| Net Worth | $8,500,000 |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Kirk Dewayne Franklin |
| Date of Birth/Age | January 26, 1970 (age 49) |
| Height | 5’5” |
| Source of wealth | Musician, Songwriter, Record Producer, Choir Director |
| Country of origin | U.S. |
| State/City of origin | Fort Worth, Texas |
| Last Updated | 2019 |
Net Worth
Kirk Franklin net worth is $8.5 million dollars.
How Much Kirk Franklin Make a Year
Annual salary information is not published for Kirk Franklin.
How does Kirk Franklin make his money?
Kirk makes the majority of his money through his Gospel albums and stage performances. In 2002 he made $0.5 million from “The Rebirth of Kirk Franklin”, in 2006 his album “Hero” earned him $1 million, and in 2011 he earned $0.5 million from his “Hello Fear” album sales.
Overall, Kirk has released 12 albums including “Long Live Love” which was released in spring of 2019. In addition to all of Kirk’s music, he is also a published author.
His book is titled “The Blueprint: A Plan For Living Above Life’s Storms” and it made it to the New York Times Bestseller list.
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Introduction
Kirk Franklin is an American Gospel music musician, author, and choir director who gained fame in the early 90s performing with the group he created known as Kirk Franklin and The Family. The group’s first album sold over 1 million copies. Since 2000, Kirk has been very successful solo artist winning several Grammy Awards. Let’s take a closer look at his biography, career history, personal life, and net worth.
Early Life
Kirk Dewayne Franklin goes by his given name. The 5’5″ recording artist was born on January 26, 1970, in Fort Worth, Texas. His mother abandoned him as a baby, so his great aunt Gertrude raised him.
She would collect and sell aluminum cans to raise the money needed for Kirk’s 4-year-old piano lessons. He was great in music and could read, write, and play music by ear at a very young age.
Kirk became a member of the church choir and by age 12 he was the music director of Mt. Rose Baptist Church adult choir.
He attended Oscar Dean Wyatt High School where he studied with Jewell Kelly and the Singing Chaparrals. Jewell gave him permission to be the choir’s pianist.
Even though Kirk’s upbringing was very strong when he became a teenager she started to rebel. His grandmother sent him up to an audition at a local university’s professional youth conservatory so he’d stay out of trouble.
They accepted him, but after a while, he wound up with a pregnant girlfriend and then faced expulsion from the school because of his behavioral problems. Once Kirk’s friend was shot to death at 15 years old, Kirk went back to the church to once again direct the choir.
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Personal life
Kirk is married to Tammy Collins. They’ve been friends for a long time and tied the knot in 1996. They both came with a child from a prior relationship which includes Kirk’s son Kerrion and Tammy’s daughter Carrington.
Together they now have four children including Caziah, Carrington, Kennedy, and Kerrion. In 2005, Kirk and Tammy visited the Oprah Winfrey Show and spoke about his addiction to pornography.
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Career
Kirk got an early start on his ability to put gospel groups together while he was the choir director at his church. He is a co-founder of “The Humble Hearts” gospel group.
The group recorded one of Franklin’s’ compositions and caught the attention of Milton Biggham who is a gospel music legend.
Biggham was so impressed that he selected Kirk to lead the DFW Mass Choir in a recording of “Every Day with Jesus” which is one of Kirk’s songs. At 20 years old Kirk was hired by Biggham to be the choir leader at the 1990 Gospel Music Workshop of America Convention.
In 1992 Kirk put together a seventeen voice choir made up of associates and friends from the neighborhood. This group was called “The Family”.
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That same year, the co-founder of the GospoCentric recording label Vicki Mack-Lataillade wound up hearing the group’s demo tape and immediately signed them to a recording contract. In 1993 they released a self-titled album called “Kirk Franklin & The Family”.
In 1995 the group put out “Kirk Franklin & the Family Christmas”. 1996 Kirk Franklin & The Family put out its first album “Whatcha Lookin’4”. The album was certified 2x platinum and earned Franklin his very first Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Soul Gospel Album.
Franklin is known for being front and center of urban contemporary gospel choirs including “The Family”, “God’s Property”, and “1 Nation Crew” (1NC).
When God’s Property worked with Salt-N-Pepa’s Cheryl James (Salt) to produce the track “Stomp” in 1997, that song was a huge success and is responsible for giving Kirk his first mainstream crossover.
The song was a hit from Kirk Franklin’s Nu Nation group and the song was from the group’s album called “God’s Property from Kirk Franklin’s Nu Nation.”
A year later in 1998, the group released “The Nu Nation Project”. In 2000 Kirk and 1 Nation Crew released the album “Kirk Franklin Presents 1NC”.
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In 2002, Kirk’s album “The Rebirth of Kirk Franklin” featured other popular names in the church community including T.D. Jakes, Jaci Velasquez, and Toby Mac. Kirk changed up some of his song concepts in his 2005 song releases which can be first heard on his album “Hero”.
Two years later, in 2007 Kirk released “The Fight of My Life” and in 2011 the “Hello Fear” album was released. this album features Mali Music, Marvin Sapp, Rance Allen, Marvin Winans, and John P. Kee.
The initial single was “I Smile” which reached number 85 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Before then it has been 6 years since Kirk made it on that chart.
Kirk has hosted “Sunday Best” which is a gospel music competition. He has also been a musical co-host of “The American Bible Challenge” with Jeff Foxworthy.
In 2013 Kirk founded a new record label called “Fo Yo Soul Recordings” in partnership with RCA Records. In 2015 the first single “Wanna Be Happy?” from the album “Losing My Religion” was dropped. In the spring of 2019, Kirk put out his latest work with the album “Long Live Love”.
He has won various awards and seven of them have been Grammy Awards. Kirk has been named by Variety as a Reigning King of Urban Gospel.
In the early part of 2019, it was reported that BET’s gospel competition Sunday Best would be coming back after not airing for 4 years. Kirk Franklin will still be the host.
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Interesting Facts
- Kirk got offered his very first musical contract at the age of 7, but his aunt wouldn’t give permission.
- Kirk’s addiction to pornography surfaced at the age of eight and stayed with him throughout his adult life.
- Kirk is the best selling author. His book “The Blueprint: A Plan for Living Above Life’s Storms was published by Gotham/Penguin
Favorite Quotes from Kirk Franklin
“God may allow us at times to hit rock bottom, to show us He’s the rock-at the bottom”.
“I know God is working so I smile!”
“When I was taught truth, that’s when I got my freedom.”
“Most people have desires that are great and they want to do great things, and they don’t want to be negative people or they don’t want to live in pessimistic attitudes, but the problem is a lot of them were not given the right tools. They were not given the right blueprint of how to build a building.”
