English songwriter, record producer, and musician Rod Temperton has an estimated net worth of $125 million. He is best known for writing several songs performed by Michael Jackson such as "Rock With You" and "Thriller".

Rodney Lynn Temperton was born on October 15, 1947 in Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire, England. Since he was a child, he was already into music. He attended the De Aston School in Market Rasen where he formed a musical group for school competitions and served as the drummer. After he left school, he worked in a frozen food company in Grimsby.

Mr. Temperton soon became a fulltime musician who played in several dance bands. In 1972, he and guitarist Bernd Springer formed a soul cover band called Sundown Carousel which performed in clubs and GI bars in cities such as Mannheim. In 1974, he answered an advertisement placed by Johnnie Wilder Jr. in Melody Maker. He soon became a member of the popular funk/disco band called Heatwave. Among the group’s most popular hits are "Too Hot to Handle", "Boogie Nights" and "Always and Forever", which was covered by Luther Vandross in 1995.

In 1979, the group came up with their second album called Central Heating which became a huge selling hit. In the same year, however, he left Heatwave to pursue a fulltime writing career and relocated from Germany to Beverly Hills in 1980. Yet, he still continued to compose songs for the band. His songs were recorded by George Benson, Donna Summer and Herbie Hancock before he was used by Quincy Jones for Jackson. He served as a co-writer for the song "Miss Celie’s Blues" which was included on the soundtrack of the movie The Color Purple wherein he has received an Oscar nomination.