Ric Ocasek Net Worth: Ocasek Embarked on a Solo Career!

By Jivika Last updated Nov 16, 2022

Ric Ocasek was a musician best known as the main guitarist of the rock group “The Cars.” He stuck around this band for a very long time. His entire musical career is focused on it. He had also tried his hand at becoming a solo artist and found success.

Maybe you are quite familiar with Ric Ocasek. But do you know how old he was when he passed away and how much money he had in 2022? If you’re unaware, we’ve written this article to provide you with information on Ric Ocasek’s brief biography, wiki, professional life, personal life, current net worth, age, height, and other statistics. So, if you’re prepared, let’s get started.

Table of Contents

Quick Info

Net Worth:	$40 Million
Date of Birth:	Mar 23, 1944 – Sep 15, 2019 (75 years old)
Gender:	Male
Height:	6 ft 3 in (1.93 m)
Profession:	Record producer, Singer, Guitarist, Songwriter, Musician, Actor, Film Score Composer, Film Producer
Nationality:	United States of America

Early Life

After first relocating to Cleveland, Ohio, where he attended and eventually graduated from Maple Heights High School, Ric Ocasek was born in Baltimore, Maryland. Following that, he enrolled at Bowling Green State University. After graduating from college, he was a member of Milkwood, a group that recorded one album for the Paramount label. After the album’s failure, the band’s record deal was terminated, and they disbanded. Rick and the Rabbits, a new band he started, played regularly at a nearby restaurant. In the end, though, it was decided that their music was inappropriate for a family audience, and they were fired.

Ric Ocasek Net Worth

Ric Ocasek’s net worth was $40 million at the time of his passing in 2019. He was an American music producer and musician. Together, he and his wife of thirty years, supermodel Paulina Porizkova, have a combined net worth of that amount. It should be emphasised, however, that Ric’s will, which was discovered after his passing, indicated that he had not intended for Paulina to receive any share of his personal property apart from the marriage. His will said that among other liquid assets on hand, there was at least $5 million worth of copyrighted intellectual property. To preserve the seclusion of his family, the vast majority of his considerable fortune was kept in trusts.

Real Estate

In 1989, Ric and Paulina spent $2.5 million on a 6,000-square-foot townhouse in New York City. For $15.3 million, they put the townhouse on the market in January 2019. Additionally, they shared ownership of a 5.5-acre rural property in Millbrook, New York, 90 miles north of New York City, which they purchased in 1997 for $650,000.

Ocasek Embarked on a Solo Career after The Cars Disbanded

He became as a prolific producer while he was with The Cars, working with bands like the Pink Spiders, No Doubt, Bad Brains, and others in addition to his own band. Ocasek therefore had a solo career ready for him when The Cars split up. With some assistance from Hawkes, he had first published his solo first album, Beatitude, in 1982. In 1986, he released This Side of Paradise, which included his bandmates.

Ocasek vanished for a few years after the band’s dissolution. In 1990, he made a comeback with his album Fireball Zone. In the 1990s, he produced several solo works, although his album sales lagged much below those of the Cars. According to reports, the 2008 fire at Universal Studios reportedly destroyed many of his recordings.

Personal Life

Ric Ocasek married three times throughout his life. In 1984, while working on the music video for The Cars’ song “Drive,” he met 18-year-old model Paulina Porizkova while still married to his second wife Suzanne Ocasek and in 1988, Ric and Suzanne were divorced. In 1989, Ric and Paulina got married. Paulina signed an endorsement agreement with Estée Lauder the year before they got married, which earned her $6 million annually through 1995. She made a total of $42 million before taxes from that one deal alone, which is equivalent to almost $80 million when converted to today’s dollars with inflation. Although they had been “peacefully separated” since May 2018, they were nonetheless legally married until Ric’s passing in 2019.

Sadly, Ric Ocasek passed away on September 15, 2019, at the age of 75.

Work in Production

Ric went on to create successful albums for bands like Weezer, No Doubt, Black 47, Hole, and Bad Religion after The Cars split up. The Blue Album, the first studio album by Weezer, was produced by him and went on to sell 15 million copies globally. He also worked on Weezer’s third album, The Green Album, which achieved multi-platinum status.

The Cars

Ric was a founding member of Cap’n Swing, a group that went on to become The Cars, in the late 1970s. Up to their dissolution in 1988, the band experienced immense popularity. The Cars have sold 23 million albums in the United States alone throughout the course of their career. Most of their songs were original compositions by rhythm guitarist and co-lead vocalist Ric Ocasek. Although his solo music career was not particularly successful, he finally established himself as a skilled producer by polishing his craft on the band’s own recordings.