Music Stars Who Blew Millions, Went Bankrupt (11 Photos)
Lady Gaga, $3 million
OK, her debt was fleeting, but it startled even Stefani Germanotta, aka Lady Gaga. The self-created pop sensation may have plenty of smarts, but her rapt attention to blowing out her Monster Ball tour overrode her arithmetic. The performer extraordinaire bankrupted herself for the 2009 global extravaganza. "It was funny because I didn't know," she confessed to the Financial Times.
Lauryn Hill, $1.8 million
Billy Joel, $30 million
Billy Joel hasn't had the best luck with his managers: He was tied to his first by contract for 15 years, even when the two weren't working together. Then he married his second manager, but in their divorce, she took half his assets. Joel hired his ex-brother-in-law, Frank Weber, whom he later sued for $90 million — $30 million for fraud and misappropriation of funds, and another $60 million for punitive damages.
Dionne Warwick, $10 million
Dionne Warwick, who ties with Madonna at No. 3 for top female vocalists who have hit the Hot 100 charts, celebrated her 50th anniversary in the music biz just last year. At age 72, the chanteuse should be knitting sweaters with 24-karat gold thread or puttering about in a luxury golf cart. Instead, the singer filed for bankruptcy in March, with a jaw-dropping debt of $10 million owed in state and federal taxes.
MC Hammer, $10 million
Stanley Burrell, as MC Hammer, had the classic local-boy-makes-good storyline: He saw a meteoric rise, set off the craze for parachute pants, and — pre-dot-com bubble — paid $9.3 million for a mansion in a Northern California suburb to which he added more than that amount in custom features.
Jerry Lee Lewis, $3 million
As far as scandals go, the "Great Balls of Fire" singer is more notorious for marrying his 13-year-old second cousin Myra than the plummet in his fortunes. Then again, that third marriage of his outraged the British and torpedoed his shot at being the rival to Elvis — and the millions that would've come with that success. Hard living finally resulted in a personal bankruptcy petition in 1988 for more than$3 million, ...
Toni Braxton, $18.3 million
Toni Braxton once dominated radio waves and had Grammys aplenty, but disputes with her record label landed her in bankruptcy twice, in 1998 (a circumstance that inspired all-star concerts protesting record companies' "indentured servitude") and again in 2010.
Wayne Newton, $20 million
In 1983, Wayne Newton made it into the "Guinness Book of World Records" as the world's highest-paid entertainer. Less than a decade later, he was signing Chapter 11 papers to manage about $20 million in debt.
Willie Nelson, $32 million
Country singer Willie Nelson thought of his assets seizure as a way to pare down. In the 1980s, he banked his wealth in a tax shelter, but the IRS didn't take kindly to those back then. The government took his Texas ranch, among other things, in payment for a record-breaking $32 million in unpaid taxes.
Members of UB40, $750,000 pounds (US$466,000)
Meta-irony reared itself when five out of seven members of UB40, who got their name from "Unemployment Benefit, Form 40" (the document that Brits filled out to go on the dole), filed for bankruptcy in 2011. Two members of the pop-reggae group left in 2008, warning of poor management, and eventually the band succumbed to their debts three years later and reportedly sold rights to their own songs to EMI
Sly Stone, loss unknown
In the five-year period between 1967 and 1973, Sly and the Family Stone established themselves as funk greats. But bankruptcy came fast in 1976, which coincided with the group's own end. Stone has since been honored with many homages, among them a 2006 Grammy tribute. But the soulful pioneer — once dubbed the J.D. Salinger of funk — has never seemed to regain his footing.
No comments:
Post a Comment