Thomas William Hamilton was born on the 31st December 1951, in Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA, and is a musician, writer, and bass guitar player, best known as one of the founding members of the rock band Aerosmith, in which he has played bass since 1970. Hamilton has also written and co-written numerous songs, and served as a backup vocalist on some occasions. His career started in 1970.
Have you ever wondered how rich Tom Hamilton is, as of early 2017? According to authoritative sources, it has been estimated that Hamilton’s net worth is as high as $100 million, earned largely through his successful career in music. In addition to being a member of Aerosmith, Hamilton has also been the bassist with the band called Thin Lizzy since 2016, which has improved his wealth too.
Tom Hamilton Net Worth $100 Million
Tom Hamilton is a son of George, who worked in the Air Force, and Betty Hamilton, who was a housewife. He grew up in Colorado with his older brother Scott, and two sisters, Perry and Cecily. Scott was the one who bought Tom his first guitar when he was four, and at 12 years of age, Hamilton learned his first chords, thanks to Scott.
Tom joined his first band when he was 14 and switched to playing bass, and later played alongside Joe Perry and David “Pudge” Scott in a band called The Jam Band. In the summer of 1970, three of them met Steven Tyler in a club called The Barn in Sunapee, New Hampshire, and they decided to form a new band which would later be named Aerosmith; Scott left shortly after, but Joey Kramer and Brad Whitford joined and Aerosmith was born. In 1973 they released a self-titled album which achieved double-platinum status and peaked at the No. 21 on the Billboard 200 chart, although only one song made it to the Billboard Top 100 – “Dream On”. The next year, Aerosmith recorded the album entitled “Get Your Wings”, which achieved triple-platinum status and reached No. 74 on the Billboard 200, but no singles entered the pop charts. However, their following album, “Toys in the Attic” (1975) was the band’s most successful, with over eight million records sold in the US alone, and its huge success helped Hamilton to increase his net worth significantly. It peaked at No. 11 on the Billboard 200, while the songs “Sweet Emotion” and “Walk This Way” made it to the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
In 1976, Aerosmith recorded “Rocks” which sold over four million copies in America and reached the No. 3 position on US Billboard 200, while singles “Last Child”, “Back in the Saddle”, and “Home Tonight” were popular too. By the end of the ‘70s, Tom Hamilton and Aerosmith had released two more albums – “Draw the Line” (1977) and “Night in the Ruts” (1979) – both of which reached platinum status and made it into the top 20 on the Billboard 200 chart.
After a pair of relatively unsuccessful releases, Aerosmith bounced back with “Permanent Vacation” in 1987, which recorded over five million sales in the US and peaked at No. 11 on the Billboard 200, and the songs “Angel” and “Dude (Looks Like a Lady)” made it to the top five on the Mainstream Rock Tracks. The band released one more album by the end of the ‘80s, “Pump” (1989), and it achieved 7x platinum status, while the songs “Love in an Elevator” and “What It Takes” topped the Mainstream Rock Tracks. The song “Janie’s Got a Gun” earned a Grammy Award for the Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal.
Aerosmith recorded a couple of albums in the ‘90s: “Get a Grip” (1993) and “Nine Lives” (1997), both of which achieved platinum status, but “Get a Grip” recorded over 20 million sales worldwide, making it the band’s most commercially successful album. The singles “Livin’ on the Edge”, “Crazy”, and “Pink” all received the Grammy Awards. Their three latest studio albums were “Just Push Play” (2001), “Honkin’ on Bobo” (2004), and most recently, “Music from Another Dimension!” (2012).
Hamilton has also written some of the band’s songs, including “Sweet Emotion”, “Kings and Queens”, “Janie’s Got a Gun”, “Lover Alot”, and “Can’t Stop Lovin’ You”, which add to his net worth.
Regarding his personal life, Tom Hamilton married Terry Cohen in 1975 and has two children with her. He was diagnosed with tongue and throat cancer in 2006, and despite responding well to the treatment, it returned in 2011, so Hamilton went to the surgery and has recovered. His favourite bass players are John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin, Paul McCartney of The Beatles, and John Entwistle of The Who.
