche Mode, on Dave’s suggestion.
Their first album came out in 1981, entitled “Speak & Spell”, which reached No. 10 on the UK charts and achieved gold status in Britain, which increased Dave’s net worth and also encouraged him and the other band members to continue to work together.
Through 1985 they released three more albums, “A Broken Frame” (1982), which reached into top 10 at No. 8 on the UK charts, “Construction Time Again” (1983), peaking at No. 6 and “Some Great Reward” (1984), which debuted at No. 5 on the UK charts, and also achieved platinum status in the USA.
The group continued to dominate the music scene on both continents, and with albums “Black Celebration” (1986), “Music for the Masses” (1987) only became more popular, and added to their net worth.
With the beginning of the ‘90s, Depeche Mode and its members, particularly Dave were struck by the new grunge movement in the USA, and all that it brought, including drug addiction. Despite his constant drug abuse, Dave continued to perform and in the ‘90s created albums such as “Violator” (1992), which achieved triple platinum status in the USA, and their first No. 1 album, “Songs of Faith and Devotion” (1993), which topped the charts in the UK, US, Austria, France, Italy, Germany and Switzerland.
They continued in the same rhythm, releasing “Ultra” in 1997, which also topped the UK charts, and achieved gold status in several countries, which only increased Gahan’s net worth.
Depeche Mode has remained active in the new millennium and released four albums since 2000, including “Exciter” (2001), “Playing the Angel” (2005), “Sounds of the Universe” (2009), and “Delta Machine” (2013), the sales of which certainly increased Dave’s net worth. The band is currently working on their fifteenth studio album – “Spirit”- which will be out in March 2017.
Regarding his personal life, Dave has been married three times; his first wife was Joanne Fox, from 1985 to 1991; they have one child. His second marriage was to Teresa Conroy; from 1992 until 1996, and he has been married to his third wife, Jennifer Skilas, since 1999; the couple has two children together.
Dave has had several health problems during his life; he was in near-death situations, through drug overdoses, and a cardiac arrest on stage. Most recently he underwent surgery to remove a malignant tumor in his bladder.
