Paul McCartney Easily Tops World's Richest Bassists List; but Sting, Roger Waters and Gene Simmons Rake It In

Google any celebrity's name and one of the most popular options will inevitably be "net worth" because we as a culture just need to know how much the other guy is bringing in. Yesterday we featured a very legitimate account in Forbes of the world's highest-paid DJ's—Calvin Harris was no. 1 with his $66 million year—and today we have a report from TheRichest.com, a website that while obscure, seems fairly clean cut with numbers that make sense. The topic? World's wealthiest bassists.

We'll start with the actual Top 10:

10) Kris Novoselic, Nirvana: $40 million

09) Tony Kanal, No Doubt: $45 million

08: Geezer Butler, Black Sabbath: $65 million

07) John Paul Jones, Led Zeppelin: $80 million

06) Flea, Red Hot Chili Peppers: $115 million

05) Adam Clayton, U2: $150 million

04) Roger Waters, Pink Floyd: $270 million

03/02) Gene Simmons, KISS: $300 million

03/02) Sting, The Police: $300 million

01) Paul McCartney, Everything: $1.2 billion.

Much like yesterday's DJ list, the wealthiest member far trumps the rest of the list. McCartney is far from a surprise, but the fact that he's four times as much as the next highest bassist on the list is incredible. That's what happens when you've been performing arenas for 50 years and, oh yeah, half the hits it The Beatles catalogue are under your name.

There are a few names that might not be familiar to casual listener, and they also go back to the worth of being a songwriter. Butler and Kanal are far from the limelight compared to other members of their respective groups (such as Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi and Gwen Stefani), but they still do a majority of the songwriting, which brings in the royalties. The amount that Sting has brought in strictly from royalties for "Every Breath You Take" is astonishing.

Tags

Nirvana, No Doubt, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Red Hot Chili Peppers, U2, Pink Floyd, KISS, Sting, The Beatles, Paul McCartney