What Is Matt Cameron’s Net Worth?
Matt Cameron is an American musician who has a net worth of $70 million. Matt Cameron is best known for being the drummer for the rock bands Pearl Jam and Soundgarden. Cameron first played with the Seattle-based bands Bam Bam and Skin Yard before joining Soundgarden in 1986. He was part of the band until they broke up in 1997, then he was invited to join Pearl Jam on tour in 1998 and became a permanent member of the band.
Matt reunited with Soundgarden in 2010 and has also been a member of the super group Temple of the Dog. Cameron was the drummer for side projects Hater and Wellwater Conspiracy and was the lead singer for Wellwater Conspiracy as well. He has also collaborated with artists such as Queens of the Stone Age, The Prodigy, The Smashing Pumpkins, Our Lady Peace, and Peter Frampton. “Rolling Stone” magazine ranked Matt #52 on its 2016 “100 Greatest Drummers of All Time” list, and the following year, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Pearl Jam. Cameron has won two Grammys for his work with Soundgarden.
Early Life
Matt Cameron was born Matthew David Cameron on November 28, 1962, in San Diego, California. Matt started playing drums at a young age, and when he was 13, he was in a cover band, Kiss, with some friends. After meeting Paul Stanley, the management of his band Kiss sent the cover band a letter that threatened them with legal action if they kept using their name. Cameron studied at Bonita Vista High School, and in 1978, he performed the song “Puberty Love” in the film “Attack of the Killer Tomatoes” using the pseudonym “Foo Cameron.” Matt got the nickname “Foo” because his older brother, Pete, pronounced his name as “Ma Foo.”
Soundgarden
Matt moved to Seattle in 1983 and began playing drums with the band Bam Bam, followed by feeDBack. In 1985, he joined the band Skin Yard, and the following year, the group was featured on the “Deep Six” compilation and released their self-titled debut album. Later that year, Cameron joined Soundgarden, and after they signed with Sub Pop, they released the EPs “Screaming Life” (1987) and “Fopp” (1988). Other Soundgarden members include Kim Thayil, Chris Cornell and Hiro Yamamoto.
Soundgarden signed with SST Records in 1988, and their first full-length album, “Ultramega OK,” earned a Grammy nomination. The band then signed with A&M Records and released the album “Louder Than Love” in 1989. Their 1991 album “Badmotorfinger” was certified 2× Platinum in the U.S., Platinum in Canada and New Zealand, and Gold in Australia and the U.K. “Badmotorfinger” was ranked #45 on “Guitar World” magazine’s 2006 list of the “100 Greatest Guitar Albums of All Time” and #26 on “Revolver” magazine’s 2002 list of “The 69 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time.” The 1994 album “Superunknown” reached #1 on the charts in four countries, including the U.S., and it went 6× Platinum in the U.S., 3× Platinum in Canada, and 2× Platinum in Sweden. The album featured the singles “Spoonman,” “The Day I Tried to Live,” “Black Hole Sun,” “My Wave,” and “Fell on Black Days,” and “Black Hole Sun” reached #1 on the “Billboard” Mainstream Rock chart and #2 on the “Billboard” Alternative Airplay chart and went Gold in three countries. In 2019, “Rolling Stone” ranked “Superunknown” #9 on its “50 Greatest Grunge Albums” list.
In 1996, Soundgarden released the album “Down on the Upside,” which reached #1 in Australia and New Zealand and #2 on the “Billboard” 200 chart. The album was certified Platinum in four countries, and the singles “Burden in My Hand” and “Blow Up the Outside World” topped the Mainstream Rock chart. Tension over the band’s creative direction led to a split in 1997, but they later reunited and released the 2012 album “King Animal.” Cameron wrote the music for several Soundgarden songs, including “Drawing Flies,” “Mailman,” and “Rhinosaur.”
(Photo by Cindy Ord/Getty Images for SiriusXM)
Pearl Jam
After the band split up, Matt joined Pearl Jam on tour during the summer of 1998 and was soon asked to be a member of the band along with Eddie Vedder, Mike McCready, Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament. He has performed on the Pearl Jam albums “Binaural” (2000), “Riot Act” (2002), “Pearl Jam” (2006), “Backspacer” (2009), “Lightning Bolt” (2013), and “Gigaton” (2020). All six albums reached the top 10 on the charts in several countries, and “Binaural,” “Riot Act,” “Pearl Jam,” and “Backspacer” went Platinum in Australia and Canada and Gold in the U.S. Cameron has written the lyrics and music for Pearl Jam songs such as “Get Right,” “In the Moonlight,” and “Take the Long Way.”
Other Groups
Matt has also performed on albums for the Tone Dogs (1990’s “Ankety Low Day”), Temple of the Dog (1991’s “Temple of the Dog”), Hater (1993’s “Hater,” 1995’s “Hempilation: Freedom Is NORML,” and 2005’s “The 2nd”), Harrybu McCage (2008’s “Harrybu McCage”), and Ten Commandos (2015’s “Ten Commandos”) as well as the Wellwater Conspiracy albums “Succour: The Terrascope Benefit Album” (1995), “Declaration of Conformity” (1997), “Brotherhood of Electric: Operational Directives” (1999), “The Scroll and Its Combinations” (2001), and “Wellwater Conspiracy” (2003). Cameron released the solo album “Cavedweller” in 2017, and in 2020, he formed the supergroup Nighttime Boogie Association with Taylor Hawkins, Steven McDonald, and Buzz Osborne. In 2021, he formed the band 3rd Secret with Krist Novoselic, Kim Thayil, Jennifer Johnson, Bubba Dupree, and Jillian Raye, and they released a self-titled album in April 2022.
Personal Life
Matt married April Acevez on October 25, 1997, and they have two children together, daughter Josie and son Ray. In a 2021 “Far Out” article titled “Pearl Jam pick their favourite books of all time,” Cameron chose “Amerika” by Franz Kafka.
Awards and Nominations
Soundgarden earned nine Grammy nominations, winning Best Metal Performance for “Spoonman” and Best Hard Rock Performance for “Black Hole Sun” in 1995. Their other nominations were for Best Metal Performance for “Ultramega OK” (1990), “Badmotorfinger” (1992), and “Into the Void (Sealth)” (1993), Best Rock Album for “Superunknown” (1997), Best Rock Song for “Black Hole Sun” (1997), and Best Hard Rock Performance for “Pretty Noose” (1997) and “Black Rain” (2011). In 1994, the band won an MTV Video Music Award for Best Metal/Hard Rock Video for “Soundgarden: Black Hole Sun.” Soundgarden also won several Northwest Area Music Awards, including Best Musician – Drums for Cameron in 1991 and Best Drums in 1992. With Pearl Jam, Matt earned two Grammy nominations, Best Hard Rock Performance for “Grievance” (2001) and Best Rock Album for “Backspacer” (2011).
Real Estate
In 2000, Cameron paid $1.175 million for a 3,863 square foot home in Woodway, Washington. The home includes five bedrooms and six bathrooms.
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