Keith Moon

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Words by: Jared Paul Stern

The story of The Who drummer Keith Moon driving a Rolls-Royce into a hotel swimming pool

has proven to be apocryphal, but the point is he very well could have done it. Moon, known for his epic appetite for partying, which finally killed him in at the age of 32, collected cars despite the fact that he didn’t, or should we say couldn’t drive. He owned a lilac-colored Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud Mk. III with a portable bar, television and eight-track hifi, a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow, a Rolls-Royce Corniche convertible, a Bentley limousine with custom coachwork created for the 1950 Geneva Motor Show, a Mercedes-Benz 300 SEL, an AC Frua 428, and a 1939 Chrysler Wimbledon Limousine amongst other conveyances. One day when the TV in the Rolls wasn’t working he simply chucked it out the window onto the side of the road.

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According to Moon’s biographer Tony Fletcher the swimming pool tale came out of a half-baked suicide attempt. Following an argument with his wife Kim at Tara, their country house in Surrey, Keith did indeed try to drive the Silver Cloud into their pond and drown himself. The car got bogged down in mud and reeds however and did not actually make it into any significant amount of water, and was later cleaned up and returned to service. On another occasion Moon lent his brand new Ferrari Dino to a couple of biker pals who swiftly landed it in a ditch, damaged beyond repair. “It’s only money,” was Moon’s reaction. Unfortunately he also ran over and killed his chauffeur in his own Bentley following a boozy night out at a pub in 1970 when a crowd of skinheads turned violent. It was later declared an accident, like so many other things in his life.

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Words by Jared Paul Stern