House of Drumming.com

When this list showed up on FB last week, I noticed it said drummers in BANDS. Also with the example of Mason vs Smith. In 1972 records cost what, 3$? Concert tix 7$? The last RHCP record cost 13$ and you couldnt really get in the door at a show for less than 200$ for two people. Inflation matters. When was the last time Mason toured? Floyd's last tour was '94? RHCP has played tons more shows in the past 20 years. Even if Smith only received 5$ for each person who walked thru the door to a show...wow. Staggering amount of cash. There should be a seperate list for session guys/hired guns. Different game with different rules. How can you compare a session guy no matter how great with a guy like Grohl who played in one of the biggest bands of all time and then started and fronted another of one of the biggest bands of all time? Put Dave Grohl's name on a marquee in any city in the world and it will probably sell out. Now put Vinnie's on that same marquee. A lot of drummers would come, but Vinnie isnt selling out Wembley unless Sting's name is first. Nor is JR, Weckl, Aronoff, Freese, etc

30. Mick Fleetwood (Fleetwood Mac, $8.5 million)

Big Mick bringing up the bottom of the pack? Didn't they rule the world during the '70s? How much coke could they have gone through?

The big $$ comes from royalties and mechanical rights. Session guys don't get either of those, generally. JR may have played on Thriller, but he doesn't get $.01 based on sales. I do not recall reading about needing to be in a band to qualify for the list, you just need to make $$. The way to do that would be to write songs and/or get credit for writing those songs and sell a shit-ton of copies of those songs. The list is not really that surprising to me . . . except I am disappointed Travis Barrker is so high up on it. Maybe he got settlement $$ from the plane crash (and thus undermining my theory about writing songs and mechanical rights)

Daym.



To add, also none of us know how smart a person was with there money. There's no way of telling if Ghrol's 225 million in net worth was generated from music alone, or he made like 50 million and had some good investors. When you have money, you can make money.

Even making only 10% (which is piddles for this investment level and average for low risk mutual funds) on 10 million you are pulling in $1 million a year. If Dave is making even 5% on his 225 million, he's banking 11.25 million a year in interest alone.

Or for instance, Travis Barkers wealth comes from OCDP. He purchased a large chunk of the company many years ago, and since then it has exploded, landing some big contracts like GuitarCenter.

On the same token, I'm sure guys like Mick wish they didn't party so much away, because I'm sure he was worth a LOT more at one point.

Julián Fernández wrote:That list seems to be BS.

I bet JR and some other session cats belong to that list too...

The list is composers who happened to be drummers, as well as drummers smart enough to get percentages.

The top paid drummers who get paid from doing sessions and tours - would be a different list. It would be interesting to split that up actually. Sessions/tours.

I'm surprised Roger Taylor is that far down the list, I understood that Queen were the biggest selling album band and he has penned a good number of their biggest songs

Session player, even the busiest can't compete with people who write, even is they can get some %...

I meant that Dave Grohl probably gets most of his money from the Foo Fighters, where he doesn't play drums, but I don't know how much royalties he gets from nirvana

Hey guys, I´m on the list...It´s easy:
Copy the list and write your name in the position you want.
I´m on 6b (Charlie Watts and I tied)
Next Monday I´ll go to my bank and see if it´s true.

I´m joking.
The only way for me to be on that list: that the list covered the TOP 50.

1. Ringo Starr (The Beatles, $300 million)
2. Phil Collins (Solo/Genesis, $250 million)
3. Dave Grohl (Nirvana/Foo Fighters, $225 million)
4. Don Henley (The Eagles, $200 million)
5. Lars Ulrich (Metallica, $175 million)
6. Charlie Watts (The Rolling Stones, $160 million)
6b. Juan Expósito (He alone, $160 million)
7. Larry Mullen Jr. (U2, $150 million)
8. Roger Taylor (Queen, $105 million)
9. Joey Kramer (Aerosmith, $100 million)
10. Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers, $90 million)
11. Travis Barker (blink-182, $85 million)
12. Stewart Copeland (The Police, $80 million)
13. Alex Van Halen (Van Halen, $75 million)
14. Nick Mason (Pink Floyd, $75 million)
15. Tommy Lee (Motley Crue, $70 million)
16. Bill Ward (Black Sabbath, $65 million)
17. Jon Fishman (Phish, $60 million)
18. Carter Beauford (Dave Matthews Band, $55 million)
19. Rick Allen (Def Leppard, $50 million)
20. Tre Cool (Green Day, $45 million)
21. Danny Carey (Tool, $40 million)
22. Tico Torres (Bon Jovi, $40 million)
23. Max Weinberg (Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band/"Conan O'Brien," $35 million)
24. Mickey Hart (The Grateful Dead, $30 million)
25. Bill Kreutzmann (The Grateful Dead, $25 million)
26. Neil Peart (Rush, $22 million)
27. Taylor Hawkins (Foo Fighters, $20 million)
28. ?uestlove (The Roots, $16 million)
29. Steven Adler (Guns N' Roses, $15 million)
30. Mick Fleetwood (Fleetwood Mac, $8.5 million)

bananajou wrote:I meant that Dave Grohl probably gets most of his money from the Foo Fighters, where he doesn't play drums, but I don't know how much royalties he gets from nirvana

I'm guessing he either gets a 1/3 of whatever, which is still probably a lot. He coulda retired just on that cash, probably.

it's funny you guys talk about royalties & stuff from sales of cds; since everyone steals music now, I would guess his revenue is primarily based on touring. I could be wrong though.