Sex, drugs and probate: When rock stars leave behind a legal mess

PRINCE (left) may not have left a last will and testament but he’s not the only rock star to have left family, friends and lawyers a legal mess over their estates.

Singer Jim Morrison with girlfriend Pamela Courson.

SO far, no one has come forward with the last will and testament of rock star Prince. When the 57-year-old died in his Minnesota home last week, he left behind a $US300 million estate, but despite having been married and divorced twice, Prince, left no heirs. His only child, a son with first wife Mayte Garcia, died one week after birth. Princes’ parents are also both dead, which leaves only his sister Tyka Nelson and half siblings Norrine, Sharon, John, Omarr and Alfred. Tyka gets precedence under Minnesota law but her half siblings can contest the will under certain circumstances.

Prince should have learned from the experience of American guitar legend Jimi Hendrix, who died in September 1970 at the age of 27 from asphyxiating on his own vomit after swallowing too many sleeping pills. Like most twenty-somethings Hendrix had never put on paper his wishes for how his wealth should be distributed after death.

Hendrix was not married but had a long-time girlfriend Kathy Etchingham and another woman who claimed to be his fiancee, as well as two children by women with whom he had brief flings. His mother had died in 1958 but his father Al was still alive and he hired a lawyer to manage the estate.

Janie Hendrix, adopted sister of Jimi Hendrix, with her father Al Hendrix.

The lawyer sold control of the rights to Jimi’s music in 1974 in a tax shelter deal that gave Al an annual salary. In 1995 Al, who claimed he didn’t know the music had been sold, successfully regained control. When Al died in 2002 he left the bulk of his estate to Janie, a daughter he had adopted in 1968 when he married for the second time.

Hendrix’s musician brother Leon then sued to get a slice of the royalties from his dead brother’s work. The judge awarded him some of the money but left the adopted sister in charge of the estate. In the end millions were spent settling who deserved what.

Jim Morrison with girlfriend Pamela Courson.

Although Jim Morrison left a will, he also left a mess after his death from a heart attack, also aged 27, in 1971. Two years before his demise he had drawn up a will, but it was a badly worded and he had neglected to update it. The will named girlfriend Pamela Courson as his sole heir and co-executor. But Courson had to wait while the matter of dozens of women claiming to be the mother of Morrison’s illegitimate children was dealt with. Courson was given an allowance from the estate to tide her over, but it wasn’t enough to support her rock star lifestyle, which included an expensive drug habit. She died three years after Morrison but left no will, which meant her parents stood to inherit everything. Morrison’s parents objected, suing for their portion. They said Courson was his common-law wife but the only proof of that was an unsigned common-law marriage application from Colorado, whereas the couple had lived in California.

Patricia Kennealy-Morrison also claimed to be Jim Morrison’s wife.

To complicate matters Patricia Kennealy came forward claiming she had undergone a pagan marriage ceremony with Morrison, which involved walking over fire and drinking each other’s blood, a year before his death. The court dismissed this claim and split the estate 50-50 between Courson’s parents and Morrison’s, but the Coursons kept the rights to Morrison’s image, music and royalties.

Even when rock stars die with valid wills, they can still leave people scratching their heads about what their intention, motivations or state of mind may have been. The last will and testament of Dusty Springfield, who died in 1999, reportedly left a chunk of her estate to her cat, a 13-year-old pedigree named Nicholas. The will stipulate he should be fed only baby food imported from the US, live in a 7ft (2.13m) indoor cat tree house and be serenaded to sleep each night by Dusty’s hits played on a stereo. She also arranged for Nicholas to be married to a cat owned by her friend and Nicholas’s appointed guardian.

When pop superstar Michael Jackson died in 2009 his will very specifically wrote out his father Joe, presumably because of the years of physical abuse he meted out on his son. He also excluded Debbie Rowe, his one time wife and the woman who gave birth to his children in what later appeared to be a business arrangement rather than a romance.

Originally published as Sex, drugs and probate: When rock stars leave behind a legal mess