Hey, Millionaire! Some rich people fly under the radar, and nobody even realizes they have
loads of cash in their back pockets. But rock stars do exactly the opposite. The
rock star lifestyle is flashy by nature. It's all about big parties, flashy clothes, drugs,
and paying damages to avoid a lawsuit when you throw a TV set out the hotel window. But because
these musicians are so openly wealthy, it's pretty easy to spot when they go broke. In this video,
we're going to take a closer look at some super successful rock stars who were so busy being cool
that they forgot to check their bank balance. There are loads of names on this list that will
surprise you. Even better, some of these stories are so insane they could only have happened in
the world of rock music. It's all sex, drugs, and rock and roll... until you go bankrupt.
Pete Doherty The bad boy of British rock
Pete Doherty seemed to find fame pretty easily. He first shot to stardom in 1997 as the charismatic
frontman of The Libertines. But he was maybe a little bit too rock-and-roll. The band eventually
kicked him out for taking too many drugs and spending too much time in jail. But Doherty,
in typical devil-may-care style, just started a new band called Babyshambles. But even though
that band was also doing well, his bank account wasn't. A few bad investments and a lot of cash
spent on drugs meant he was getting dangerously close to bankruptcy. Plus, leaked documents from
the time showed his touring company actually lost $25,000, even though he was playing shows!
Lucky for Doherty, he'd somehow snagged Kate Moss, and, being a loving girlfriend,
she was happy to let him live in her mansion for a while. But even that ended. By 2010, he was
apparently living in a filthy basement and playing acoustic gigs to tiny audiences for cash. He's
doing better since The Libertines reformed and made $2 million by playing just two festival gigs.
Courtney Love Courtney Love makes this list as a rock
star in her own right. But it wasn't her own money that she lost. Her fortune was all thanks to Kurt
Cobain's publishing rights that she inherited when the Nirvana frontman tragically committed suicide.
After that, Courtney admits there wasn't a single second when she wasn't high as a kite on some
cocktail of drugs and alcohol. But while she was binging, her Nirvana fortune was disappearing.
To this day, nobody seems 100% sure of what happened. Courtney says she was basically
signing whatever she was told to. But she also says that an incredible amount of cash was simply
stolen from her - something like $530 million. However, her daughter with Cobain, Frances Bean,
told a slightly different story. According to her, Love is obsessed with uncovering fraud in
her finances. We'll never know if it was all in Love's head or not. But we do know that
Love squandered at least $27 million on drug habits, strange behavior due to depression,
and settling a crazy amount of lawsuits. Either way, she and Frances were forced to move in with
Love's stepdad to avoid homelessness. She ended up borrowing $2.7 million from Frances' trust
fund so they could eat. This story is a little difficult to untangle. But Love's taxes are
a little easier to understand. She's been in trouble with the IRS four times for not paying
hundreds of thousands in taxes. There's also the not-so-small matter of $48,000 she owes to her
psychiatrist. But we'll probably never know what really happened to the Nirvana fortune.
Mick Fleetwood As the founder of one
of the most financially successful bands of all time, Mick Fleetwood should've had enough cash
to last him more than one lifetime. Seriously, his 1977 album Rumors was still the 7th best-selling
album of all time in 2018! But the Fleetwood Mac drummer says he lost count of how many times
he's gone bankrupt. But how did he do it? Well, honestly, he just spent all his cash. Sure, he
argues that he never made as much cash as the rest of the band because he didn't write the songs.
But that shouldn't have stopped him from having enough money to retire in luxury. And he would've
been able to if he hadn't kept buying impossibly expensive mansions. On top of that, he claims he
spent an incredible $8 million on cocaine! I guess that's the shortcut to going broke.
What's the most rock and roll thing you ever spent money on? Tell us in the comments!
And keep watching for more insane stories of how major rock stars went broke.
David Crosby David Crosby sure knew how to create
a successful band. In fact, he did it twice! He saw his first success with the band The Byrds
and then again with the supergroup Crosby, Stills, and Nash. But creating successful bands wasn't the
only thing he was good at repeating. He's also very good at crashing cars while high with a
weapon hidden somewhere on his person. Actually, it's his main skill. The first time it happened,
he crashed his car while on cocaine and was caught with a concealed weapon. Three weeks later, he was
busted in a nightclub where he was performing with cocaine and a concealed weapon again. Amazingly,
the conviction was overturned, and he got off scot-free, but he just did it again. In 1984,
he got 3 years probation for driving drunk while his license was suspended. And a year later,
he was caught again when he crashed his car, which was full of drugs and another concealed gun. But
this time, it was actually a hit-and-run, and he did time in prison for it. As you can imagine,
this didn't help his bank account. By the time he got out of prison, he was so broke
he was sleeping in a friend's spare room and borrowing his clothes.
Amazingly, he bounced back by performing again. But if you're thinking this all sounds great and
he'd turned his life around, you're wrong. He was arrested for drugs and a concealed weapon
again in 2004. I guess it's appropriate that his life sounds like a stuck record.
Meat Loaf
I guess it's not so surprising to see Meat Loaf pop up on this list. But you might feel
a little sorry for this Bat Out of Hell star. In the 1980s, Meat Loaf began to suspect that
his record company was lying about his album sales. It sounds like exactly the kind of weird,
paranoid thing Meat Loaf would say. I mean, what record company lies about sales to avoid
paying the star? But he was distracted from this thought when his old producer, manager,
and publisher decided to sue him, and loads of other people jumped at the chance to try it out.
Soon, there were 45 lawsuits all stacked up in front of him, worth a giant total of $85 million.
He was finally forced to file for bankruptcy to get them to stop. When the 90s finally rolled
around, Meat Loaf's team got their hands on more sophisticated accounting technology. Remember how
he'd thought for over a decade that he was being short-changed? Amazingly, this new tech proved him
right. It's estimated his record company owed him $14 million, and this was back in 1996 when $14
million was worth quite a bit more than today. It turns out he wasn't paranoid at all. In fact, the
lawyer Meat Loaf hired to sue the company claims this isn't uncommon. Makes you wonder, doesn't it?
Tom Petty Musicians have
a pretty up-and-down relationship with record labels. Loads of big names would love to wiggle
out of their contracts. But most of them aren't quite as clever as Tom Petty was. Like Meat Loaf,
Petty realized his record label was getting a bit creative with their accounting, and Petty's bank
account was suffering because of it. He'd released two hit albums that both had a couple hit singles
on them, and he had no cash to show for it. So, he financed and recorded a third album himself.
Why give the thieving record label another album, you ask? Well, he didn't. He refused to allow the
record label to release it. Suddenly, he was $500,000 in debt to the label,
and, in 1979, he filed for bankruptcy because of it. That sounds like a bad thing,
but it was actually all a clever plot to get out of his recording contract! See,
because he refused to give them the third album, the label sued Petty and wouldn't allow him to
perform on stage anymore. But that wasn't great for them. The court case was put on hold while
Petty's bankruptcy was being dealt with. They were losing money because Petty wasn't performing,
and he was openly announcing to the press that he'd only made $36,000 the previous year.
As you'll guess, that was pretty embarrassing for the label. The rest of the record industry
was also starting to worry that other musicians would copy Petty's clever tactics.
So, the label eventually gave in and offered Petty a much juicer contract for $3 million.
You'll be glad to know that they didn't stop other musicians from following in Petty's footsteps.
Roky Erickson Roky Erickson might not be the most famous name
on this list. But the story of how he went broke is so insane that he has to feature on this list.
In 1969, the 13th Floor Elevators frontman was caught with a single marijuana joint. Usually,
that sort of thing doesn't get you in much trouble. But for some weird reason,
the police and prosecutors seemed to target Roky in a serious way. To avoid an excessive
10-year-long prison sentence, Roky decided to plead not guilty by reason of insanity.
So instead of throwing him in jail, he was sent to a hospital for the criminally insane. And yes,
it was as bad as it sounds. He was treated with antipsychotic drugs and had to go through forced
electroshock therapy. It's like suddenly finding yourself in an episode of American Horror Story:
Asylum. As if that wasn't bad enough, his money was being badly mismanaged while he was locked in
the psych ward. By the time he got out, his bank balance was nearing 0. He spent years
trying to get back on top of his finances as if he hadn't suffered enough. But luckily, toward
the end of his life, his music suddenly became popular again, and his wallet grew to match.
Are you as shocked as I was by Roky's story? Tell us in the comments. And
keep watching - there are much bigger names from rock history coming up!
Jerry Lee Lewis Jerry Lee Lewis wasn't just a successful
musician - he actually helped shape Rock'n'Roll. So how could someone like him go bankrupt? Well,
it all started when he was 22 years old, and he decided to marry his 13-year-old second cousin.
Gross, right? Well, his audience thought the same thing. His record sales saw an immediate downturn,
and that wasn't the only thing about to go downhill. In 1979, the IRS came knocking.
They said he owed $274,000 in back taxes, which was a lot of money in those days.
They took 60 items out of Lewis' house to auction off, including a tractor. But hardly anyone showed
up to the auction. He still owed two-thirds of the money, and it caught up with him again in 1985.
This time, they found a jet ski and a mechanical bull in his house that they thought would go
down well at the auction. There's no word on why Lewis had a mechanical bull in his house,
but I know I'd be pretty sad if I had one and lost it. But by 1988, he still owed them $2 million.
Plus, there was the small matter of another $1 million he owed to a whole collection of
other people. Lucky for him, it looks like he managed to bounce back later.
The Goo Goo Dolls (yes, all of them) You've got to feel sorry for the Goo Goo Dolls.
As young musicians starting out, they jumped at the chance to sign with a real-life record label.
Let's face it, it's what any of us would've done. Unfortunately,
they didn't realize it was just a record deal they were signing. They were actually signing
away most of their royalty rights. From the late 80s, when they signed that deal, until 1995,
they were still working part-time jobs while touring to make ends meet. Then, out of the blue,
their single 'Name' hit the big time and turned their album A Boy Named Goo into a smash hit
that was selling millions of copies. You'd think that would be more than enough to let
them pack in the boring day jobs and become the super-rich rock stars they always wanted to be.
But that's not how it happened. Thanks to the contract, each of them were entitled to just
$6,000 per year from the label. Luckily, they decided to sue the label, and they actually won!
Billy Joel Billy Joel has had such a successful career
that he was once a billionaire! But that doesn't mean he never made a bad decision. In fact,
he made 3 - three early marriages to women he later divorced. The worst one was his marriage
to Elizabeth Weber. She was his manager at the time, but it all ended in a painful divorce.
But as bad as it was, it clearly wasn't painful enough to stop him from hiring her brother, Frank,
to take her place as his manager. That was Billy Joel's biggest mistake. Weber took the opportunity
to funnel an incredible amount of money out of Billy Joel's account. Weber had been investing
money into his own enterprises in Billy Joel's name, lost $10 million worth of those investments,
and even mortgaged Billy Joel's copyrights without telling him any of this was happening. He was also
carefully adjusting his accounts so Joel wouldn't notice anything was going on. There wasn't any
reason to steal - he was earning $20 million in commissions from Joel. When he finally realized
what was happening in 1989, Billy Joel sued Frank Weber for a massive $90 million! It was
all useless, though. Weber just conveniently filed for bankruptcy to avoid having to pay.
And finally, the rockstar who took our number 1 spot is...
Lemmy Kilmister M torhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister has got to
be one of the most iconic rock stars of all time. But even though he was the only consistent member
of the band, wrote all the songs, and toured relentlessly from the 70s until he died in 2015,
he still wasn't saved from going broke. But it looks like it was totally his own fault.
At the time of his death, his net worth was estimated to be around $8 million.
But a closer look revealed a very different story. It was actually just under $650,000.
After decades as one of the most recognizable faces in music, that's a pretty small amount
of cash. It looks like he somehow spent all the millions he made - mainly on speed, alcohol, and a
slightly obsessive German war memorabilia habit. Well, what else were you expecting from Lemmy?