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Award-winning English songwriter and musician Steve Winwood has an estimated net worth of $15 million. He earned his net worth through music whose genres include blue-eyed soul, R&B, rock, blues-rock, pop-rock and jazz. He is a notable producer and a star performer for nearly 50 years. He is also a multi-instrumentalist who plays the electric organ, synthesizers, bass, drums, guitar, mandolin, violin and other strings.

Steve Winwood2

Winwood was born Stephen Lawrence Winwood on May 12, 1948 in Handsworth, Birmingham, England, His father, Lawrence, was a foundryman by trade and a semi-professional musician who plays mainly the saxophone and clarinet. When he was young, he was already interested in swing and Dixieland jazz. He began playing drums, guitar and piano as a boy. At the age of eight, he had his first performance along with his father and older brother Muff Winwood in the Ron Atkinson Band. He was a choirboy at St. John’s Church Perry Barr and he later admitted that he has sneaked a few plays of the organ there.

While Steve Winwood was still a student at the Great Barr School, he had already played with notable singers including Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, T-Bone Walker, Howlin’ Wolf, B.B. King, Sonny Boy Williamson II, Eddie Boyd, Otis Spam, Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley in their UK tour. Along with his older brother, he joined The Spencer Davis Band at the age of 14. The group had a number one hit, Keeping on Running. He co-wrote and produced hits such as Gimme Some Lovin’ and I am a Man. He left the group to form the group Traffic where he formed a writing partnership with fellow band member Jim Capaldi. They produced a string of hits such as Paper and Sun and The Low Spark f High-Heeled Boys. He went to form the short-lived supergroup Blind Faith along with Eric Clapton. He went solo and produced hit albums Arc of a Diver (1980) and Talking Back to the Night (1982). He earned two Grammy Awards with his hit single Higher Love.

In 2004, a 1982 version of Winwood’s song Valerie that was re-recorded by Eric Prydz, spend five weeks at number one in the UK singles charts. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Traffic in the same year. He was honored as a BMI Icon in 2005 at the annual BMI London Awards. The Rolling Stone magazine has ranked him #33 in its 100 Greatest Singers of All Time.

Earnings & Financial Data

Date

Category

Description

Amount

1989

Record Sales

Estimated record sales from the album, Refugees of the Heart (500 thousand copies-US)

$750,000

1987

Record Sales

Estimated record sales from the album, Roll with It (2 million copies-US)

$3,000,000

1986

Record Sales

Estimated record sales from the compilation album, Chronicles (1 million copies-US)

$1,500,000

1985

Record Sales

Estimated record sales from the album, Back in the High Life (3 million copies-US)

$4,500,000

1981

Record Sales

Estimated record sales from the album, Talking Back to the Night (40 thousand copies-Canada)

$60,000

1979

Record Sales

Estimated record sales from the album, Arc of a Diver (1 million copies-US)

$1,500,000