50 most reckless rock star purchases

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What did you get from your dad on your 16th birthday? Last week P Diddy shelled out £220,000 on a luxury car – a German Maybach, if you care about that sort of thing – for his son, Justin Dior. Keep clicking for more displays of extravagant spending. Pic: PA Photos

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Blur’s Alex James famously spent £1 million on champagne and cocaine during his hell-raising days, although he later came to realise the dark side of drugs, calling the Colombian cocaine trade a “relentless trail of death”. Pic: PA Photos

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In a bout of changing rooms that would give Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen a hernia, Noel Gallagher once spent $680,000 on redecorating his home. He painted the walls with yellow submarines and installed carpets the colour of Man City football team in a flurry of inspiration that no doubt knocked thousands off the value of the house. Pic: PA Photos

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‘Cinema Against AIDS Cannes 2002’/ Elton

It was revealed during a court case in 2000 that Elton John had spent £293,000 on flowers in an 18-month period between January 1996 and September 1997. The singer felt no need to defend his extravagant lifestyle though, telling the judge: “I have no one to leave the money to. I’m a single man. I like spending my money.” Pic: PA Photos

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Throughout his turbulent marriage to Pamela Anderson, Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee was fond of buying his wife unusual presents, including a life-size replica of a Starbucks cafe. He had the outlet built in his basement. Pic: PA Photos

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Years later, in 2008, Tommy Lee was so pleased to be reunited with his ex-wife Pamela Anderson, he bought her an island. OK, it was part of the widely-mocked ‘The World’ development in Dubai – Lee picked the island representing Greece – but still, that’s quite some present. Pic: PA Photos

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Another celebrity island-owner is retro-rocker Lenny Kravitz, who owns Biscayne Point, a few minutes’ boatride from Miami Beach. The jammy git also once managed to drop £12,000 on a single night out in Soho with Lionel Richie. The pair were drinking magnums of Cristal, at £700 a pop. Pic: PA Photos

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Cocaine isn’t cheap at the best of times (we’re told), but for Fleetwood Mac drummer Mick Fleetwood to rack up an $8,000,000 bill on the stuff, he must have been tucking away gargantuan amounts on a daily basis.
Pic: PA Photos

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Kanye might be savvy enough to avoid the gold diggers of the world, but he once made a financial decision dumber than Taylor Swift-gate when he decorated the ceiling of his LA dining room with a recreation of Michaelangelo’s frescoes from the Sistine Chapel – at a cost of $350,000. Pic: PA Photos

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robert smith -the cure

At the height of their fame, between 1989 and 1992, The Cure travelled to America not by plane, but on luxury liner the QE2, a journey that took five days. Robert Smith persuaded the record company to pay for it by pretending to be scared of flying. “It was very civilised,” he later recalled. Pic: Dean Chalkley

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Plenty of bands use private jets, but Iron Maiden went one stage further by customising a Boeing 757 jumbo jet, at a cost of £500,000. At least they don’t have to pay a pilot, though – singer Bruce Dickinson flies the plane himself. Pic: PA Photos

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The Carling Weekend: Reading Festival

If you thought Justin Hawkins seemed to have a lot of energy in The Darkness’ heyday, drugs may have played a part. The singer spent £150,000 on cocaine in the space of three years. “I was taking up to five grams a day,” he told The Sun. “I’m lucky I still have a septum.” Pic: PA Photos

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U2 splashed out upwards of £20 million building three giant ‘claws’ for their last world tour. Each one is 164ft tall, contains 72 separate subwoofers, and requires 120 trucks to transport it between shows. And you thought their music was overblown. Pic: PA Photos

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Beyonce is not short of a few bob, which is why she was able to drop $100,000 on a pair of gold leggings, which she wore just the once, at the 2007 BET Awards. Still, they do look pretty good. Pic: PA Photos

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In 1971, The Who drummer Keith Moon spent £400 on an electric milkfloat, which he converted into a “mobile Victorian parlour”, complete with gramophone. To make room for it in his garage, he drove his Corvette into a hedge. Pic: PA Photos

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When it comes to getting her hair cut, Britney Spears doesn’t just nip to her local Toni & Guy. She insists on using handmade, custom-built clippers, imported from Japan at a cost of $3,000. Pic: PA Photos

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Only the best for pop/reality TV star Jessica Simpson, who once managed to spend $1,400 on a set of bed sheets. “I don’t sleep good,” was her excuse for shelling out on the ludicrously overpriced cotton bed linens. Pic: PA Photos

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US guitar hero John Mayer is an odd chap. He recently gave a bizarre interview to Rolling Stone in which he bragged about his masturbation habits (“I can fire alien weapons. I can insert a tampon!”). The sex-obsessed rocker also claims he spent $1,500 on phone sex in four months. Pic: PA Photos

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We told you earlier about the £220,000 Maybach car P Diddy bought for his son. Well, Jay-Z owns one too, although his has more extras, including massage seats, a 21-speaker stereo and – oh, the glamour – two cupholders. Pic: PA Photos

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Usher once squandered $26,000 on a pair of trainers. Not, we pray to god, the ones pictured here. Pic: PA Photos

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Jay Kay of Jamiroquai, nicknamed the Twat In The Hat by the music press back in the 90s, has an enormous collection of classic cars, and once bought a Lamborghini Diablo SE30 for $306,000. He must have been annoyed, then, when the guy who was supposed to deliver it took the car for a spin and totalled it. Pic: PA Photos

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At an auction in 1999, Mariah Carey spent $662,500 on a white baby grand piano that had once belonged to Marilyn Monroe. Pic: PA Photos

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How much was your last holiday? We’re guessing it clocked in a little less than P Diddy’s 2003 jaunt in the Mediterranean. The rapper hired a superyacht for $40,000 a day, racking up a massive $800,000 bill in total. For that he got his own floating gym, gold-plated taps in the jacuzzis and a helicopter pad. Pic: Splash

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Sting must have blown more than we earn in a lifetime on yoga lessons and tantric guides, but one of his most extravagant purchases was a $11,900 living Christmas tree he had shipped into his 41-room English mansion, with a specialist florist brought in for the baubles. Pic: PA Photos

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Justin Timberlake did his Christmas shopping at Harrod’s in 2003. The store stayed open late just for him to have a private spending spree. He wound up blowing $1.7 million on purchases including jewellery and a toy remote control Mercedes, which were hauled away in two rented buses. Pic: PA Photos

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Leaving aside the millions Heather leeched off him, Macca’s biggest impulse purchase was probably the $170,000 fence he built around his estate to keep wild boar from tearing up his trees. Pic: PA Photos

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Queen frontman Freddie Mercury was quite into fish, so he spent a staggering $1,500,000 building a collection of koi carp. Sadly after his death gardeners at his home turned off the power supply to their storage tank, killing nearly all of them. Pic: PA Photos

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It costs a lot of money to forget about your troubles and your bat-eating antics. Ozzy Osbourne reportedly spunked $650,000 for the drug counselling services of Dr David Kipper, who proscribed him antidepressants at a further cost of $58,000. No wonder he was gibbering like a madman for most of the reality show. Pic: PA Photos

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George Harrison may have been a musical genius and part of the greatest group of all time, but he wasn’t too clever with his cash. At the urging of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi he threw several million pounds at The National Law Party, a political party based on the power of meditation that went on to gain 0.4% of the UK vote in 1992. Pic: PA Photos

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MC Hammer might be sending carefree tweets about working out at 5am these days, but back in 1996 he was struggling with bankruptcy, after splurging millions on 17 luxury cars, a mansion in San Francisco, and jobs for 250 people, many of whom were friends. Pic: PA Photos

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There used to be a pub next door to Bryan Adams’ Chelsea mansion, and the regulars were so loud they often kept him awake at night. No problem for the ‘Waking Up The Neighbours’ singer though, as he spent $680,000 on buying the pub – and promptly shut it down. Pic: PA Photos

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First class travel wasn’t enough for John Lennon’s son Sean. He once had the entire first class cabin booked out for him so he could set up a model train set. Pic: PA Photos

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U2 singer and all-round philanthropist Bono once had a hat flown from London to Italy for a performance with Pavarotti. However, the hat didn’t fly coach. Or even first class. No, it made the journey next to the plane’s captain at a cost of $1,700. Pic: PA Photos

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Making his second appearance in our list of big spenders, it’s Kanye West. In 2007, the rapper spent £2000 having a curry flown over from a Welsh restaurant – complete with a chef. He had the dish transported to New York by helicopter from the British Raj Restaurant, Newport. That’s one pricey takeaway. Pic: PA Photos

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No stranger to excess of all kinds, Elvis Presley once spent over $3,000 – on peanut butter and bacon sandwiches. Overcome by a hankering for this vile snack, The King flew from Graceland to Denver by private jet – a distance of 1,000 miles – in order to sample it. Pic: PA Photos

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KROQ Weenie Roast

Jonathan David, frontman with nu metal pioneers Korn, can’t be doing with a boring old microphone stand – he uses a “biomechanical erotic” sculpture designed by Swiss artist H.R. Giger (who designed the effects on Alien), at colossal expense. Pic: PA Photos

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By his own admission, Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth has slept with a lot of women – which is why he spends $10,000 a year on paternity insurance with Lloyds Of London. The loaded singer once said: “Money can’t buy you happiness, but it can buy you a yacht big enough to pull up right alongside it.” Pic: PA Photos

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Master P is not a household name in the UK, but the New Orleans rapper certainly shifted some records in the States, enough to enable him to buy a 40,000-square foot home, complete with lake, Willy Wonka glass elevator, and 14,000 gold tiles on the ceiling. Pic: PA Photos

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Coldplay

Chris Martin’s rich. Gwyneth Paltrow’s rich. Together they are very rich indeed. In 2004 the couple bought a house in Belsize Park, north London, for £2.5 million. A few years later they decided they needed more space – so they bought the house next door. Pic: PA Photos

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Music – Madonna ‘Blond Ambition Tour’ – Wembley Stadium – London

In 2009 Madonna made the most expensive house purchase New York has ever seen, spending $40 million on a townhouse block on the Upper East Side. The giant building includes 13 bedrooms, 14 bathrooms, a 3,000 sq ft garden, nine fireplaces, a wine cellar with a grotto, and an elevator.

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OK it’s not exactly a ‘reckless purchase’, more a bad investment, but Paul Simon lost $3 million of his own money when he produced a musical called The Capeman in 1998. It’s no surprise it flopped, the subject matter was hardly ‘bums on seats’: it was a play about a Puerto Rican teen who stabbed two white kids in 1959.

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