One of the things I love about Bruce Cockburn is that his album lyrics and liner notes often include details of when and where each song was written.
If I did this, every one of them would indicate the same thing — home. But, when I think about my home, making music is not what defines the place. It’s so much more than that, especially to everyone else who lives there. I was thinking about this in reference to something I learned from Keith Richards — he still owns the first house he ever bought, the legendary Redlands. It’s not his main residence anymore; he considers his colonial mansion in Weston, Connecticut his home base, though he owns a pile of real estate, including a long-time haunt in Jamaica and a Caribbean retreat you can rent for around $9K per night.
So, what I thought I’d do is go through some famous musicians’ homes, and break down the basic details — when they bought it, the cost, if they still own it, and some notable events that happened there. One little qualifier, though: The home has to have a name.
Redlands | Keith Richards
• located on Redlands Lane in West Wittering, England about two hours southwest of central London
• built in the 16th century
• purchased by Richards in 1966 for £20,000 (modern equivalent of £320,500)
• still owns the property
• Mick Jagger and Richards were busted there in a 1967 police drug raid and briefly jailed
• the large, two-storey home has a moat and a thatched roof
• countless songwriting sessions happened there
Graceland | Elvis Presley
• located in Memphis about 10 mins south of downtown
• 3764 Elvis Presley Blvd.
• built in 1939
• 17,552 square feet, eight bedrooms and bathrooms
• purchased by Presley in 1957 for $102,000 (modern equivalent of $1.2 million)
• owned by Riley Keough, Presley’s granddaughter who inherited the property following her mother Lisa Marie Presley’s death in January 2023
• Named after the the daughter of original owner Stephen Toof, who was the pressroom foreman of the Memphis Daily Appeal newspaper
• The house is famously kitsch with themed rooms like the Jungle Room
• Much of Presley’s final album Moody Blue was recorded there
• He died there in his bathroom on Aug. 16, 1977
• Presley is buried there, along with his parents Vernon and Gladys, grandmother Minnie Mae, grandson Ben, and daughter Lisa Marie
Kenwood | John Lennon
• located on Wood Lane in Weybridge, Surrey, about a half-hour southwest of central London by train
• built in 1913
• three floors, six bedrooms
• purchased by Lennon at the suggestion of Beatles accountants in 1964 for £20,000 (equivalent to £512,000)
• Julian Lennon was a year old at the time of purchase
• spent £40,000 (equivalent to £1 million) on renovations, eliminating five of the 22 rooms, adding an outdoor pool and landscaping
• Lennon kept several Studer tape recorders, a Mellotron, organ, and several guitars in the attic, where he did his songwriting
• also wrote songs on the upright piano in the sunroom
• Lennon sold the home upon his divorce, as Cynthia couldn’t afford the maintenance
• sold to songwriter Bill Martin (Puppet On A String) in 1968 for £40,000 (equivalent to £880,000)
• changed hands several times and remains a private residence
• sold in 2017 for £8.9m
Sunny Heights | Ringo Starr
• located on South Road in St George’s Hill, Surrey
• less than a mile from Kenwood and not far from George Harrison’s Kinfauns bungalow in Esher (now gone)
• Starr bought it in July 1965 for £30,000 (equivalent to £500,000 now) from a man who’d owned it since 1948 when it was still called Haleakala
• the Starkeys moved in straight away and began extensive renovations and additions, thanks to the fact that Ringo was part owner of a construction company. They stayed until 1968
• Sunny Heights was a favourite haunt of Lennon, who was a frequent visitor
• estate included its own pub, The Flying Cow
• several Beatles photo-ops happened at Sunny Heights, and if you watch the video for The Ballad Of John & Yoko, you’ll see the white-clad Lennons coming out Sunny Heights and into a waiting Rolls-Royce
• Ringo and Maureen bought Peter Sellers’ Elstead home in 1968 and moved there, allowing John & Yoko to briefly take up residence at Sunny Heights before Lennon bought Tittenhurst Park
• Starr sold it in May 1969
• it changed hands a few times and ended up being one of two mansions in the neighbourhood owned by Russian oligarch Vladimir Scherbakov, who renamed it Summer Haze and managed to successfully petition the local council for permission to demolish it in 2015
• demolition never happened because an attempt was made to extradite Scherbakov back to Russia to face embezzlement accusations, but he fled to his other home in Belgium. There, the following year, he was found hanged wearing only his underwear
• Summer Haze, worth around £4 million, is currently vacant but available for rent — unfurnished — for £15,000 per month
Tittenhurst Park | John Lennon / Ringo Starr
• located in Sunningdale, outside Ascot in Berkshire, an hour west of central London
• London Road, Ascot SL5 0PN
• build around 1730
• purchased by Lennon for £150,000 (equivalent to £2.1 million) in May 1969
• spent twice that amount on renovations which included a man-made lake outside he and Ono’s bedroom window
• constructed Ascot Sound Studio, an eight-track recording studio in 1970 where much of Imagine and Ono’s album Fly were recorded
• Beatles’ final photo session took place at Tittenhurst in August 1969. One of the images was used for the cover of the 1970 Hey Jude (The Beatles Again) compilation
• Extensive footage at Tittenhurst is included in the film Imagine: John Lennon, as well as in the promotional videos for Something and Imagine
• Lennon and Ono moved to New York City in Sept. 1971
• sold property to Ringo Starr in Sept. 1973 for £2.1 million (equivalent to £22 million now) after the Lennons decided to settle in the States
• Starr renamed the recording studio Startling Studios and made it open to other artists
• Starr sold Tittenhurst to the former president of the UAE in 1988 for £5 million (equivalent to £14 million now)
Stargroves | Mick Jagger / Rod Stewart
• located in East Woodhay, less than two hours west of central London. Practically the middle point between Bristol and London, and Oxford and Southampton
• owned by the Goddard family from 1565 to 1830 and was destroyed by fire in the 1840s. Rebuilt in Victorian Gothic style in 1848
• purchased by Jagger in 1970 for £55,000 (equivalent to £743,000 now) from Sir Henry Carden
• Jagger brought the newfangled Rolling Stones mobile recording truck there to do several sessions for the 1971 Sticky Fingers album.
• In 1972 Led Zeppelin recorded songs which appeared on Houses Of The Holy, Physical Graffiti and Coda there.
• other bands including Deep Purple, Iron Maiden, Bob Marley, Status Quo and The Who also recorded there. The Who recorded Won’t Get Fooled Again at Stargroves
• Several scenes of Doctor Who during the late-’70s Tom Baker era were filmed there
• Jagger sold it in 1979, for £200,000 (equivalent to £970,000) to businessman John Varley
• changed hands several times, including to Boston Celtics owner Paul Dupree Jr. in 1984 and Rod Stewart, who bought it in 1998 for £2.5 million (£4.8 million now) but never moved in. He sold it shortly after, as a result of his divorce from Rachel Hunter
• Stargroves last sold in 2012 for an amount in excess of its £15 million list price — to a member of the notorious Sackler family
Friar Park | George Harrison
• located in Henley-on-Thames, less than an hour west of central London
• took six years to build, completed in 1895 for lawyer Sir Frank Crisp, who paid in £150,000 for it in 1900 (equivalent to £16 million now)
• Crisp died in 1919 and Friar Park was sold at auction to British financier Sir Percival David. Following his divorce, his ex-wife moved into the coachman’s house on the southwest corner of the 30-acre property and the rest was donated to an order of nuns
• Friar Park fell into a state of disrepair and was purchased by Harrison in January 1970 for the bargain price of £140,000 (equivalent to £2 million now)
• Main house is rumoured to have in excess of 100 rooms, but the home also includes lower, middle lodge and upper lodges.
• eccentric property has pre-Harrison features including caves, grottoes, underground passages, a legendary collection of garden gnomes, and an Alpine rock garden complete with a scale model of the Matterhorn
• Harrison paid tribute to the original owner in song with The Ballad Of Sir Frankie Crisp (Let It Roll), from 1970’s All Things Must Pass — the cover photo of which was shot at Friar Park
• in 1972, Harrison created a 16-track recording studio there called FPSHOT (Friar Park Studio Henley-On-Thames). This is where he recorded his subsequent albums and headquartered his label Dark Horse Records
• Harrison had gates and security installed following Lennon’s assasination in 1980
• parts of the 1995 Beatles Anthology were filmed there
• Traveling Wilburys recorded there
• in the early morning hours of Dec. 30, 1999, an intruder broke in and attacked Harrison and wife Olivia. Harrison suffered five stab wounds and a punctured lung
• still owned by Olivia
Garden Lodge | Freddie Mercury
• located at 1-2 Logan Place, Kensington, London
• two storey, eight bedroom Neo-Georgian home was built for painter Cecil Rea, who lived there until his death in 1935. He was survived by his sculptor wife Constance Halford, who lived there until she died in 1938.
• became the residence of British MI5 double agent Tomás Harris and his wife Hilda during the Second World War.
• The chairman of Sotheby’s auction house owned it for a time, but Mercury bought the house from the Hoare family (C. Hoare & Co. Bank) in 1980 for £500,000 (equivalent to £2.1 million now)
• surrounded by an eight-foot wall, the home was left to his friend Mary Austin after his death in 1991. She sold the home in February 2024 for an amount in excess of £30 million.
The Tower House | Jimmy Page
• located at 29 Melbury Road, Holland Park, London
• French Gothic Revival-style red brick townhouse built on a 2,500 square-foot floor plan with a full basement, a ground level floor, as well as a second and third floor by architect William Burges as his personal home
• took six years to design and build, with completion in 1881, but Burges moved into the place in 1878
• Burges died there in 1881 and his brother-in-law inherited the lease. The lease was sold twice after that and poet John Betjeman inherited the final two years of the lease in 1962, but chose not to extend it due to the high cost of maintaining it.
• Tower House sat vacant for four years until it was restored through heritage grant funding
• lease was sold to actor Richard Harris in 1969 for £75,000 (equivalent to £1 million now). Harris heard Liberace was interested in the place, but hadn’t yet put down a deposit
• Page purchased Tower House from Harris in 1972 for £350,000 (equivalent to £4 million now) by outbidding David Bowie
• remains Page’s primary residence
Paisley Park | Prince
• located at 7801 Audubon Rd., Chanhassen, Minnesota (25 km south of Minneapolis)
• $10 million complex was built between 1986 and 1987 and is 55,000 square feet
• includes living quarters, an outdoor basketball court, four recording studios, a sound stage, video editing suite, rehearsal space, offices, tenant space, and underground parking
• the studios were initially intended for Prince and the artists on his label, but was later expanded and available to other major artists
• R.E.M., Steve Miller, Madonna and Bob Mould have all recorded there
• Prince died in the elevator in April 2016
• he always intended to make Paisley Park a public venue the way Graceland became. Graceland Holdings, in fact, is the company which manages the public tours of the facility
• opened to the public as a museum in October 2016
Twin Palms | Frank Sinatra
• located at 1148 E. Alejo Rd. in Palm Springs, California
• Sinatra commissioned the mid-century modern home in May 1947 from architect Emerson Stewart Williams, who was known for the style but hadn’t ever designed a home
• house was completed at a cost of $150,000 ($2.1 million today) in time for Sinatra to host a Xmas bash
• Sinatra originally wanted a Georgian-style house, but was urged to go for the modern, mid-century design which was more appropriate for the desert
• Home was a single-storey, 4,500-square foot bungalow with four bedrooms and seven bathrooms
• Sinatra was still married to Nancy Barbato at the time, but had been having an affair with Lana Turner that year. Frank, Nancy and their three kids lived at the house until their divorce in 1951. Their youngest child, Tina, was three at the time
• Frank continued to live at the house until 1954, after his separation from second wife, Ava Gardner
• Sinatra rented the house to Moss Hart so he could be close to Judy Garland while the pair wrote A Star Is Born
• he sold it in 1957
• a Texas couple who lived there for decades allowed it to become run down, leading to its sale in 1997 for just $135,000.
• since being restored, it has sold multiple times: For $1.3 million in 2000, $2.9 million in 2005 and listed for $3.25 million in 2010
Villa Il Palagio | Sting
• located at 59 Via il Palagio, in Rignano sull’Arno, Italy (20 km south of Florence)
• Tuscan-style villa was built in the 17th century
• had been in the family of Countess Carlotta Barbolani for 150 years since it was sold to her in 1819
• vineyards there have been producing wine since the early 20th century
• Sting and his wife Trudie Styler bought it in 1992 when it was basically in ruins. They opted to also purchase the surrounding vineyards and spent seven years repairing and restoring the place
• four weeks of rehearsals for The Police reunion tour took place took place there in the spring of 2007
• the villa is available for short-term rentals and events
• estate features four guesthouses and two annexes to the main villa, which can accommodate up to 50 overnight guests, and up to 500 visitors for events
• villa is an active producer of six different wines, honey, cherries, peaches and organic olive oil
Welders House | Ozzy Osbourne
• located at 2 Welders Lane, Chalfont, England (an hour west of London)
• built over two years in 1899 for politician Charles Thomson Ritchie
• home and 100-acre estate purchased by St. Luke’s Hospital For Lunatics (London) in 1910
• farmland sold to Religious Society of Friends in 1911, but the house was used as a home for women with “mild nervous maladies” until 1916.
• in 1918, St. Luke’s loaned the house to the War Office for use treating army nurses who were traumatized by the First World War. Was returned to St. Luke’s in 1922 and closed in 1927
• an attempt was made to turn it into a nursing home in 1940, one finally achieved in 1942 until 1947
• owned by Oscar-winning director John Stears in the 1980s
• bought by Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne in 1993 for an undisclosed amount, chosen by Sharon due to it being a great distance from the nearest pub
• two-storey, red brick mansion with Dutch-style gabled roof features tennis court, gym
• reportedly haunted, Welders House is featured in a 2022 miniseries by Ozzy’s son Jack, called Haunted Homecoming
• after living in America for two decades, the Osbournes relocated back to their old Buckinghamshire estate permanently in March 2025. It has been renovated to accommodate Ozzy’s Parkinsons-related mobility issues
Cotchford Farm | Brian Jones
• located on Cotchford Lane in Hartfield, East Sussex (47 km west of London)
• timber-frame farmhouse dates to the 16th or 17th century
• originally built with in-filled walls and a thatched roof, it was retrofitted with red brick on the main level and a tile roof
• main part of house is three storeys with two-storey wing and single-storey kitchen addition
• six bedrooms
• author A.A. Milne bought it in 1925 and wrote all his Winnie The Pooh books there
• Milne died there Jan. 31, 1956
• purchased by an American couple, who installed an in-ground swimming pool
• purchased by Rolling Stones’ Brian Jones in November 1968 for £31,500 (equivalent to £475,000 now)
• Jones was on borrowed time with the band due to ill health, drug convictions, visa issues, waning musical contributions and overall unreliability. He was visited at Cotchford Farm by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards on June 8, 1969 and sacked from The Rolling Stones
• less than a month later, Jones was found motionless at the bottom of the swimming pool, doctors pronounced him dead on arrival at hospital on July 3, 1969. He was 27.
• real estate developer Alastair Johns bought Cotchford Farm in 1970. It didn’t sell when listed for £2 million in 2012, but did when listed again in 2016 for £1.8 million
• you can stay in the house, which was made available on AirBnB in 2023
Boleskine House | Jimmy Page
• located on General Wade’s Military Road, Inverness, Scotland (three hours north of Glasgow)
• manor house on the south side of Loch Ness
• built in 1760 by British consul, Col Archibald Fraser on the site of a 13th century settlement church, which is said to have burned with the entire congregation inside
• adjacent to the church’s graveyard, the centre of local lore which claims a wizard once reanimated all the dead, requiring them to be reburied by the minister Thomas Houston
• intended as a hunting lodge, it was repeatedly expanded until 1830s until it had four bedrooms, a kitchen, servant’s quarters above the kitchen, lounge, library, drawing room and tunnel linking it to the graveyard (!!)
• English occultist, mountaineer and poet Aleister Crowley purchased Boleskine House from Mary Rose Hill Burton of the Fraser family in 1899. He required a secluded home as a spiritual retreat for his work which aimed to invoke his guardian angel
• Crowley paid twice the market value for the property — £2,000 (£220,000 today)
• financial problems forced Crowley to sell Boleskine in 1918 to Dorothy Priestly. Plans to renovate and expand the home in 1926 were scrapped and it changed hands three times between 1944 and 1947
• sold to Mary Grant in 1960 and then to conman Dennis Lorraine in 1963. Pursued by the law, Lorraine sold the property to Halbert Kerr in 1967 and fled to the States. kerr ran Boleskine as a guest house until 1971 who then sold it to Page
• Page owned Boleskine until 1992, preferring to hire people to watch it for him. He rarely spent time there
• Page’s fantasy sequence in the 1976 Led Zeppelin film The Song Remains The Same was filmed at Boleskine House
• house rendered uninhabitable by fire in 2015, but sold in 2019 to the Boleskine Foundation, which reconstructed it and now offers tours
Plumpton Place | Jimmy Page
• located on Ditchling Road, Lewisham, Sussex (an hour and 45 mins south of London)
• built in 1568 by John Mascall
• the timber-frame Elizabethan manor house was restored by Sir Edwin Lutyens for Country Life editor Edward Hudson in 1928
• surrounded by moat and two adjoining lakes
• Carp were first introduced to England by Leonard Mascall, bringing them from the Danube River to the moat in the 1580s
• Pippin apples were also first grown on the grounds
• it was purchased by a local doctor in 1969 after the previous owner refused to sell it to George Harrison. That same doctor sold it to Page in 1972 for £200,000 ( £2.3 million today)
• The opening sequence in Song Remains The Same, where Page is seen playing a hurdy gurdy by a pond, was filmed here
• Page sold the property in 1982 to developer Phillip Gorringe for £650,000 (£2.3 million today)
• Gorringe flipped it to American venture capitalist Tom Perkins for around £800,000 (£2.8 million today)
• it was listed for sale in 2010 for £8 million
Neverland Ranch | Michael Jackson
• located at 5225 Figueroa Mountain Rd., Los Olivos, California (half-hour northwest of Santa Barbara)
• 2,700 acre property was bare land when purchased by developer William Bone in 1977
• Bone worked with architect Robert Altevers for two years designing what he called Zaca Laderas Ranch. Bone had the 13,000-square foot main house built as well as the formal gardens, man-made lake with fountains, the waterfall, and stone bridge
• Jackson bought it in 1987 for $25 million ($72 million now) and spent millions renovating and remodelling it into Neverland Ranch
• Jackson added three railroads, a zoo, arcade and a nine-ride amusement park
• lived there until charged with child molestation in 2006
• in 2007 Colony Capital bailed Jackson out of financial troubles by buying the $23 million lien on the ranch, making them co-owners
• Jackson transferred the property to Sycamore Valley Ranch Company, LLC in November 2008
• Colony renamed it Sycamore Valley Ranch and removed the zoo and amusement park in 2009 and replaced them with a “Zen Garden”
• amusement park rides from Neverland are now part of California State Fair in Sacramento
• after Jackson died on June 25, 2009, attempts were made to sell the property for $100 million, though it was eventually reduced to $31 million in 2019
• it sold for $22 million in December 2020 to businessman Ronald Burke, a friend of the Jackson family
Woodside | Elton John
• located on Crimp Hill, Old Windsor, Berkshire (just under an hour west of London)
• estate has burned down three times, but the original building was built in the 1500s for the surgeon of Henry VIII, close enough to Windsor Castle that he could be summoned by flying an emergency flag
• Woodside was rebuilt during the reign of King George II in (1720-1767) in Gothic revival style.
• was home to New Windsor MP John Ramsbottom from 1810 to his death in 1845
• it was advertised for sale in The Times in 1849, described as being 122 acres with a small farm,walled garden, a conservatory, ornamental cottage, farmhouse buildings, and a “substantial mansion of the Elizabethan style of architecture”
• this ad led to its sale to William Devas, whose son — political economist Chales Stanton Devas — was raised there
• a 1928 fire — possibly started because its owner still preferred to use oil lamps — did considerable damage
• most recent fire resulted in the home being rebuilt in post-war mock Georgian style, in 1947
• Elton bought Woodside in 1974 and it has been his primary residence since 1975. He paid £400,000 for it (£5.3 million today)
• home and surrounding 37 acres was extensively renovated and refurbished in1989 featuring eight bedrooms, five reception rooms, squash court and an indoor swimming pool which resembles an ancient Roman bath
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Area Resident is an Ottawa-based journalist, recording artist, music collector and re-seller. Hear (and buy) his music on Bandcamp, email him HERE, follow him on Instagram and check him out on Discogs.
