Some Hollywood stars knew how to take the riches they earned through their peaks and valleys and turn them into unimaginably grand scenery. It’s fun to pause and acknowledge the imagery that came with the riches Hollywood stars accumulated. These snapshots certainly provide their own entertaining carousel of the times had.
1. Elton John
Elton John went and dressed up like Mozart during his 1986 tour with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. Clearly, donning a “normal” tux wasn’t the grand plan at hand.
2. Prince
Prince went and opened Paisley Park in 1987. Then proceeded a tremendous sprawling creative compound with recording studios and a Hollywood-sized soundstage that was built around his work.
3. Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson bought the ranch that then became Neverland in 1988, and in the process turned it into a private world with amusement rides, to boot. And, get this, a theater, and a zoo.
4. Liberace
Liberace could go ahead and arrive in an actual crystal-covered car, and then proceed to emerge from an enormous Fabergé-style egg, and in a pink feather cape. Even his piano had a whole glitter getup.
5. Grace Jones
Grace Jones moved on through the decade as both a nightclub fixture and a performance wonder. Bringing her theatrical cabaret to Paris’s Le Palace in 1984.
Trending on Wealth Gang
6. Freddie Mercury
On his 39th birthday, in Munich, was a black-and-white drag ball that was so memorable that photographs and pieces of his outfit then later became auction lots.
7. Rick James
Rick James had much success with “Super Freak” and that right there fueled some lavish tours and extravagant parties in the process. His own biography details him partying on par with something like a Roman emperor.
8. Ozzy Osbourne
Ozzy Osbourne in the early ’80s had plenty of notorious exploits. This included an infamous bat incident at a 1982 concert, and then an arrest after a decision to urinate on the Alamo Cenotaph. The reason why? Who knows? Just an act of chaos by the sound of it.
Sign up for our newsletter
9. Tommy Lee
On the 1987-1988 Girls, Girls, Girls tour, his drum kit soared above the stage and then spun him literally head over heels, and mid-solo.
10. David Lee Roth
Van Halen’s touring rider famously went ahead and banned brown M&M’s backstage. Roth would then later say the odd demand helped reveal whether or not venues had taken the time to read the band’s extensive technical requirements.
11. Axl Rose
As the Guns N’Roses fame sped toward the ceiling, Rose then told a 1989 stadium crowd the show might be the band’s last performance. What a moment to sit with, huh?
12. Cher
Cher arrived at the 1986 Oscars in a Bob Mackie creation that was topped off with a gigantic black feather headdress. This in effect turned a simple red-carpet appearance into a show entirely of its own.
13. Jack Nicholson
Jack Nicholson’s Hollywood Hills home was infamous for celebrity-saturated parties, and gave him an offscreen reputation nearly as big as his film career.
14. Mike Tyson
Mike Tyson became a heavyweight champion. What an achievement in its own right. My goodness. Following the death of his manager in 1988, Don King then loaned Tyson $183,500 for an ivory Rolls-Royce.
15. Madonna
Her 1985 wedding to Sean Penn transpired in a lovely coastal home while a whopping six press helicopters busily circled around overhead. Privacy and spectacle both, collied in truly spectacular fashion.
16. Joan Collins
It was during her Dynasty peak that Collins purchased a mansion, then built a fashion and fragrance empire around her image. Then she would go about the entertaining process in a home fit for Alexis Carrington.
17. Boy George
Boy George was a staple at London’s Taboo, where dressing outrageously was pretty much the price of admission. His actual fame took off out of that whole anything-goes club world. And oh boy did it take off.
