Christopher Wolstenholme

Chris Wolstenholme

Muse member
Name	Christopher Tony Wolstenholme
Born	2nd December 1978 (Age 45)
Hometown	Rotherham, Yorkshire
Plays	Bass guitar, double bass, guitar, backing vocals, keyboard, drums, harmonica, lead vocals
Band members	Matthew Bellamy and Dominic Howard
Associated acts	Fixed Penalty, Rocket Baby Dolls, Muse and Moriaty

Chris' childhood

Chris was born on the 2nd of December 1978 in Rotherham, Yorkshire (home of the Chuckle Brothers) but also moved to Devon during his teenage years (at age 11). His mum would buy records regularly, influencing his interest in music. He started by learning to play the guitar, followed by the drums. Chris played drums with a local band named Fixed Penalty, before leaving to learn and play the bass when he met Dom and Matt, creating the Rocket Baby Dolls.

Music

Chris plays bass and provides backing vocals, as well as the occasional synthesizer lines (such as on Hysteria, Madness and The Void), drums and percussion (Pray, Supremacy, Apocalypse Please). He also sang and wrote two tracks on the sixth studio album (The 2nd Law), When the band started playing Plug In Baby live, he asked for a new set of strings to be put on his bass each time they played it, to get just the right sound he wanted. Chris is a big fan of the Beach Boys. His displayed vocal range goes from G2 to D5, with modal highs up to B♭4 which he has hit several times live during songs as Follow Me and Dead Star. His lowest note was hit during Shepherds Bush Empire in 2013 at the end of Save Me, and his highest can be heard during live performances of Uprising, at the "Come on".

Wolstenholme was also part of various side-projects involving smaller local bands Chris is friends with. In 2008, he joined Hey Molly on drums, the performance can be seen here. In 2014, he joined an English 2 piece rock band Moriaty as an unofficial third member, and he played bass guitar on their new EP 'Bones'. He was also featured in the music video, and it can be seen here.

At his home, Chris transformed a wine cellar into a home studio in which he records and writes his own stuff, sometimes records stuff for Muse and he occasionally records and producers local bands.

In August 2024, Chris released his first solo songs "The Good Life" and "Imaginary World", under the name of Chromes.

Previous jobs

• Guitar shop assistant

Twitter and Instagram

On the 2nd September, 2010, Chris invited fans out for a game of football in Manchester via Muse's Twitter. This resulted in a number of fans thinking that Muse's account has been hacked up until the moment when Chris tweeted a photo of himself and a football. Soon after, he got his own Twitter account (@CTWolstenholme).

About a year after Dom's first Instagram post, Chris posted his first Instagram photo of Dom with cupcakes in March of 2015. His Instagram username is @ctwolstenholme78.

Trivia

• Chris used to be married to Kelly, the wedding took place in 2003. He once lost his wedding ring at a gig in Japan, but got it back when a fan returned it (for which they received a lifetime supply of Muse gigs). He again lost it at a pool in LA a few months later, but has since tattooed his wife's name on his left arm (which has since been covered over).
• Sometime between 2016 and 2017, Chris and Kelly divorced. Since then, he's been with Caris Ball Wolstenholme, which he married on December 1st, 2018.
• Wolstenholme's children are named Alfie, Ava Jo, Frankie, Ernie, Buster and Teddi In addition, Caris and Chris recently added two more children, named Mabel Aurora (born 2020) and Duke Buddy (born 2021). In total, including his wife's Caris' children, Tabitha and Indiana, he has 10 kids.
• Apart from Black Holes & Revelations, Drones & Simulation Theory, Wolstenholme has spawned a baby with his ex-wife Kelly around the time each album was out (baby no. 5 was the cause of Muse having to cancel shows in Kansas City and St. Louis in 2010). This trend appears to continue with Will Of The People.
• Chris has a samoyed named Kevin, a terrier named Ruffio, two maltese dogs, and a lizard named Ronson.
• Wolstenholme is well-known as the least vocal member of the band, leaving the majority of interviews and other promotional activities to Howard and Bellamy.
• Chris occasionally organises football matches, when on tour, between his team, called "Muse FC" (usually compiled of, apart from Chris, the tour staff and Chris's kids), and the fans or the local clubs. Muse FC even have their own custom kits.
• Chris plays as a centre forward when playing football.
• Chris's trainers are size 11.
• In 2004, Wolstenholme injured his arm during a football match with Didz Hammond of The Cooper Temple Clause. This lead to Morgan Nicholls being introduced to the band.
• Wolstenholme supports his birthtown club, Rotherham United FC (nicknamed "The Millers").
• In 2011, Chris and the rest of the Muse FC team were invited to a training session with Chicago Fire FC.
• Wolstenholme had an IBM T60 laptop, but it is now broken due to tonic water spills and space bar demolition. He now owns a Macbook Pro.
• Chris has been quite vocal about his adoration of video games, specifically the Nintendo 64 (his favorite Nintendo game is "The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time") and the Sony Playstation. He seems to be leaning more towards the latter, replying to a Tweet saying "You're a Nintendo fan, are you getting the 3DS?" with "It makes me dizzy, personally" with "Im more of a PS3 guy". His favourite PS3 games include the FIFA, Uncharted and Call Of Duty franchises. In 2015, Chris even had an interview with Sony, where he discussed about music and videogames.
• According to Wolstenholme's biography from Taste Media, Wolstenholme once almost choked on a Smarties cap.
• Chris smokes but gave it up when the smoking ban came into force. In 2009 he took it up again & has been seen smoking a pipe. In mid-February 2011, he announced on Twitter that was no longer smoking. He smoked a Gamucchi electric cigarette, but announced that he was back to smoking regular cigarettes in May 2011. He quit smoking again in 2012, however, it appears he started smoking again during the recent years.
• The first gig Chris went to was a Kylie Minogue concert.
• Chris is often seen headbanging during music videos and live performances. In 2006 he explained in an interview, how he damaged his neck & hired a sports therapist to work out the knots from years of physical abuse. Because of that, Wolstenholme rarely headbanged during the Black Holes tour, but has started headbanging again since. It does appear, however, he toned his headbanging down during the last few years.
• In an interview with The Times Magazine, he admitted to being a "raging alcoholic" and talked about the depths of his addiction. His father died of alcoholism when he was forty, which brought Chris to realise he was well on that way. Half-way during the recording of The Resistance, he checked into rehab and has been clean ever since.
• Wolstenholme owns a massive collection of over 130 guitars, including his touring gear. This was aknowledged by Matt, who said, in a 2022 interview with Total Guitar, that Wolstenholme has built-up more of a guitar collection than he has, over the years.
• Chris was lucky enough to once get to stand-in on a soundcheck with his idols, Status Quo. In 2018, he was asked to play on Status Quo's guitarist Rick Parfitt's post-mortem studio album Over and Out, released in 2018, shortly after Parfitt's death. He played bass and rhytm guitars, filling in for Parfitt on the song Long Distance Love. All the parts were recorded in his home studio. The song can be heard here.

Miscellaneous

• Wolstenholme's tattoos
• Wolstenholme's hair
• Wolstenholme's perfect girlfriend
• Wolstenholme's injuries
• The Legend of Pedro
• Wolstenholme's Twitter Account
• Wolstenholme's Instagram Account
• Wolstenholme's Football Fridays Episode 1
• Wolstenholme's Football Fridays Episode 2
• Wolstenholme's Football Fridays Episode 3

See also

Archived interviews with Christopher Wolstenholme

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