Born as James Oppenheim on the 1st September 1961 in Lowell, Massachusetts USA, Boney is an award- winning musician/saxophonist, songwriter and producer, who so far has released 15 albums, including “Trust” (1992), “Pure” (2004), and “The Beat” (2013), among others.
Have you ever wondered how rich Boney James is, as of mid- 2017? According to authoritative sources, it has been estimated that James’s net worth is as high as $3 million, an amount earned through his successful career as a musician, which started in the ‘80s. During his career, Boney has received several Grammy Award nominations, and has won a Soul Train Award, in category Best Jazz Album in 1998.
Boney James Net Worth $3 Million
From an early age, Bony became fond of wind instruments, taking a clarinet int his hands when he was only eight years old. Just two years later he switched his interest to saxophone and since then has hardly let go of the instrument. He grew up listening to and admiring such musical acts as Grover Washington, Jr. among others, then when he turned 14, he and his family moved to Los Angeles, where he became a part of a fusion band which performed as an opening act to such musicians as the Yellowjackets, and Flora Purim. Parallel with his career, Boney attended UCLA from which he eventually received a degree in history, but right after graduation he devoted himself completely to music. He became a part of Morris Day’s band in 1985, soon after learning how to play keyboards, and in the next seven years performed with Day, then Bobby Caldwell, Randy Crawford, the Isley Brothers and Teena Marie. Slowly Boney started becoming more involved in the jazz scene, and his name started being popular. Back in 1986, he earned his stage name, Boney James, when one of the band members in which he played and the one that supported Randy Crawford on her tours, yelled out “We’ll have to start calling you Boney James”, due to his physique.
Then in the early ‘90s, while on tour with Bobby Caldwell, Boney met producer Paul Brown, and the two started working on Boney’s debut album. Soon his first studio album “Trust” came out 1992, and the two continued to work together for the next ten years, which resulted in highly popular albums such as “Seduction” (1995), “Sweet Thing” (1997) and “Body Language”. Back in 1994, after the tremendous success of his debut album, Boney signed with Warner Brothers, and albums mentioned earlier achieved gold status, which only increased his wealth. In 2000, Boney started working on an album production on his own, and the first album that he solely produced was “Pure”, released in 2003, after which Boney switched labels, signing with Concord Records, and since then has released six more albums, including “Shine” (2006), which reached No. 44 on the Billboard 200 chart, his highest charted album to date, then “Send One Your Love” (2009), for which he received a Grammy Award- nomination in category Best Traditional R&B Performance, while his “The Beat” album from 2013 received a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Instrumental Album. Most recently, he released his 15th album “futuresoul”, which topped the Billboard Contemporary Jazz Chart, and was the bestselling album of 2015 in the contemporary jazz music genre, which only increased further his wealth.
Regarding his personal life, Boney has been married to Lily Mariye, an actress and director, since 2012. He wrote the music for her directorial debut “Model Minority” (2012).
Back in 2014, Boney was badly injured in a car crash, as the accident left him with a fractured jaw, facial lacerations, and two shattered teeth.
