10 Most Expensive Rock Albums Ever Made

1. Chinese Democracy - Guns N’ Roses ($13 Million)

Even with a 21 year head start and a band member losing a limb, Def Leppard's Hysteria still doesn't beat this legendary nightmare of a record from the unhinged brain of Axl Rose.

Chinese Democracy by Guns N' Roses was supposed to come out in 1999. Even by that point, the creative differences between the members had torn the group apart, prompting the departure of basically everyone except Axl.

What followed was an utterly ludicrously procession of delays, line-up changes, recordings, re-recordings, and Geffen Records getting very cross.

Rose just couldn't get his head in the game, trying and failing to come up with new ideas for the album. He also weirdly instructed one of his new line-ups to re-record the entirety of Appetite for Destruction to get them up to speed, which was no doubt even more money down the swanny.

Finally, nine years after its first announced release date, Chinese Democracy finally hit the shelves. All that time and effort came at a price though, and that price was $13 million.

That makes this album by far and away the most expensive rock album ever made, as well as one of the most expensive of any genre.

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Jacob Simmons has a great many passions, including rock music, giving acclaimed films three-and-a-half stars, watching random clips from The Simpsons on YouTube at 3am, and writing about himself in the third person.