Rock musician Bruce Springsteen told the High Court in London yesterday he had lived in near poverty even after releasing hit records around the world.
That was what impelled him to embark the first legal action to gain control of his musical output, the latest of which is against a British company he accuses of pirating his early songs.
The man they call "The Boss" told a courtroom packed with his fans about his early existence, relying on handouts from his first professional management team, Mr Jim Cretecos and Mr Mike Appel of Laurel Canyon Productions. After he had released several successful albums in the early 1970s he did not see any of the money.
He said: "All I know is that in 1976 a lot of money had come in. It came in to Laurel Canyon Productions - and I was on the cover of Time and Newsweek and I was broke."
Mr Springsteen, whose hits include Born in the USA, Dancing in the Dark and Streets of Philadelphia, is seeking damages from the Middlesex-based Masquerade Music. The company is trying to market a CD of songs he recorded aged 23 in 1972.
He said that before his first album, the successful Greetings from Asbury Park, his home was a sleeping bag on the floor of a friend's apartment in New York.
Sometimes Mr Appel would give him a "few bucks" or Mr Cretecos "might help you with $10 if you were in a bind or something".
"I got $25 when I drove them to New York one night," he said.
Mr Springsteen, who lives in Greenwich, Connecticut, is now trying to stop Masquerade selling a CD of 19 songs called Before the Fame, which have never been released or were out-takes from his first albums.
He was asked by Mr Guy Tritton, representing Masquerade, whether those songs could have been recorded privately by Mr Cretecos, either in a studio or his own apartment.
Mr Springsteen replied to laughter: "Nice try, but no sir."
He said every one of the songs belonged originally to the Cretecos-Appel partnership and their company, before he took over ownership after his court action in the US in 1977.
Mr Nigel Davis QC, Mr Springsteen's counsel, had explained to the court that "all was well" with the legal control of his client's musical output until 1993 when Mr Cretecos "re-emerged" and granted licences to music companies, including Masquerade, giving them the rights to the disputed songs.
Masquerade is claiming it has a legal right to the songs, which Mr Springsteen says are sub-standard, because it was licensed to use them by Mr Cretecos, who is claiming he owns the rights, not the singer.
The hearing, expected to last 10 days, continues today.