MEGA-RICH ROCK SUPERSTARS AND THE CRAP THEY'VE WASTED THEIR MONEY ON

The UK Independent has a fascinating, shocking, sickening, hilarious story about all the different crap that meg-rich rock stars have blown their money on over the years.


* Mick Fleetwood, of Fleetwood Mack, estimated in 1994 that he had blown more than $8 million on cocaine. He guessed the total length of the line of accumulated cocaine would stretch five miles. He has been accused of underestimating his legendary usage in the 1970s and 1980s.


* Elvis Presley once took a couple of friendly policemen for a bizarre cross-country trip on a private jet to shout them a couple of....ahhh, I suppose they could be called sandwiches.

"...a hollowed, buttered loaf, filled with peanut butter, jam and a pound of fried bacon. The sandwich was meant to feed eight, but Presley had finished one unaided."

When Presley and his cop buddies arrived at the Denver fry-hole that made the sanwiches, after a 1000 mile, after-midnight jet flight, Presley splashed out on 22 of the bacon-rich, sweet slabs.

Apparently the sandwiches were called 'Fool's Gold'. At more than $50 per eight foot serving, Elvis might have actually been getting a bargain. After all, bacon is expensive.

Presley was dead within twelve months.


* R & B mega-succes Kayne West reckons "I'm the closest that hip-hop is getting to God...In some situations I'm like a ghetto pope."

Ahh, yeah, whatever.

Which may help explain why he decided to blow a few hundred grand having the roof of his mansionic dining room in LA painted with a full recreation of Michelangelo's frescoes from Rome's Sistine Chapel ceiling.


* Rod Stewart once spent more than $100,000 getting a full-size football field, with dressing rooms of course, built in the grounds of his UK mansion.


* Elton John was once forced, in court, to admit that in the years 1996-1997, he blew an astounding $320,000 on fresh flowers.

"I like flowers," he said.

Well, duh.


* MC Hammer (You Cant Touch This for wasting money) is now a bankrupt. And here's why. By 1990 the rap supa-mega-star was worth about $30 million. He put more than 250 people on his payroll, brought up 17 luxury cars and a big fat mansion. He lost it all within six years.


* At least Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood did something practical with his money. He had a classic English pub built in the grounds of his estate, so his fellow Stones could relax with a drink during rehearsals. And it only set him back just under $70,000.


* Bryan 'Boys Of Summer' Adams hit the bigtime and big cash and brought a mansion in London's Chelsea district. Right next to a pub. A very busy pub. A very busy, very loud pub. Adams didn't like the noise of people having a good time, so he brought the pub for more than $600,000 and closed its doors forever.

* Oasis git Noel Gallagher did what any normal person with a monstrous Beatles fixation would do when they recieved their first multi-million dollar royalty cheque. He spent more than half a million dollars getting the kitchen walls of his huge new digs completely covered with extremely expensive paintings of yellow submarines.

There was also the $35,00o-plus he laid out for carpet in the colours of his favourite football team, Manchester United.

That would be, red and white carpet?


* When Nelly sang 'It's Getting Hot In Here' maybe he was talking about the inside of his favourite ultra-pimped Rolls Royce.

He only went to the custom-car shop to get some new rims. But something twigged in his brain when he discovered that what his 2004 Rolls Royce Phantom really needed was....an all mink fur interior.

Now you know that when you spend $400,000 fitting out your Rolls in mink fur, it can only add to the value of the vehicle. Right?


* Jay-Z has had his pimped-up ride pimped up some more. Apparently he's cracking the ceiling for the maximum number of custom options you can fight into, and onto, a four wheel vehicle.

$400,000 and counting. His Maybach features "an electro-transparent panoramic glass roof, reclining seats with massage function, a DVD player, a 21-speaker hi-fi, an 'interphone' and, most vital of all, two cup holders."

Two cup holders. That's where all that money went.


* This doesn't count as wasteful, this is just cute - "In 1971, Who drummer Keith Moon bought an electric-powered milk float and had it converted into a 'mobile Victorian parlour' - with armchair, wallpaper, cocktail cabinet and gramophone."

He blew a mere few grand on this indulgence.

Far less, apparently, than he threw away trashing his drumkits in a week of uproarious gigs with The Who.

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