Bass player Chris's journey from Millmoor to Muse millions

Chris Wolstenholme hasn’t done badly for himself since then - he is now reckoned to be worth some $20 million.

That is down to his glittering career as the bassist and backing vocalist with the superstar rock band Muse.

The estimate of his wealth is made on the rock group website Metal Shout, which came up with the figure after analysing numbers from the global media company Forbes and IMDb online database, among other sources.

“His melodic bass lines are central in many of Muse’s popular songs...and is one of the wealthiest bass players alive,” says Metal Shout.

They also take a stab at the “net worth” of the band - a cool $206 million.

Chris lived the first 11 years of his life in Rotherham before moving to Devon, where he met Matt Bellamy and Dominic Howard to form Muse.

He was a keen Millers’ fan as were his father and grandfather; Chris’ favourite player as a kid was striker Bobby Williamson (1988–1990.)

Musically, he had been inspired as early as four years old by Status Quo’s rhythm guitarist Rick Parfitt.

But his life changed forever when his family moved to Devon, where he met the other band members.

He’d been a drummer at that point but was persuaded to learn the guitar.

It worked for the kid who lost his Rotherham accent after being bantered by others in his new home of Teignmouth.

Chris (now 44) and his Muse mates were helped on their way in the early stages by a £150 grant from the Prince’s Trust, for equipment.

They went on to perform all over the world and found fame and fortune.

Rotherham Advertiser editor Andrew Mosley said: “I interviewed Muse a lot when I lived in Devon in the late 90s/early 200s and once voted them third out of four in a Battle of the Bands final.

"I didn’t know then that Chris had Rotherham connections or that I would end up here.

"They seemed to be permanently on the verge of signing a deal and making it big and it was obvious they had something about them that other local bands didn’t.

"I didn’t ever anticipate that they would make this much money though, and I’m sure they didn’t either.”

The 55-show Simulation Theory World Tour in 2019 grossed $102 million, with over 1.3 million tickets sold, for instance.

Their albums have sold millions of copies across the planet.

An estimated 30 million monthly views on YouTube was said to give the band a monthly income of approximately 100,000 dollars.

That’s on top of money from streaming platforms like Spotify and Tidal.

There seems nothing to stop them from substantially adding to their bank accounts, going forward.

Muse recently announced details of a reissue of their album Absolution, to mark its 20th anniversary this month.

They are currently on their Will Of The People tour this month with shows in Dublin (27th) Manchester's AO Arena (29th), before moving on to London's O2 Arena (October 1 and 2).

Chris has some way to go to catch up with the UK and Ireland music scene’s top earners, though.

The top five, according to data-gathering platform Statista: Sir Paul McCartney (£865m) U2, (£625m) Andrew Lloyd Webber (£495m) Sir Elton John, (£395) Sir Mick Jagger (£318m) and Keith Richards (£303m.)