A MAN MADE PARADISE

"I'm a city person. I'm not into all this country air and cow dung!"

Every person who makes a lot of money has a dream they want to carry out, and I achieved that dream with this wonderful house.

Whenever I watched Hollywood movies set in plush homes with lavish decor, I wanted that for myself, and now I've got it. But to me it was much more important to get the damn thing than to actually go and live in it. I'm very much like that - once I get something I'm not that keen on it any more. I still love the house, but the real enjoyment is that I've achieved it.

It's an eight bedroom house in Kensington, West London. It's full of marble floors and mahogany staircases. It even has a garden that is three quarters of an acre... in Kensington! Can you believe it? Recently an Arab offered me four million pounds for it. I told Elton John and he said, "Quick, sell it to him and live in a pre-fab!" But it's my dream home and I don't care how much it costs me.

I'd been looking for a house for a long time. I'm not into yards and yardi el acreage, I just wanted a beautiful house in reasonable sized grounds. I'm I city person. I'm not into all this country air and cow dung!

I just felt that I wanted to live in England again, having lived in New York and Munich. 1 wanted a country mansion in London, but it took me a long while. I'd been living in the same little Kensington flat for ages, so I phoned Mary from America and asked her to find a place. I saw the house, fell in love with it, and within half an hour it was mine. It was in a terrible state and with all the changes I made I wasn't able to move in for a year.

I call it my country house, in town. It's very secluded, with huge grounds, right in the middle of London. Once a month I would get inspired and go there with the architect. "Why don't we have this wall removed?" I asked once... Everybody groaned and the architect nearly died. I went in there sloshed one day, after a good lunch - there is a wonderful bedroom area at the top, I had three knocked into one palatial suite - and in a sort of haze, I said, inspired, "What would be nice, is a glass dome over the top of all this bedroom area." The architect flinched, but went rushing back to his pen and drawing pad.

Before all that, I decided at some point that I would like to live in New York. I love New York. It's wonderful. But when I came to thinking about living there, I thought, "Oh dear, it's terribly different!" You can't live in New York at the pace you do when you're travelling through it. I didn't like that idea. I'd have been dead within a week.

I was going to leave England and try it on a trial basis, so I actually went md looked at some apartments in West Avenue. I found a wonderful place that I almost bought. This is before Mrs Thatcher's Government came in. But then when we came back to England, she was in, and I just thought, "Well, why not!" But it was nothing to do with money.

Work had got to be too much. I got tired of the whole business and decided I really needed a long break. I had just bought an apartment in New York and I wanted to spend some time there. I spent a lot of time finding it and as soon I bought it 1 moved in. So that took preference over my London house and I lived there for a while. I worked with Michael Jackson while living there.

I love New York. It's aggressive and challenging and of course interesting. I Iike Munich too, having spent a lot of time there. It's very safe there, and very beautiful. We recorded albums there and you realise how safe it is. Munich is like a village. I was there so long that after a while the people didn't even consider that I was around. They didn't really pester me at all. I have a lot of friends over there and they know who I am, but they just treat me as another human being and they've accepted me that way. And that to me is a very good way of relaxing. I don't want to have to shut myself up and hide. That's not what I want. I'd go spare. I'd go mad.. .even quicker.

I like to feel that I can do exactly the same kind of things as other people do, like socialising and having parties, but not have those burdens. If I completely remove myself from that, and still be in the same town, that's my way of relaxing. You can just walk anywhere and you don't have to worry about your car being parked anywhere. Over here, in London, there's always somebody who'll scratch your expensive car, and this and that, and you have to have your chauffeur stay with it. But that doesn't happen in Munich. I can actually walk the streets there. I can't even cross the road in England. I have to be in a car all the time. But New York is very unsafe, as you know, and I wouldn't dare walk around there. That's just being stupid. You have to be very cautious.

I love the clubs in New York. I remember once I wanted to go to a club called the Gilded Grape, which I'd heard was really exciting, but everyone told me I shouldn't go - or if I did, at least to make sure I had a fast bullet­proof car waiting for me outside. Everyone tried to warn me about this club, which of course made me all the more determined to go. Not long after we got there, a massive fight broke out which ended up at our table. Chairs were being smashed, fists were flying, there was blood everywhere. Billie [Jean King] was petrified, but I loved it. I told her not to worry, and as the fight raged I grabbed her and took her on to the dance-floor. It was much more fun than having some cosy dinner back at my hotel.

When I go to New York I just slut myself around. It is Sin city with a capital 'S'. But you have to come away at the right time, because the moment you stay a day later, it grips you. It's very hypnotic. It's all tripping in at eight or nine every morning, taking throat injections so I can still sing. It's а real place. I love it.'

Sometimes when I'm alone at night I imagine that when I'm 50 I'll creep into Garden Lodge, as my refuge, and then start making it a home. When I'm old and grey and when everything is finished and I can't wear the same costumes and jig around on stage any more, not quite yet, I have something to fall back on, and that's this wonderful house. In the meantime I like outraging people with my music.

Chapter sixteen

FAME AND FORTUNE...

"I like to be surrounded by splendid things. I want to lead the Victorian life, surrounded by exquisite clutter."

You cannot divide success from money.

Money may be vulgar, but it's wonderful. I cope with wealth very well, actually -1 spend, spend, spend. Well, what's money for if not to spend? I spend it like it's nothing. I have lots of money yes, but I honestly couldn't tell you what my bank balance is. I'm conditioned that way. I'll just go out and spend it. I'm not one of those who stuffs his money under the mattress and counts it every night. I'm not like some of those stars who are obsessed with counting their pennies. I know several people who do a show then rush home to count what they have, but not me. I don't give a damn about money. I just think it's for spending.

I'm the one member of the band for whom money isn't very endearing. I'm the one who spends it straight off. It just goes - on clothes and the nice things I like to have around me.

All I wanted from life was to make lots of money and spend it. I always knew I would be a star, and now the rest of the world seems to agree with m», But, because I'm successful and have a lot of money, a lot of greedy people prey on me. Rut that's something I've learnt to deal with. The higher 1 climb the ladder, the bigger the barrier become» around me. The more I open up the more I gel hurt

At one point, two or three years after we began, we nearly disbanded. We felt it wasn't working, there were too many sharks in the business and it was all getting too much for us. But something inside us kept us going and we learned from our experiences, good and bad. We didn't make any money until the fourth album, A Night At The Opera. Most of our income was consumed by litigation and things like that.

Once you start making big money, everyone wants a piece of the action. All the leeches move in and they will suck you dry if you give them half a chance. Money attracts all kinds of wrong people. It's true, money does always seems to be at the root of all evil. Success can bring problems you have never really bargained for, ones you think can never exist.

You have to watch everyone who works for you and if they seem to be taki you for a ride, you have to weed them out fast. You can't afford to let anyone get away with anything. I can smell a rat. It's instinctive. I can smell them out!

Dear oh dear, there have been some bad apples over the years. I don't hold hold a grudge, really - it's just trivia. I was shocked at certain things, and by particular people in the past. I was fucking mad about some things, but I 11 inn what can you do? The way I see it, I think that kind of thing is going it make me stronger. I just think it might make me a harder person. I see it as something 1 have to overcome. It's part of my life. This is it! This is part of what my lifestyle is. I take it in my stride.

Sometimes it's all about awareness and acceptance. I mean sometimes I don’t mind it if I know that I'm being taken for a ride, that way it's fine. It's ' when I don’t know that I've been made a chump, that's the difference. There are many times when I've been taken for a ride knowing fully well, but I've given them enough rope to hang themselves.

You’d be surprised how slippery people can be. A few times when people have got through to me they've betrayed my trust. I built up a barrier, a feeling that anybody wanting any sort of involvement with us was bound to rip us off in some way. It gave me a very cold exterior.

The more money one makes, the more miserable one can become. It's very true that success changes you, but you have to change to survive it. I used to hang around the market in Kensington, I spent a lot of time there, and now when I go down there I know that if I don't stop and talk to everybody, they'll be hurt - whereas before I could just say hello as I passed. If I don't stop now they just say, "Oh, he thinks he's a star now."

I still drink with a lot of my friends in the pub, but sometimes I'm aware of being taken for a ride. I don't mind sometimes, but things happen like I come in and buy the drinks and people that have been drinking halves of bitter suddenly ask for Southern Comforts. I understand it. It's for similar reasons that you seem to change outwardly. You have to learn to survive the pressure that success places on you, and for that reason people that don't realise all those things think you've changed for the worse.

My object in life is to make a lot of money and spend it, though these days I tend to spend it before I make it! There is such a lot of money to be made out there. I adore spending it. I just love being lavish and extravagant. It's such fun. I'm hopeless with money. Life's too short to sit back and consider those things all the time. I'm a rock star, I'm very rich, I can buy anything that I like - including you!

I never carry money around, just like the real Queen. If I fancy something in a shop I always ask someone on our staff to buy it.

I love shopping and I love going to auctions and buying antiques at Sotheby's and Christie's. The one thing I would really miss if I left Britain would be Sotheby's. All my money goes there. Actually, that's what I've been interested in for a long while. And now that I've got a little bit of money to throw around, I thought I might as well go and spend it. So I went to Sotheby's the other day and got a few paintings. The dealers weren't pleased at all!

I love Harrods, too. And Cartier, Asprey, Christie's. The Japanese cell it crazy shopping. I walk around like the Pied Piper with hordes of people following me. I'd go with the wife of the promoter to a department store left open for me after hours. All these assistants standing there and the place is entirely empty, except for me!

I like to be surrounded by splendid things. I want to lead the Victorian life, surrounded by exquisite clutter. I've got lots of junk as well, which doesn't have any value - which I love. It would be so boring if I only went out and said, "Oh, that's going to be a lovely investment."

I bought my house in London that I'd only seen in photographs. I know that's absurd, but I had no time to go house-hunting. I needed a place to move my furniture and clothes to. I have had this house for four years now. It is quite exquisite and gorgeous. People are still working on it - putting up all kinds of elaborate shit. At this rate I will probably move in when I am old and ye-y.

I'm trailing over my Lalique and Galle vases - I'm up to my ears now. It's getting really silly. I mean, a lot of people used to say my house was like a museum, but now I'm beginning to agree with them. It's getting very silly.

I love those stories about Elton, when he had that problem where people •' г re staying at his home at the weekends, in his spare rooms, and they'd look under the bed and there would be Rembrandts and other such masters. It's true. With me, it's my Japanese prints that are just getting ridiculous.

People are saying, "What are you doing? You've got this massive great thing and it's costing so much money. Aren't you worried?" I've got my accountants and lawyers all brow-beating me saying it's the wrong thing to do, it's a waste of money, and this and that. Fuck that!

I went to do it properly. So maybe money-wise it's not a very good thing i 'id but I'm going to do what I feel I want to do at the time - whatever my mind says, whatever my heart tells me to do.

I love it. It’s all part of my nature. I thrive on it. I ride on it. I’m not afraid to spent my money. Sometimes I could go to Cartier’s the jewelers, and buy up the whole shop. Often my sprees begin just like a woman buying herself a new hat to cheer herself up. Some days, when I'm really fed-up, I just want to lose myself in my money. I work up a storm and just spend and spend. Then I get back home and think, "Oh God! What have I bought?" But it's never a waste. I get an awful lot of pleasure out of giving presents.

I love buying gifts for people. That's the biggest thrill. I find that's the biggest fun. I don't like hogging it all. Money may not be able to buy happiness, but it can damn well give it! I'm not afraid to squander it in terms of giving it to other people. Yesterday I went shopping at Cartier's in London. But then I realised they were closing at lunchtime. So I rang up to see if they could leave it open for me and they actually did. So all the shutters were down and I went along there. I felt like Zsa Zsa Gabor. It was really very nice of them. I bought lots of junk from Cartier - but nothing for myself.

The bit of happiness I can create, is with my money. Okay, money can't buy happiness, it's true - I've written a song called Money Can't Buy Happiness, by the way - but depending on who you are, you can force yourself sometimes. When I buy people presents I think I love it far more than maybe they do. I love to do that kind of thing.

Having said all that... I buy a lot of shitty things for a lot of people too. The worst thing is, I get them back a few years later!

I bought somebody a car the other day. It was in the German press as well. The funny thing is that it was meant to be my car as well, but he's driving it. Suddenly I hear in the papers that I've bought a 500 Mercedes SEC. I thought, "My dear, come on!" If I wanted to give a car away, I would do that, but that's the way it happens. So he thinks it's his car now. It's not correct.

My favourite car, by the way, is a Rolls Royce - every time. You can't belt them for style and comfort.

Money hasn't spoiled me. I know it sounds very corny, but it's true. Buying people little things is so nice to do. Those little moments make their day; a little gift, a gesture, a nuance, just a little treasure. It mean far more than somebody buying you Big Ben, or something. People treasure the little things.

I'll tell you a good example. The other day Mary gave me a wonderful present that I haven't seen before. It's something that nobody else would think of, and it might be totally useless for you, but it's something from somebody who cares and that's what matters. She gave me this little gift that she went out of her way to arrange. It was the newspaper of the day that I was born -so you can actually read about what was going on when you were born. It was The Times, September 5th, 1946. And she also got me 1846, which was wonderful. I thought that was a lovely little treat - just a little something, There's reams and reams of paper and it was wonderful. She said, "This'll keep you busy, dear. You can read it while you're on the throne." I like to read when I'm having a crap!

The 1846 edition was so interesting. It was during the days of cholera. Suddenly there was an epidemic in India, and it was during the Raj and the East India Company, and all that stuff. About 100 English people in India got cholera, including 858 sepoys. Wonderful, isn't it? Who knows what sepoys are, hut I mean it gave me great joy... just a newspaper.

I think it is totally farcical to assume that people who have money don't need little gestures like that - like everybody else does. I think they might be a lot of people who just pooh-pooh that kind of stuff, but they must be very boring types.

Some people think that you have all this money so, "What can I possibly get you as a present? You have everything, so I can't buy you anything." I think that's a cop-out. There are tons of things I need. I hate all those excuses. They think they can't give you something that doesn't cost much because it’s going to be beneath you, but that's absolute crap.

I could never be a kept person. Never! Never ever! It's just net in me. It would be like rubbing a cat up the wrong way. 1 could never be that. Everybody would like to be kept, but I think my ultimate ambition is for somebody really wealthy, somebody rich and famous, to come up to me and say, “It would be lovely to keep you," just for somebody to actually say that to me. And then I can saу. "No, fuck off!"

At the same time, there are a lot of people the other way. I don’t like keping people either. I don't like to be on the other side, if you know what I mean. This might sound like I'm being a hypocrite but I'm not, I like a relationship to work on an even basis, believe it or not.

I can live without fame quite easily. My lifestyle doesn't suddenly stop because fame might end. If all my money ended tomorrow I would still be the same person. I'd still go about the same way, like I had lots of money, because that's what I used to do before. With or without money, I seem to do it. That's the only way to do it. I like living life to the full. That's my nature, and I'm just not going to conform or listen to people about how I should react. I do what I want to do. That's something inbred, that's part of me. I've always been like this. Success does help, it makes it easier to be outrageous or whatever, but it's not the be all and end all. In the early days, when I had hardly anything, I'd save for two weeks and then blow it all in a day so that I could have a blast of fun. I'll always walk round like a Persian Popinjay and no-one's going to stop me. Nobody tells me what to do.

I've been going on wild spending sprees lately. I've been told to cool down because the taxman will be coming to take a large sum away. I've spent in the region of £100,000 over the last three years. I don't like life too easy, so if I keep spending a lot then, I'll have to keep earning it. That's how I push myself.

I can spend small fortunes in just a couple of hours, but it's money well spent. I always want to look good because the people who make you a 10-called star in this business are entitled to see you always looking like a star, I'm not into business at all. I'm hopeless with money. I don't believe in putting money in the bank. It's for using, not hoarding. I simply spend what I've got. I guess I've always lived the glamorous life of a star. It's nothing new, I used to spend down to the last dime, and now I've got money, I'll keep spending.

I've got a few good friends, a big house, and I can go wherever I want, whenever I want. But the more money you make the more miserable you get. It just so happens that I have a lot of money.

I make sure I get most of it and I spend it. I take most of it, dears. I take most of it because I write all the hits. Now that's controversial. When I say that, I'm just being logical. If you write the hits you make the money.

Basically, the money is divided into quarters; it's the four of us. It goes down that way. But if you want to get into the nitty-gritty, it's all to do with publishing. The writer makes more money because if he writes he gets the publishing royalties. So, if an album consists of say ten songs and Brian and 1 have written four each, and Roger and John have written one, then of course Brian and I will make more money. It's just down to the mechanicals.

Of course we're in it for the money, and I'm not afraid to say that. We love the money. Anybody who tells you differently is talking out of their arse - they really are. Money is part of it, yes, but of course it's for the glory too. It would be quite easy for me to give up right now, because I have all I need, but to be serious, it's not just for the money, it's the longevity too.

I know nothing else. To me this is quite a normal life. It's like winning the pools, except I win the pools every day. I've worked very hard for the money. Nobody gave it to me. I worked for all these things. I worked for it and I've paid for it. To have my wonderful Japanese garden with all the koi carp, recently bought at such expense, I love it. Anybody who likes koi, if they they the money, would buy it, so why not me?

I think I've earned my keep. I worked hard for what I've got and I value that more than anything. I hate freebies. I'm not into buckshee. I like to feel ЦмН what I've got is through my own doing.

I don't want my money to rule me, but that doesn't mean I'm a pushover. You see, that's the difference. Money doesn't control me. All I need is to honestly he able to say to myself that I'm still trying and still enjoying the business of singing in Queen.

I don't think 1 could do anything else. I know it sounds awful, but I'm so full of wit-confidence, something somewhere is always going to come off for me. I'm just going to make sure that I keep what I have.

I think if I lost what I have now it would be a disaster. But it wouldn't stop me, I would cope. I wouldn't let having no money stop me having a good time. I could be penniless tomorrow and if I lost everything tomorrow, I'd claw my way back to the top somehow.

The only real friend I've had is Mary. She will inherit the bulk of my fortune. What better person to leave it to when I go? Of course, my parents are in my Will, and so are my cats, but the vast bulk of it will go to Mary. If I dropped dead tomorrow, she's the one person I know who could cope with my vast wealth. She's in charge of all my money and possessions; the chauffeurs, maids, gardeners, accountants and lawyers. All I have to do is throw my carcass around on stage.

No-one else will get a penny - except for my cats Oscar and Tiffany. Other than that, I'm not giving any of my stuff away when I'm dead. I'm going to hoard it. I want to be buried with all my stuff. Anybody who wants it, can come with me. There'll be lots of room!

Chapter seventeen

Date: 2015-02-03; view: 1019