John Symon Asher Bruce was born on the 14th May 1943, in Glasgow, Scotland, UK and was a musician, singer as well as songwriter who was most famous as a member of British supergroup Cream, alongside Ginger Baker and Eric Clapton. Jack is still considered as one of the greatest bass guitarists of all time as well as one of the most powerful jazz vocalists. Apart from bass, Jack also played harmonica, double bass, piano, guitar and cello. Jack passed away in October 2014.
Have you ever wondered how much wealth this multi-instrumental music legend accumulated during his life? How rich Jack Bruce was? According to sources, it is estimated that the total size of Jack Bruce’s net worth, as of early 2017, would be over $20 million, acquired through his 52 year-long music career which was active from 1962 until his death in 2014.
Jack Bruce Net Worth $20 million
Jack was born into a family of musicians Betty and Charlie Bruce. During his childhood, and due to the nature of his parent’s profession, he changed schools14 times before finally matriculating from Bellahouston Academy in his hometown. Although he enrolled at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, from which he was even rewarded with a scholarship for cello and musical composition studies, Jack left the Academy at the age of 16 due to disagreements with his professors – Jack performed with Jim McHarg’s Scotsville Jazzband while his professors disapproved of playing jazz. Immediately after, Jack began touring Italy with the Murray Campbell Big Band, but in 1962 he became a member of Alexis Korner’s London-based blues band – Blues Incorporated. These engagements provided the basis for Bruce’s net worth.
In 1963, Jack – alongside Graham Bond, Ginger Baker and John McLaughlin – formed the Graham Bond Organization which released two studio albums, however, due to open hostility between Bruce and Baker, Jack left the band in 1965, and soon after released his debut single “I’m Gettin’ Tired” before joining John Mayall and his Bluesbreakers band, where he met Eric Clapton. After several performances, in 1966 Jack Bruce joined Manfred Mann with whom he scored more notable commercial success, but then in July of the same year, Bruce teamed up with Clapton and Baker to form the super-group trio Cream, which later gained significant commercial success and marked a more lucrative period of Jack Bruce’s music career. It is certain that all these ventures helped Jack Bruce to add considerable sums to his net worth.
Before Cream broke-up in 1968, with Jack Bruce as their lead singer they released four studio albums which sold over 35 million copies. Apart from singing, Jack also co-wrote several of their hit singles, including “White Room”, “I Feel Free” and “Sunshine of Your Love”. In 1969, Jack Bruce officially began his solo music career with the release of his single “Songs for a Tailor”, and later an eponymous solo album which was quite commercially successful.
Despite a bright music career, in 1979 Bruce’s drug habit reached its peak causing him to lose almost all of his money. However, by the late 1980s he had managed to recover, and with his career back on track, he formed the band Jack Bruce & Friends. From then on, Bruce founded and fronted several of his own bands, making special and unique music, mixing genres such as jazz, rock, blues and even Latin music, and releasing several hit albums including “Out of the Storm”, “I’ve Always Wanted To Do This” as well as “A Question of Time” and “More Jack than God”. Apart from these, Bruce also collaborated with numerous big names of the music industry, which doubtlessly, helped him to increase his revenues and so increase his net worth.
When it comes to his personal life, Jack Bruce was married to Janet Godfrey between 1964 and 1980, with whom he had two sons. In 1982, Jack married Margit Seyffer with whom he had, two daughters and a son. Jack passed away on the 25th October 2014, in Suffolk, England at the age of 71, due to liver disease. To this day, Jack Bruce is still considered as one of the greatest bass players of all time, as well as the man who changed the way that instrument is played.
