Blues Legend Changes Keys
Legendary bluesman JOHN MAYALL, whose album “Spinning Coin” was released last fall, and his wife, Maggie, have bought a home in Woodland Hills and listed his longtime residence in Laurel Canyon.
Known as “the father of British blues,” the bandleader-instrumentalist-singer, 62, is best known for his original Bluesbreakers, which he formed in the 1960s and disbanded in the ‘70s. His current band, also known as the Bluesbreakers, was established in the 1980s.
The bandleader is known as a mentor to such former Bluesbreakers-turned-pop-stars as John McVie, Mick Fleetwood and Peter Green, who formed Fleetwood Mac; Mick Taylor, who became a Rolling Stone, and Eric Clapton.
The original Bluesbreakers toured the United States for the first time in 1967, when Mayall moved to Laurel Canyon. He bought a house there when he recorded his best-selling album “The Turning Point,” with the tune, “Room to Move.”
“John has been living on this property for 26 years, although the house he bought in the ‘60s burned down in a brush fire in 1979. This house was completed in 1982,” his wife said by phone from their Laurel Canyon home.
The bluesman designed the 1982 house, and he built its stone fireplace and beamed ceilings by hand.
“We call it ‘cowboy Tudor,’ because of the way I decorated it,” he said. “It has Tudor-style beams, but the entrance, dining area and kitchen were made with used lumber, painted to look like a log cabin in the woods.”
The 3,000-square-foot house has three bedrooms, maid’s quarters, a screening room, library with loft and sun deck, and city and canyon views. The asking price is $679,000.
“It’s pretty much the same [size and price] as the house we’re buying,” Maggie Mayall said. The couple said they are moving so their 12-year-old can ride a bike in the neighborhood. “He can’t ride a bike around this house [in Laurel Canyon] because of the hills,” the bluesman explained.
Dorothy Carter of the Prudential-Jon Douglas Co., Sunset Strip, has the listing on the Laurel Canyon home.
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Pop singer BOBBY VINTON, and his wife, Dolly, have listed their 113-acre Malibu Mountains ranch at $9.75 million.
The couple are now living in Branson, Mo., where he performs at their Blue Velvet theater.
The singer, 54, first put his ranch on the market in June 1993 at $20 million. It includes a 12,200-square-foot main house with an indoor swimming pool, four guest houses, horse facilities and a tennis court.
The ranch is listed with Judy Cycon of Fred Sands Estates Directors Office, Beverly Hills, and Jim Pascucci of Sands’ Sherman Oaks East office.
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DIAHANN CARROLL, who has been playing Norma Desmond in the Toronto production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Sunset Boulevard,” has put her Beverly Hills-area home of nearly 20 years on the market at $1.45 million.
The actress-singer, 60, has starred in a number of TV series, including “Dynasty.” She has been married to singer VIC DAMONE, 67, since 1987.
She is selling her home because she is leasing a condo in Canada and spends most of the rest of her time in Palm Springs and Las Vegas, sources say.
Built in 1960 but recently remodeled, the contemporary-style house has four bedrooms in about 5,400 square feet. It also has a mirrored dining room, a wine cellar, a greenhouse breakfast room and offices and staff quarters with a separate entrance.
Barbara Darnell of Hilton & Hyland, Beverly Hills, has the listing.
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BRET MICHAELS, lead singer and songwriter for the rock band Poison, has purchased a 23-acre estate in Nashville and sold his 3.25-acre home in Calabasas, sources say.
“It was one of the highest sales in Calabasas in 1995,” said listing agent Lynn Weiss of Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate in Sherman Oaks. The Calabasas home sold for a bit more than $1 million. Its last asking price was $1.25 million.
Michaels, 32, bought the home in 1991 but soon longed for a larger estate closer to his family on the East Coast. He originally listed the Calabasas estate in 1994 at just under $1.6 million.
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MATT SORUM, the drummer with Guns N’ Roses, has leased a seven-level Italian-style villa near Madonna’s home in Hollywood.
The six-bedroom, 5,000-square-foot home has an octagonally shaped master bedroom suite, a lap pool overlooking the city, two elevators and a view of the Hollywood sign. Sorum, 35, has rented the home for a year at $5,500 a month, sources say.
Martha Smith of Fred Sands Estates, Beverly Hills, represented Sorum in the lease, and Ahna Bridenbaugh with Sands’ Hollywood office had the listing.