Forbes has named their highest-paid musicians of 2017, and what isn’t that surprising is that there’s not that much rock and metal on the list. However, Metallica and Guns N’ Roses, thanks to their massive touring this year, appeared on the list. Before we jump in, we should mention that the highest-paid musician in 2017 probably isn’t who you’d think. Drake? Nope, he’s #3. Jay-Z? Nope, not even his wife. Diddy (or P. Diddy, or Puff Daddy or Sean Combs) made a ridiculous $130 million before taxes this year. We didn’t even know he still made music. And he doesn’t have to, as he made a deal with Ciroc vodka and sold a third of his Sean John clothing line for $70 million. He also found some time to do the Bad Boy family Reunion Tour.
On to the metal. Metallica were the 10th-biggest moneymakers on the list, grossing $66.5 million. While Hardwired… To Self-Destruct did go platinum and probably brought in a ton of streams as well, it’s their world tour that sold them the most tickets. Guns N’ Roses came in sixth, beating Justin Bieber with $84 million (and who among us doesn’t want to beat Justin Bieber?). They didn’t have the benefit of an album, but reforming (most of) the old band and playing arenas and stadiums for a year can make you some pretty good cash. Now that they’re done their two years of touring, it’ll be interesting to see what happens next. Maybe they could get Izzy and Steven back in the band and make it the original Appetite lineup and perform that album in it’s entirety, but wed probably get a new album from them before that happened.
