Musicians
Billy Taylor Net Worth
William "Billy" Taylor's Net Worth as of 2024
$5 Million
Born William Taylor on the 24th July 1921 in Greenville, North Carolina USA, Billy was a musician, jazz pianist and composer, and also lectured on jazz at several colleges across the USA. He passed away in 2010.
Have you ever wondered how rich Billy Taylor was, at the time of his death? According to authoritative sources, it was estimated that Taylor’s net worth was as high as $5 million, an amount earned largely through his successful career as a jazz musician, active from the mid- 1940s. During his career, Billy released over 40 albums as a bandleader, while he also contributed to the work of other musicians, including Johnny Hartman, Coleman Hawkins, Sal Salvador and Lucky Thompson among many others.
Billy Taylor Net Worth $5 Million
Billy’s family moved to Washington, D.C. when he was five, where he spent the rest of his childhood. Inspired by his parents who were both musicians, young Billy took-up several musical instruments but was best on piano, and so started taking piano lessons with Henry Grant, who was also a piano teacher to Duke Ellington. Billy was good enough to make his professional debut when he was 13 years old, earning a dollar. He went to Dunbar High School, which at the time was the first school in the USA for African-Americans. Billy then enrolled at Virginia State College and majored in sociology, but graduated with a degree in music in 1942, as pianist Dr. Undine Smith Moore took Billy under his wing once he noticed his musical talents.
Billy then moved to New York City to pursue his professional career, finding his first job in 1944 when he joined Ben Webster’s Quartet, and then until the ‘50s, played with a number of musicians, including Don Redman, Bob Wyatt, Sylvia Syms and Billie Holiday, before he became the house pianist at the jazz club Birdland. There, he played with J. J. Johnson, Stan Getz, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie, eventually becoming the longest-tenured pianist in the aforementioned club.
After earning a name for himself as a club player, Billy wanted to prove himself as a composer; in 1952 he made a breakthrough with the song “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free”, and throughout the ‘50s and ‘60s, enjoyed more success as composer with such albums as “The Billy Taylor Trio with Candido” (1954), which was a collaboration with Cuban percussionist Candido Camero, “My Fair Lady Loves Jazz” (1957), “Impromptu” (1962), and “Sleeping Bee” (1969), the sales of which increased his wealth to a large degree. Billy continued making new material until 2002 when he suffered a stroke, although not many albums struck a chord with the public.
Aside from playing and recording jazz music, Billy started an educational program about jazz, entitled Jazzmobile, and was also the Musical Director of NBC’s The Subject Is Jazz”, and a DJ and program director on New York’s radio station WLIB during the ‘60s. With his Jazzmobile, Billy produced the jazz special aired on National Public Radio, which received the Peabody Award for Excellence in Broadcasting Programs. In the early ‘80s, Billy was appointed as an on-air correspondent for CBS News Sunday Morning, and interviewed over 250 musicians during his stint on the show, winning an Emmy Award for his interview with famed bandleader Quincy Jones. He was also a well-respected educator, serving as the Wilbur D. Barrett Chair of Music at the University of Massachusetts – Amherst, and a Duke Ellington Fellow at Yale, while also holding jazz courses at several universities, including Long Island University, Manhattan School of Music, Howard University as well as the University of Massachusetts Amherst, from which he obtained a Master’s degree, and a PhD in 1975.
In recognition of his success, Billy received numerous awards, including a Grammy Award and a National Medal of Arts, and was also the artistic director for jazz at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, where during his reign, Billy organized a number of successful concert series, including the Louis Armstrong Legacy series. He also served on the National Council of the Arts, becoming one of only three jazz musicians to achieve such a position. He also showcased his musical talents at the White House seven times during his career. In 2010 he was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame.
Regarding his personal life, Billy was married to Theodora from 1964 until his death; the couple had two children together. He passed away on the 28th December 2010 after a heart attack.
Musicians
Neal Schon Net Worth
Neal George Joseph Schon was born on 27th February 1954 at Tinker AFB (Air Force Base), Oklahoma USA, of Italian and German descent. Neal Schon is a rock guitarist, songwriter and vocalist, best known for being an important member of several hugely popular bands, namely Santana, Bad English and Journey.
So just how rich is Neal Schon? Neal’s net worth has been calculated to be over $30 million, amassed during his successful career of more than 40 years in the music industry.
Neal Schon Net Worth $30 Million
Neal Schon was lucky to be born into a musical family – his father Mathew Schon was a famous musician and mother Barbara Schon sang in a band. So Schon picked his first guitar at the age of five years, and starting at early age is usually a way to success. His first career steps started at the age of 15 with the band Santana, in preference to joining Eric Clapton in the band Derek and the Dominos, and debuting with some vocals on Santana’s album Santana III. Being such a great musician at such young age with the possibility to choose between two iconic bands, he went on and started making his money. He also played for Azteca but very briefly.
In 1973 Neal Schon formed his now legendary band Journey. He subsequently released five solo albums, and fourteen studio albums with the band. This must be the main flow into his net worth. Importantly, he is the only band member who has not changed through the years. He has taken part in every tour of the band, and sang on all their albums, so no doubt this longevity with Journey has increased the overall amount of Neal Schon’s net worth as well. Apart from this, he has also collaborated with famous musicians such as keyboardist Jan Hammer, Sammy Hagar and Paul Rodgers on short-term projects.
Neal Schon is as great a vocalist, as he is a guitar virtuoso. Two talents double the money earned, does it not? Let’s talk about his musical influences, of whom there were plenty. He has said that he was highly influenced by the 1960’s, musicians from that era such as Gladys Knight and Aretha Franklin. Then he put some blues to the mix, namely B.B. King and added some guitar-based influences, including of course Carlos Santana and Eric Clapton as well as Wes Montgomery. This is probably Neal Schon’s key to fame – adding the best ingredients from different musical eras.
Schon was always proud of his guitars. He started with acoustic Stella guitar followed by Gibson ES-335. At present he became interested in Xotic guitars. Schon was inducted into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame in August 2013, which made him, if possible, even more famous. This is considered to be an accomplishment of a lifetime for any musician.
In his not-so-private personal life, Neal Schon has married five times, first to Tena Austin(1976-86), then Beth Buckley(1987-92), Dina Gioeli(1993-99), and Amber Kozan(2001-08). In 2013 he married Michaele Salahi. He has five children.
Actors
Ozzy Osbourne Net Worth
John Michael Osbourne was born on 3 December 1948 in Aston, Birmingham, England, and is widely known as a songwriter, singer and television personality, considered to be one of the developers of heavy metal music, and being called the ‘Godfather of Heavy Metal’. He initially came to notice playing with the band Black Sabbath, but from the early ’80s continually moved until concentrating on a solo career. Ozzy has been inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame and the US Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame, plus has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and was the first on the Birmingham Walk of Stars.
So just how rich is Ozzy Osbourne? Authoritative sources estimate that Ozzy has a net worth of over $220 million, accumulated during his career in the music industry which began in the late 1960s.
Ozzy Osbourne Net Worth $220 Million
Ozzy’s father John was a toolmaker, and his mother Lillian a factory worker. He was called ‘Ozzy’ in primary school, and adopted it as his stage name. As Ozzy suffers from dyslexia, school really wasn’t for him except for drama, so he left at 15 and took various jobs, although training as a plumber, then as an apprentice toolmaker, but spending a short time in jail for petty theft taught him a timely lesson.
Ozzy was really interested in music, and sang with a couple of bands in the late ’60s, one of which became Black Sabbath with bassist and main lyricist Geezer Butler, singer Ozzy Osbourne, drummer Bill Ward, and guitarist and songwriter Tony Iommi, now the only surviving original member of the band. The band’s style, partly reflected in their name, was very appealing, and they were significantly successful in the UK and USA during the ’70s, with their debut self-titled album, and the follow-up album Paranoid, eventually achieving multi-platinum status. However, Ozzy’s increasing use of drugs saw him leave the band in 1979, although there have been several collaborations since; regardless, his net worth was very well established.
In the early 1980s, the group Necromandus played with Ozzy Osbourne on his first solo project, the Blizzard of Ozz incarnation, also the title of his first solo album, a popular success with heavy metal fans. Ozzy’s subsequent solo career spread over more than three decades, has increased his net worth the most; seven of the eleven studio albums he has released have achieved multi-platinum certifications in the US alone. A further large financial success has come from annual festival tours called ‘Ozzfest’, of the US and sometimes Europe. It was founded by Ozzy Osbourne and second wife and manager Sharon in the mid-’90s, and performances by many heavy metal and hard rock musical groups have been featured. Since its beginning, sources estimate that over five million people have attended Ozzfest, resulting in revenues of more than $100 million.
Ozzy Osbourne’s net worth also rose sharply as a result of ‘The Osbournes’, a reality television series showcasing the life of the singer and his family which was aired from 2002-05; the show was created by Jonathan Taylor and became one of MTV’s greatest hits. The success of the show led to the Osbournes hosting the 30th Annual American Music Awards in January 2003, and the BRIT Awards held at Earls Court, London in 2008. Various awards and nominations have also helped increase Ozzy’s net worth, including a Grammy Award for the track ‘I Don’t Want to Change the World’, a Godlike Genius Award from NME magazine, among many others.
Additionally. Ozzy won the Literary Achievement honour in 2010, for his autobiography “I Am Ozzy”, which hit the New York Times’ non-fiction best-seller list at No 2. Osbourne has also acted three times as a judge for the Independent Music Awards, which supports independent artists’ careers.
In his less-than-private personal life, Osbourne has been married twice, firstly to Thelma Reese (1971-82), with whom he has a daughter named Jessica Starshine, and a son named Louis John. Ozzy has been married to Sharon Arden since 1982, and their three children are Aimee, Kelly and Jack . Recent rumours of Ozzy’s affairs seem to have done little to break-up the couple. Ozzy openly blames his sometimes controversial lifestyle on drug and alcohol abuse, and praises Sharon for constantly dragging him out of periods of instability. They currently divide their time between residences in Buckinghamshire, England, and Malibu, California.
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