Music trends can be fleeting. One day, you're the hottest new act in the world, and the next, you're struggling to stay relevant. If you're a musician who has a meteoric rise to success, it's easy to spend like you'll always have money to burn, but it can all come crashing down when the fame fades.
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00:00When you're a famous rock star at the height of your career, the wave of success might
00:04seem endless.
00:05But everyone knows nothing lasts forever, and many musicians aren't exactly brilliant
00:09at saving up that nest egg.
00:12Here are the rockers who went completely broke, and a few who clawed their way back.
00:16English bad-boy rocker Pete Doherty founded the rock band the Libertines in 1997, and
00:22when the group banned him from playing due to his drug abuse and jail time, Doherty simply
00:26started another band, the Baby Shambles, in 2003.
00:30I long for a mediocre gig."
00:32But his addiction didn't just affect his relationships.
00:35It affected his bottom line.
00:37In 2007, the Evening Standard reported that despite earning millions with the Libertines
00:41and his recent Baby Shambles album selling 100,000 copies, Doherty was, quote, on the
00:47verge of bankruptcy.
00:49While it was assumed his addictions didn't help financial matters, his investments hadn't
00:53done well, either, and all the money was seemingly gone.
00:56It was all part of a way of life that I was locked into, you know?"
01:02Fortunately, he'd managed to snag supermodel Kate Moss around the way, and her millions
01:07were keeping him afloat at the time.
01:09But Moss was long gone by 2010, when The Sun claimed that the rocker was, quote, completely
01:14broke and living in a basement apartment.
01:17Back to tabloid fiction, Doherty was done.
01:20That is, until he formed a new band.
01:22Peter Doherty and the P---- Madres
01:24Courtney Love is a successful rocker in her own right, but her real money comes from her
01:29late husband Kurt Cobain's publishing rights.
01:31Yet she told The Fix that after Cobain died, she lost track of the money, claiming,
01:36"...I was doing drugs from the moment I woke up till the time I went to bed.
01:41I was out of it most of the time."
01:43By the time she realized what was happening, she was totally broke.
01:47She and daughter Frances moved in with Love's stepfather, and she claims they didn't even
01:51have enough money to eat.
01:53Then in 2013, according to Clash Music, Love again said she was near bankruptcy because
01:59money had been taken from her accounts.
02:00"...I think betting against me is probably not a good move, just because I tend to get
02:05what I want."
02:08However, as the outlet noted, there has been controversy over her claims of so-called poverty.
02:13In a 2009 court filing, Frances claimed that her mother was,
02:18"...obsessed with uncovering fraud and spends much of her day raging about the fraud that
02:22has been perpetrated on her."
02:24What's definitely true, however, is that Love has trouble paying taxes.
02:28The Blast reported that the IRS came after her for non-payment of hundreds of thousands
02:33of dollars in 2009, 2011, 2012, and 2016.
02:38The last bill was for the largest one yet, over $500,000.
02:44When Tom Petty filed for bankruptcy in 1979, it was a strategic choice.
02:49Petty was the first artist to figure out how to legally say he had no money to get out
02:53of a bad recording contract.
02:55As History reported, the music industry is, quote, "...notorious for its creative accounting
03:00practices," and that can mean a very successful act might somehow have no money or perhaps
03:05owes their label tons of cash.
03:07"...This is why people find me difficult sometimes, but it makes perfect sense to me."
03:13In 1979, Petty found himself with two hit albums, numerous hit singles, and what he
03:18thought was an unfair cut of the sales due to a bad contract he claims he signed against
03:23his will.
03:24So he completed a third album, which he financed himself, but refused to let the record company
03:29release it.
03:30This left him $500,000 in debt, and he filed for bankruptcy.
03:35According to Rolling Stone in 1980, Petty's record label sued him and refused to let him
03:40perform in concert.
03:41Petty filing for bankruptcy and announcing he'd only made $36,000 the previous year was
03:47also very embarrassing for the label.
03:49Billboard reports this strategy was concerning to the record industry, since other artists
03:54might follow suit, so the label folded, offering the broke, petty, and attractive $3 million
03:59contract.
04:01In 1984, Mick Fleetwood filed for bankruptcy, which was absurd since he had founded Fleetwood
04:07Mac 17 years prior.
04:09It's also important to note that according to Paste, in 2018, Fleetwood Mac's Rumors
04:13was the seventh-best-selling album of all time.
04:17Part of the problem was that as the drummer, Fleetwood didn't write any of the band's songs,
04:21so he made the least amount of everyone, according to The Telegraph.
04:25In 1984, his lawyer was also quick to point out that Fleetwood was not blowing money on
04:29drugs.
04:30Or was he?
04:31I never took anything, quote, in the opiate area, booze and cocaine.
04:38But he was definitely up to his neck in real estate.
04:41Fleetwood bought and then quickly sold property in Australia and, quote, took a bath on the
04:45transactions financially.
04:47Then he bought a mansion and took out a huge loan when interest rates were at their peak.
04:51As Fleetwood Mac band members took time off for solo projects, his yearly income plummeted
04:56to only a couple hundred thousand.
04:58Then there were the various investments that flopped.
05:01In 2014, Fleetwood told The Telegraph he'd lost count of how many times he'd filed for
05:05bankruptcy.
05:07David Crosby saw huge success with two legendary bands, the Byrds and supergroup Crosby, Stills,
05:13and Nash, and sometimes Young.
05:15You know, yes, we did good singing, yes, we did good guitar playing, but the key was we
05:19had songs that made you feel something.
05:21But that all fell apart in the 80s.
05:23Ultimate Classic Rock reported Crosby's first run-in with the law happened when he crashed
05:28his car while on cocaine.
05:30He also had a concealed weapon on him.
05:32Then just three weeks later, he was busted with more cocaine and a gun in a nightclub
05:37where he was performing.
05:38According to the LA Times, the conviction was overturned on appeal, but then in 1984,
05:44Crosby got three years probation for driving on a suspended license while drunk.
05:48A year later, he crashed his car again and was charged with possession of a concealed
05:53pistol and narcotics paraphernalia and hit-and-run driving.
05:56I remember trading a 1939 Herringbone dreadnought, a stunner, for, uh, substance.
06:07Eventually, Crosby did hard time, with Bankrate reporting that in 1985, he filed for bankruptcy.
06:13When he got out of jail, he was so broke he had to live in a friend's spare bedroom and
06:17borrow his clothes.
06:19In 2003, Crosby told the outlet that he estimated he'd burn through $25 million over the course
06:25of his career.
06:26He eventually made his money back by continuing to work, but CNN reported that he was arrested
06:30for possessing a gun and drugs yet again in 2004.
06:36Rock stars are cute, um, they got nice haircuts, but, uh, I'm more into just, uh, working hard,
06:41playing hard, making great music, and, uh, and going hunting.
06:45These days, Ted Nugent is known for his opinions on guns, his vocal support of Donald Trump,
06:50and even for visiting the White House with Sarah Palin and Kid Rock.
06:53But he's first and foremost a successful rock star.
06:56He also seemed to care about his money, calling his accountant, quote, "'kick-ass' in a 1979
07:01Rolling Stone interview, saying that the guy got a, quote, "'sensual thrill' out of doing
07:06Nugent's books.'"
07:07But in that same interview, the reporter watched Nugent quickly sign a packet of bonus checks
07:12for his employees totaling $87,000 in 1979.
07:17Nugent claimed he paid everyone handsomely, from his musicians, roadies, agents, and accountants,
07:22to the farmers on his mink ranch.
07:24"...and people wonder why I have this attitude."
07:28According to Texas Monthly, within a year of that Rolling Stone interview, Nugent was
07:32bankrupt.
07:33The mink farm, as well as other esoteric investments like a hotel in Flint, Michigan, and a herd
07:38of Clydesdales had been failures, but these days, it seems like he's not dwelling on the
07:42past.
07:43"...I'm having the time of my life, and someday someone will acknowledge that these are some
07:49of the greatest rock and roll songs ever written."
07:54In the mid-'80s, Twisted Sister was riding high with a quadruple platinum album and crazy
07:59music videos that went viral well before YouTube.
08:02And Dee Snider, as the main songwriter, was making a ton of money, according to Hard Rock
08:07Daddy.
08:08But then he was called before the Senate to defend his violent music videos.
08:11In order to get politicians on his side, Snider mentioned he was
08:15"...a teetotaling family man who never drank, smoked, or did drugs."
08:19"...I don't advocate sexism, the use of drugs, and drinking.
08:24So I don't write about those things.
08:25I only write about things I believe in."
08:27That statement ruined his credibility with his fans, and Twisted Sister was over.
08:31Radar Online reported this dramatic fall resulted in Snider filing for bankruptcy.
08:37He told Fox News that by 1995 he was, quote, "...flat broke," claiming that unlike other
08:43bankrupt musicians, he didn't have a drug problem or a corrupt manager he could blame
08:47for his financial problems.
08:49Snider said at that point he couldn't even afford to buy his kids a piece of candy, although
08:52thanks to nostalgia and time on Broadway, he's since bounced back financially.
08:57"...So we might as well start at the beginning, which I guess…"
09:00"...Why?
09:01It's much better to start at the end and go backwards."
09:04At one point in rock history, Meat Loaf was massive.
09:07His 1977 album Bad Out of Hell was one of the best-selling in pop history, according
09:12to the L.A. Times.
09:14But his record company lied to him about just how many albums he was actually selling, so
09:19the money wasn't rolling in like it should have been.
09:21"...I never make anything look easy, and I don't ever let anything be easy."
09:26Loaf said he suspected his sales were being lowballed during the 80s, but it wasn't until
09:30the early 90s, when accounting technology got better, that he could prove it, estimating
09:35that his record company owed him $14 million in 1996-era money.
09:40And all that cash would have come in really handy for Loaf in the early 80s.
09:44In 1983, Loaf's publisher and manager, among others, sued him with 22 separate lawsuits
09:50for $85 million total, and they wiped him out.
09:55Having filed for Chapter 11, Loaf claims he lost his home and even the publishing rights
09:59to his songs.
10:00When they first started out, the Goo Goo Dolls were so desperate for a record deal they were
10:05basically willing to sign any contract.
10:08After releasing a couple of albums in the late 80s, the band signed with Metal Blade
10:12Records.
10:13They would later claim in a lawsuit, according to Billboard, that the company, quote, "...exploited
10:17their naivete and got them to sign an unfair contract," one that saw them, quote, "...sign
10:22away most of their royalty rights."
10:24This meant that while they toiled away trying to make it, the band members all still held
10:28down part-time jobs.
10:30But then in 95, their smash hit album A Boy Named Goo came out.
10:35Recorded by the single name, it sold millions of copies.
10:38The band should have been rolling in it, except the money never came.
10:41Each member got a measly $6,000 a year from their label.
10:45"...maybe this wasn't such a good idea."
10:47Unable to pay the bills, they went on tour for two years.
10:50It wasn't always fun for them, like when they joined up with Bush in No Doubt, an experience
10:54one member said was like, "...having a dentist enter through your ass to pull your wisdom
10:59teeth out."
11:00So they sued their label.
11:02They won and signed a much better contract, but there were still money issues, like when
11:06the drummer left over financial disagreements.
11:08"...I feel like there's more out there."
11:10"...Out where?"
11:11"...Everywhere.
11:12Whatever's out there, let's find it."