The connection between Rolls-Royce and the world of popular music is almost as old as the recording industry itself. Long before icons like John Lennon, Elvis Presley, and Pharrell Williams wrote themselves into Phantom’s story, artists including Duke Ellington, Fred Astaire, Count Basie, Ravi Shankar, Edith Piaf, and Sam Cooke all traveled by Rolls-Royce, recognizing the brand as the definitive symbol of success and artistry. Personalities for whom the term “music mogul” was coined, including Brian Epstein, Berry Gordy, and Ahmet Ertegun, were also among the marque’s most notable owners. Across genres, geographies, and generations, Rolls-Royce remains the ultimate reward for creative brilliance and a canvas for personal expression.
Of all models, Phantom—the pinnacle of the marque—is the Rolls-Royce most closely associated with the world of music. Over eight generations and 100 years—a centennial the nameplate celebrates in 2025—this extraordinary motor car has consistently been chosen by some of the most creative and influential figures in musical history. Phantom’s appeal to these individuals endures; it retains its status as the world’s preeminent luxury product, comprised of the very best in engineering excellence, fine materials, and exquisite, highly skilled craftsmanship. It also offers its owner the freedom to define their identity—a quality that has helped many Phantoms owned by musical luminaries achieve legendary status in their own right.
MARLENE DIETRICH: FALLING IN LOVE AGAIN
Most actors travel to Hollywood in search of stardom. Marlene Dietrich arrived already part of the constellation. Fresh from her breakout role in The Blue Angel, and having introduced the world to what would become her signature song, Falling in Love Again, she traveled to California in 1930 to begin filming Morocco. Her welcome was as dramatic as her screen presence: at Paramount Studios, she was greeted not only with flowers but also with the gift of a green Rolls-Royce Phantom I. Morocco earned Dietrich an Academy Award nomination—and her Phantom also took its share of the spotlight, appearing in the film’s closing scenes and publicity images.
ELVIS PRESLEY: ALL SHOOK UP
In 1956, a self-titled album by a promising young singer named Elvis Presley became the first rock ’n’ roll album to top the Billboard chart, where it stayed for 10 weeks. In 1963, at the height of his fame, “The King” bought a Midnight Blue Phantom V with a host of Bespoke features. In what may have been an early version of in-car karaoke, the features included a microphone, a writing pad in the rear armrest—ready for flashes of inspiration—along with a mirror and clothes brush to ensure Elvis was always prepared to make an entrance.
In a charming domestic detail, the original mirror-polished paint famously attracted the attention of Elvis’s mother’s chickens, which would peck at their reflections in the coachwork. The motor car was later refinished in a lighter Silver Blue that didn’t show the chips.
JOHN LENNON: LOVE ME DO
In December 1964, John Lennon rewarded himself for The Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night by commissioning a Phantom V. The car was entirely black, including the windows, bumpers, and hubcaps; it also boasted a cocktail cabinet and a television, as well as a refrigerator in the trunk.
However, like Elvis’s Phantom V, Lennon’s would undergo a complete transformation. In May 1967, just before Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was released, the car was resprayed yellow, then hand-painted with swirls of red, orange, green, and blue, with floral side panels and Lennon’s star sign, Libra, completing its new persona.
For the younger generation, Lennon’s Phantom perfectly captured the carefree spirit of the “Summer of Love.” To their elders, it was an outrage—memorably summed up by a woman who, on seeing the Phantom driving down London’s Piccadilly, shouted, “How dare you do that to a Rolls-Royce!” before swatting at the paintwork with her umbrella.
When the car sold in 1985, it reached $2,299,000—almost 10 times the reserve price. It became both the most expensive piece of rock ’n’ roll memorabilia at the time and the highest price ever achieved for a motor car at auction.
This Phantom is arguably the most famous Rolls-Royce connected with Lennon, but he owned another. Lennon purchased a white Rolls-Royce Phantom V in 1968 to coincide with the launch of the White Album and to mark a new phase of his life with Yoko Ono. This period was characterized by his wearing white clothing, decorating his Berkshire home in bright white, and pursuing a distinctly minimalist aesthetic.
Originally commissioned in a two-tone black-over-green by Wing Commander Paddy Barthropp, a wartime Spitfire pilot turned chauffeur, Lennon transformed this Phantom in line with his personal style. He paid £12,000 (about $30,000 at the time—the cost of a sizable house) to have the car completely refinished in white, inside and out. He added a sunroof, Philips turntable, 8-track player, telephone, and television. It later appeared in Let It Be, as well as Performance, starring Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger.
In September 1969, Lennon sold the Phantom to Allen Klein, founder of ABKCO Records and the Beatles’ manager at the time, for a reported $50,000.
LIBERACE: I’LL BE SEEING YOU
Another musical iconoclast was Wladziu Valentino Liberace. Flamboyant and multi-talented, Liberace was the world’s highest-paid entertainer in the 1950s and ’60s thanks to his TV shows and long residencies in Las Vegas. Among the extravagances that earned him the nickname “Mr. Showmanship” was a 1961 Phantom V covered in tiny mirrored tiles, which he drove on stage during his long-running residency at the Las Vegas Hilton.
The car appeared in the award-winning Liberace biopic, Behind the Candelabra, in which Michael Douglas recreated its famous on-stage entrance.
SIR ELTON JOHN: A RIDE FOR THE ROCKETMAN
Liberace’s playing style influenced a generation of performers, including a young pianist named Reginald Dwight—today known as Sir Elton John—who later followed in his hero’s footsteps by owning several Phantoms.
In 1973, en route to a concert in Manchester in his white Phantom VI, Sir Elton spotted a newer Phantom in a showroom window. He instructed his chauffeur to stop, bought the car on the spot, and drove it to the venue.
Later, he had the Phantom updated with black paintwork, a black leather interior, tinted windows, a television, video player, and even a fax machine. The most significant addition, however, was a bespoke audio system so powerful that the rear windshield had to be reinforced to prevent it from shattering when the volume was turned up.
Sir Elton also owned a Phantom V, for which he commissioned a striking pink-and-white exterior with a matching interior. After a tour of the USSR—where he was paid in coal instead of cash—he found himself unable to pay his band. Instead, he gave the Phantom to his percussionist, Ray Cooper, as payment. Cooper later used the car to pick up a young Damon Albarn from school, who would later rise to fame with Blur.
History came full circle in 2020, when Albarn’s virtual band Gorillaz recorded The Pink Phantom, with Sir Elton appearing as a guest vocalist.
KEITH MOON: WON’T GET FOOLED AGAIN?
Legend has it that while celebrating his 21st birthday, Keith Moon—the gifted but self-destructive drummer of The Who—plunged his Rolls-Royce into the swimming pool at the Holiday Inn in Flint, Michigan, creating one of rock ’n’ roll’s most enduring legends.
Accounts differ wildly. In a 1972 Rolling Stone interview, Moon claimed the car was actually a Lincoln Continental belonging to another hotel guest, and that he had simply released the handbrake and rolled it into the pool. Other guests insist no car ended up in the pool at all.
Whether true or not, the myth was so powerful that the car in the pool could only ever be imagined as a Rolls-Royce.
To mark Phantom’s centennial and its place in rock ’n’ roll mythology, Rolls-Royce brought the legend to life by submerging a Phantom Extended body shell—a retired prototype destined for recycling—into a swimming pool.
The chosen location was Tinside Lido in Plymouth, England, a celebrated Art Deco landmark overlooking the English Channel. Linked to John Lennon, one of Phantom’s most famous clients, the Lido was the backdrop of a Beatles photograph taken in September 1967 during the filming of Magical Mystery Tour. That same year, Lennon unveiled his psychedelic Phantom V, cementing the nameplate’s legendary place in music history.
HIP-HOP STAR
Since relocating to Goodwood in 2003, Rolls-Royce has only deepened its ties with contemporary music. By 2016, it had become the most name-checked brand in song lyrics, driven by the meteoric rise of hip-hop.
By the 1990s, hip-hop was a cultural powerhouse, and by the early 2000s, it was mainstream—coinciding with Rolls-Royce’s Goodwood renaissance and the launch of Phantom VII in 2003.
A year later, Pharrell Williams and Calvin “Snoop Dogg” Broadus Jr. famously featured a Phantom VII in the 2004 music video Drop It Like It’s Hot, which topped the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks and began Phantom’s lasting association with the genre’s biggest stars. Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson drove a Phantom VII Drophead Coupé in Entourage, in a scene that later became a viral meme. Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter II is one of many albums to feature Phantom on its cover.
Hip-hop has also popularized one of the marque’s most iconic features: the Starlight Headliner. The phrase “stars in the roof” (and its variations) recurs across rap lyrics as a poetic shorthand for Rolls-Royce ownership.
ENCORE: PHANTOM’S LASTING LEGACY
Phantom has maintained a constant, evolving presence in the story of modern music. In each era, it has given artists and innovators a means of self-expression, aspiration, and identity.
As Phantom enters its second century, it continues to symbolize success, individuality, and the power of human imagination.
