Stewart Armstrong Copeland was born on 16 July 1952, in Alexandria, Virginia, USA. He is a musician and composer, best known for being the drummer of the rock band The Police. He is also well known for contributing to numerous video game and film soundtracks. All of his efforts have helped put his net worth to where it is today.
How rich is Stewart Copeland? As of mid-2016, sources inform us of a net worth that is at $80 million, mostly earned through success in music. Aside from performing, he’s also composed numerous pieces for opera, orchestra, and ballet. He is part of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along with the Police. All of these ensured the position of his wealth.
Stewart Copeland Net Worth $80 million
Due to her mother’s archaeological work, Copeland would spend a lot of time in the Middle East when he was younger. He attended the American Community School in Beirut and then started taking drum lessons when he was 12 years old. He then played the drums in school dances and then after matriculating, went to California to attend the United States International University. He then attended the University of California, Berkeley before moving back to England. During this time, he performed with the progressive rock band Curved Air during 1975 and 1976.
The following year, Stewart founded the band the Police alongside Henry Padovani and Sting. They soon found popularity and became one of the top bands during the 1980s. He and Sting were responsible for writing a lot of songs including “Fall Out”, “On Any Other Day” and “Does Everyone Stare”. During this time he also recorded under the pseudonym Klark Kent and would have a hit single “Don’t’ Care”. He played all of the instruments used in the song and also sang. In 1984, after the Police went on a brief hiatus, Copeland would release “The Rhythmatist” which features various percussion instruments along with some vocals. The Police then attempted a reunion in 1986 that did not push through.
Copeland then went on a career as a composer, working on soundtracks for various movies including “Wall Street” and “Good Burger”. He also worked on various television shows such as “The Equalizer”, “The Amanda Show”, and “Dead Like Me”. He would then work on ballet pieces including “Casque of Amontillado” and “King Lear”. Around the same time, he played drums for other artists including Peter Gabriel and Mike Rutherford. In 1999, he contributed as a voice of an American soldier for “South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut”.
In 1998, he started to work for Insomniac Games to make the musical score for the hit game “Spyro the Dragon”. He would continue and stay with the project for three more titles. He also composed for “Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare”. In 2002, he was intended to play with The Doors but due to an injury the deal ended in mutual lawsuits. He would then continue working on other musical projects. 2007 saw the Police perform the song “Roxanne” at the Grammy Awards and it led to their 30th anniversary tour which they performed across five continents.
In 2008, Stewart returned to making orchestral projects including “An Evening with Stewart Copeland” and “Gamelan D’Drum”. In 2009, he performed various original works including “Retail Therapy”, “Celeste” and “Kaya”. He also released a memoir entitled “Strange Things Happen: A Life with The Police, Polo, and Pygmies”. The book talks about most of his life up to the present. He’s also made numerous television appearances including “Late Show with David Letterman”, “Storage Wars” and “Tim Ferriss Experiment”. One of his latest projects is a quintet called “Off the Score”.
For his personal life it is known that Copeland married vocalist Sonja Kristina in 1982 and they had three children, one of whom was adopted from Kristina’s previous relationship. He also has a son with Marina Guinness and his first marriage ended in 1991. He is now married to Fiona Dent and they have three children. Aside from these, he enjoys rollerskating, cycling, and polo.
The Police, Oysterhead, Curved Air, Animal Logic, Every Breath You Take, Roxanne, Message in a Bottle
Nominations
Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition - Series (Original Dramatic Score), Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score, Every Breath You Take, Roxanne, Message in a Bottle
Movies
Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut
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Trademark
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Virtuoso technique on the hi-hat
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Plays drums utilizing the traditional grip, where the right hand uses an overhand grip of one drumstick, while the left hand uses an underhand grip of the other stick. This is a rarity among rock drummers, almost all of whom use match grip, or an overhand grip on both sticks.
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Ever-present suede leather gloves when playing his drums
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Quote
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I have the most enormous gong in the world; it's bigger than Neil Peart's, and it's bigger than John Bonham's. If Neil has a revolving kit, then I have a bigger gong. I play other instruments as well, mind you, but drums are my main thing.
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I didn't say I was religious. I'm a big fan of the Old Testament and the perfidy it contains. I read very little fiction.
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[in 1980] We've broken all existing records as far back as The Beatles, at this point, in terms of speed of record sales, the kind of hysteria. There hasn't been such a clear lead for one group, ahead of all the rest. The last group who had a clear lead were Queen, but we're bigger now than Queen were then. We're probably bigger than Led Zeppelin too, because they never had any teen appeal or hysteria. I suppose the Bay City Rollers had hysteria, but they didn't have any music.
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I have great respect for rap artists. In fact, not for the rap artists, but the people who make the music over which they rap. Rap music - the music itself is incredible - but [the people that make the music] are hardly ever credited. The guy who gets the credit, whose picture is on the album cover, is the guy who's making the unpleasant noise with stupid lyrics that don't mean anything to me. But the music underneath it is really important and really creative. Those guys never seem to be credited.
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In our day, we were The Beatles of the '70s or the '80s or whichever...and we were the biggest thing since whatever and then six months after we broke up, Duran Duran were the biggest. After that, somebody else was and, six months ago, Oasis were the biggest. Now the Spice Girls are. So it's kind of hard to take any of that seriously.
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The film composer has the widest skill set of any musician because he has to go to places that his instincts wouldn't take him. I learned all kinds of useful stuff that I now apply to my own artistic vision.
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I was not a big fan of opera. I didn't really "get" the first few I saw until I saw a David Hockney production of "Tristan". That was en education as to what it's all about with opera: the power, the majesty, the kick-ass of a big orchestra and a big story.
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I am a crusader, educating musicians who have the depth of talent for large-scale enterprises. I encourage them. It's really a lot of fun. It's magnificent when you hear the orchestra pump it out. Learning to score a chart is easier than learning French. There are fewer words and, being musicians, the people I'm talking about already have that covered.
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When I was a film composer under a deadline those instruments would gather dust. And any time I spent hooting away on my bass clarinet just for the fun of it felt like time wasted. Then I came to the realization that it's not goofing off, that's what I'm here for.
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Classical music was always going through my head. Even when I listened to Hendrix [Jimi Hendrix] I imagined strings around him. I was never into opera, though. I had a problem with the singers. That exaggerated vibrato. It obscures the melody. Then I saw Wagner [Richard Wagner]'s "Parsifal" and I got it - overwrought dramatic subjects and overwrought dramatic music sobbing with emotion. When the opportunity to write one came, I thought, "There's nothing wrong with opera that a good opera wouldn't fix".
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Smile my friends, in show-biz you have to take the rough with the smooth.
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Fact
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He is recognized as a virtuoso on the hi-hat. For this reason, Peter Gabriel recruited him to play the hi-hat on his 1986 song "Red Rain". Copeland is the first musician heard on the record.
Attended The American Community School of Beirut in Lebanon as a child.
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Lives in Los Angeles.
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Has six children. With his first wife, he had three sons (Sven, Jordan, and Scott). With his current wife, he has three daughters (Eve, Grace, and Celeste).
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Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (as a member of The Police) on 10 March 2003.
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On Sept. 1, 2002, he was presented as the drummer in a re-united version of The Doors. The band, also dubbed "The 21st Century Doors", features original band members Robby Krieger and Ray Manzarek, with lead singer of The Cult, Ian Astbury, on vocals.
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He is fluent in Arabic, the main language spoken during his childhood.
His brother Miles A. Copeland III was the founder of IRS Records, an A&M subsidiary, in the 1980s.
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He was the founding member of The Police with future soloist Sting. The group had five #1 singles in the UK between 1979 and 1983 before breaking up in 1986.
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Copeland's father, Miles Copeland, was a trumpeter in Glenn Miller's Air Force Band, and later became a founding agent in the CIA.
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Lived in Egypt and Lebanon for a time when he was young due to his parents' careers (his father was in the CIA and his mother was an archaeologist.)
Video Game performer: "Alone in the Dark" Theme Song / producer: "Alone in the Dark" Theme Song / writer: "Alone in the Dark" Theme Song
Boys and Girls
2000
writer: "Straight Cold Player"
Skipped Parts
2000
performer: "Do The Shark" / writer: "Do The Shark"
Boiler Room
2000
writer: "Wait Gekko", "I Just Know"
Farscape
2000
TV Series writer - 1 episode
Simpatico
1999
arranger: "My Old Kentucky Home" 1853 / performer: "My Old Kentucky Home" 1853, "Free of It All" 1999 / writer: "Free of It All" 1999
Pecker
1998
performer: "Straight Boys", "Don't Drop the Soap For Anyone Else But Me", "Pecker Man" / writer: "Straight Boys", "Don't Drop the Soap For Anyone Else But Me", "Pecker Man"
Very Bad Things
1998
writer: "Walls Come Down" 1998
Boys
1996
performer: "She's Not There"
Peter Gabriel's Secret World
1994
TV Movie documentary writer: "Across The River" - as Stuart Copeland
Afterburn
1992
TV Movie writer: "For One Moment"
Highlander II: The Quickening
1991
producer: "Bird Flight", "Destroy Shield", "Sunshield / Dam Escape"
$80 Million
