The band may have sold more than 240 million records, but the real money is clearly on the road, with the 147-night A Bigger Bang tour of 2005-07 still ranked as the world’s fourth-highest-grossing ever – behind Guns N’ Roses, U2 and top-earner Ed Sheeran – while last year’s slender No Filter US outing became the highest-earning tour of the year, grossing over US$130 million – or nearly US$10 million a night.

And who gets all that dough? The band – originally formed by friends Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Brian Jones, Dick Taylor and Ian Stewart – has seen a small but significant turnover of members over the years, with just two founding members left in the fold today.

The Richest reports that the band is now worth over US$1.45 billion, so who is the richest Stone?

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7. Mick Taylor – US$300,000

Brought into the group in 1969 following the sidelining of Brian Jones, virtuosic six-string-slinger Mick Taylor was barely out of his teens when he joined the Stones at the start of their creative peak, making key contributions to its most critically acclaimed albums “Sticky Fingers” and “Exile on Main Street”, before leaving somewhat acrimoniously in 1974. He was paid performing royalties until 1982 when his contract expired, according to reports.

Since then, he has pursued a solo career. In 2009, Taylor announced that he was nearly broke and reportedly planned to sue the band over unpaid royalties. But that never transpired, and instead Taylor, now 73, was brought back ceremoniously as a touring guest star on the 50 & Counting tour of 2012-13.

6. Brian Jones – US$10 million

The band’s original leader, Brian Jones brought intriguing new colours to the Stones’ experimental mid-60s pop era, thanks to his skills with multiple instruments, from keyboard to sitar and saxophone – a legacy left behind in anthems like Paint It Black and Under My Thumb.

However his influence in the band was eroded, in large part due to the misadventures of his personal life, and he was eventually fired in 1969. Shortly afterwards he drowned in his own swimming pool, at age 27, becoming one of the eerie first members of what became known as “The 27 Club” of young celebrity deaths (alongside Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, Amy Winehouse and others). As he didn’t have much time to accrue wealth, Celebrity Net Worth reports that his estate was about US$10 million.

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5. Bill Wyman – US$80 million

He may have called it quits nearly three decades ago, but unassuming bass player Bill Wyman, 85, still earns a huge sum of royalties from the bank of The Stones. As an almost-founding member who auditioned in late 1962, he still gets royalty shares every time a Rolling Stones album is bought, streamed or downloaded. Perhaps why he’s never expressed much remorse for stepping away from the spotlight, which relieved “a lot of pressure”, as he told The Telegraph.

He’s written, recorded and performed music with his own group, Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings, as well as published several books about his time with the Stones. However, he would have no doubt have multiplied his US$80 million fortune – as Celebrity Net Worth estimates – several times if he’d stuck around for the band’s high-paying tours of recent years. As the “new guy” proves …

4. Ronnie Wood – US$200 million

The band’s perpetual “new boy” may have released 11 studio albums with the Stones since joining in 1976 but he was reportedly treated as a hired hand for more than a decade. Despite that, he’s still had time to clock a net worth of US$200 million, largely from The Rolling Stones’ mammoth tours.

Before he got the call up, he was a member of rock bands The Faces and the Jeff Beck Group, while today Wood, 74, is also somewhat famous as a visual artist. Trained at Ealing Art College, he is the co-owner of the Scream London gallery and has sold hundreds of works, including paintings, sculptures and etchings – including many of his famous band mates.

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3. Charlie Watts – US$250 million

One of the least showy drummers in rock, the ever-self-deprecating Charlie Watts joined the band in 1963 and rocked the stage for almost six decades, before passing away in August 2021, age 80. At the time of his death, Watts’ fortune was estimated to be around US$250 million, mostly through his ownership of shares in the corporate entities of The Rolling Stones, per Celebrity Net Worth.

He was also a horseman behind the stage. With his wife Shirley, he owned a Polish Arabian horse farm, Halsdon Arabians at Dolton in Devon, England. At one point, their herd numbered more than 250 horses, per Horse Talk.

2. Keith Richards – US$500 million

The band’s unmistakable guitarist, vocalist, co-songwriter and “Human Riff” is sitting on a mountain of cash built from his 60-year contribution to music. Obviously, most of Richards’ half-a-billion net worth comes from the band he continues to define – for not just writing the unmistakable guitar hooks that drive Start Me Up, Gimme Shelter, Brown Sugar, et al, but dutifully trotting them out night after night for 50-odd years and counting. Besides Mick, there’s really no other member the band could continue to credibly function without.

The 78-year-old artist has dabbled in producing with his own record label Mindless Records, and worked with many historical artists like Aretha Franklin and Ronnie Spector.

Additionally, he also made a foray in the film and book world. He played the role of Jack Sparrow’s dad Captain Edward Teague in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End – after Johnny Depp famously confessed he based his own character on Richards’ mischievous piratic presence – and a cameo in The Simpsons. Meanwhile, his memoir Life, published in 2010, sold over one million copies within its first year, becoming one of the bestselling rock autobiographies ever. In 2014, he published a children’s book about how his grandfather inspired him to learn guitar: Gus & Me: The Story of My Granddad and My First Guitar.

1. Mick Jagger – US$500 million

Of course there’s another side to that coin. Like Lennon-McCartney before them, (nearly) all The Rolling Stones catalogue is co-credited to Jagger-Richards, and the lead singer has earned just as much as his childhood friend over the years.

Besides music, he also has a career in the film industry, starring in cult favourites Performance (1968) and Ned Kelly (1970), among others. He owns US$250 million in real estate around the world, including mansions in New York and London, a castle in the south of France, and an estate on the private Caribbean island of Mustique. But when you’re the face of the world’s most iconic rock band, we say that makes you worth it.