What is Steve Porcaro's Net Worth?
Steve Porcaro is an American musician who has a net worth of $40 million. Steve Porcaro is a keyboardist, songwriter, and film composer, best known as an original member of the Grammy Award-winning rock band Toto. Among his other notable musical contributions, he co-wrote and composed the Michael Jackson track "Human Nature" and provided the score to the television series "Justified." Earlier in his career, Porcaro served as a session musician on recordings by such artists as Jefferson Airplane and Yes.
Early Life
Steve Porcaro was born on September 2, 1957 in Hartford, Connecticut. He had two older brothers named Jeff and Mike who passed away in 1992 and 2015, respectively. Due to the influence of their father, jazz drummer Joe, all three boys began drumming as kids. Porcaro eventually got into the piano, and was gifted an organ by his father in 1967. As a teenager, he went to Grant High School in Los Angeles.
Career Beginnings
In the late 70s, Porcaro began going on tour with musician Gary Wright. He also performed with singer-songwriter and guitarist Boz Scaggs, and served as a session musician alongside David Paich on a variety of albums.
Toto
Formed in 1977, the rock band Toto consisted of session musicians who had performed on many hit albums during the decade. Along with Steve Porcaro, the band originally featured his brother Jeff; keyboardist and singer-songwriter David Paich; bassist David Hungate; guitarist Steve Lukather; and singer-songwriter Bobby Kimball. Toto went on to release its eponymous debut album in 1978. Although not a huge hit, the album spawned the hit single "Hold the Line." Next, in 1979, Toto released "Hydra," which featured the single "99." This was followed by "Turn Back" in 1981. The band had its commercial breakthrough the next year with "Toto IV," which launched the number-one hit single "Africa" and the number-two hit "Rosanna." Moreover, the album itself rose to number four on the Billboard 200, and won six Grammy Awards including Album of the Year.
For Toto's fifth studio album, "Isolation," Mike Porcaro replaced David Hungate as bassist. Although far less successful than the band's previous album, it did include the hit rock single "Stranger in Town." Toto's next album was 1986's "Fahrenheit," the first with lead vocalist Joseph Williams (who is the son of composer John Williams) and the last album with Steve Porcaro as a permanent member until 2015's "Toto XIV." Despite his departure as a full-time member, he continued to assist with composing and instrumentation over the years. Porcaro returned for Toto's final studio album, "Old is New," which came out in 2018. However, he did not return for the group's reunion in 2020.
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Film and Television Composing
As part of Toto, Porcaro contributed some compositions to the original soundtrack of David Lynch's 1984 science-fiction film "Dune." Later, in 2010, he began writing the score to the FX Western crime drama television series "Justified." Porcaro's other composing credits include the television series "The Sentinel" and "Gideon's Crossing."
Michael Jackson Collaborations
Porcaro collaborated with pop singer Michael Jackson a number of times. Notably, he co-wrote and composed the music for the 1983 single "Human Nature," included on Jackson's album "Thriller." Porcaro also played the synthesizer on that album's first single, "The Girl Is Mine," co-sung by Paul McCartney. Later, Porcaro contributed the synthesizer and keyboard to Jackson's song "Stranger in Moscow" from the 1995 album "HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I."
Solo Career
In June of 2016, Porcaro released his debut solo album, "Someday/Somehow." Co-written and co-produced by Michael Sherwood from the band Lodgic, the album contains recordings from Porcaro's late brothers Jeff and Mike. It also features contributions from such artists as Michael McDonald, Marc Bonilla, Jimmy Haun, and Toto band mate Steve Lukather.
Personal Life
Steve Porcaro was previously married to model Pam Ross from 1998 to 2008. Together, they had a son named Dominic and daughters named Micki and Heather. In 2009, Porcaro collaborated with Heather on her debut album, "The Heartstring Symphony."
