Lotto winner who blew £2million fortune launches THIRD attempt to be pop star
A LOTTO winner who blew nearly £2million has launched his third attempt to be a pop star.
Roger Griffiths had only £7 left in 2013 after winning £1.8million with wife Lara in 2005.
The pair — now split — splurged it on luxury holidays, a Porsche and sending two daughters to a £10,000-a-year school.
And Roger spent £25,000 chasing stardom with old band FMB.
The group had failed to take off in the 1990s after appearing in Channel 4’s The Next Big Thing.
And — despite Roger’s new riches — it flopped again after selling only 600 copies of a single.
Now the Yorkshire ex-IT worker, in his 50s, is trying a third pop comeback by streaming a £5 “greatest hits” record with his reformed band.
The group recently reformed after a 26-year hiatus and now describes itself online as, “The best famous band no-one knows about”.
In a local radio interview, lead singer Roger revealed hopes of gigs, future albums and even a book about FMB in future, gushing: “We’re incredibly excited”.
Speaking of his hopes for the band after the lotto win, Roger said: “We tried our hardest the first time round but the music industry wasn’t ready for us. We were just before our time.
“But now I’m a millionaire we’re going to produce this great single we had at the time and it’s going to be massive.”
He has since gone on to find new love with aesthetics business owner Samantha Major, from Harrogate, North Yorkshire.
They are understood to be married, as he has shared numerous loved-up pics with her on his social media and referred to “the wife”.
Roger is hoping for the eventual success of Take That – having met Howard Donald and Mark Owen at the posh Sanderson Hotel in his lotto heyday – who won a new legion of fans after reuniting in the 2000s following a decade-long break.
A book is even in the works, he admitted, adding: “We’ve written a couple of pages of it and it is very entertaining”.