Nicknamed “Moon the Loon”, Keith Moon, drummer for the English rock group The Who, is mentioned in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of the greatest drummers of all time. Known for his wild public stunts and outlandish behavior (flushing sticks of dynamite down toilet bowls, throwing TVs out of windows, etc) it was no surprise when he decided to paint his Rolls-Royce with Lilac colored house paint.

There are rumors that after a day of partying for his 21st birthday, Keith drove a Cadillac into the swimming pool of a Holiday Inn in Flint, Michigan, thus banning him from staying in all Holiday Inns from that point on. However there’s been some speculation as to whether the car that he drove into the pool was actually his Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Lincoln Continental, or if it even happened at all. Some people believe that he actually released the story just to stir-up the press. Nevertheless, it’s undeniable that the drummer had a thing for fine automobiles…even if only to destroy them.

To celebrate the centenary of the ‘Spirit of Ecstasy’ emblem in 2011, Rolls-Royce commissioned world renowned photographer, Rankin, to create a series of 100 photos inspired by the beloved hood ornament.

No stranger to controversy, Rankin’s images are a beautiful blend between tradition and artistic embellishment; a fusion of art and custom. We’ve included a few to give you a taste of what the collection is all about…

Twelve-year-old John Blatchley spent most of his teenage life confined to his bed due to rheumatic fever; however, not all of the time he spent inside was wasted. Even as a child John had a fascination with automobiles and so he would spend his afternoons drafting sketches and building models of his fantasy car designs.

Later he attended the Chelsea School of Engineering and upon completion was quickly hired at Gurney Nutting, the leading London Coachbuilder, in 1936.

At Gurney, Blatchley was asked to create the beginning sketches for the bodies on customer’s bespoke vehicles. They would then be materialized on an actual car.

Blatchley narrowly escaped the draft of WWII in 1940 because of a lingering heart murmur from his stint with rheumatic fever and was instead sent to Rolls-Royce Nottinghamshire Factory to design metal aero engine cowlings which he found to be “intensely boring”.

Lucky for him, it wasn’t long before plans to create a post-war, factory supplied Rolls-Royce arose to which they needed to assign a primary stylist—Blatchley happily took the job.

And so the Rolls-Royce Silver Dawn was born, the first Standard-Steel Rolls, which was accountable for most of Rolls-Royce’s success after the war.

Because of the decreasing popularity of the use of a chauffeur, the vehicle had to be designed around the driving man’s wishes: lower, narrower, shorter, and with more luggage space and visibility. It was a sophisticated vehicle that glided over the open road with style and finesse.

As a seasoned racer and educated collector, Brian Johnson (lead singer of the band AC/DC) knows how to pick his vehicles. He owns a Black Rolls-Royce Phantom that’s pictured along with a triumphant-looking, cross-armed Johnson on the cover of his tongue-in-cheek automotive autobiography, “Rockers and Rollers”.

“There’s a Rolls-Royce on the cover of my book. The fascination came when I was a kid and the only time you saw one was when somebody got married or somebody died…” He goes on, “…that’s why I always wanted one; I wanted to get in one before I died. So here I am, in Sydney, having a drive in a Roller, and I love it!”

Although Brian doesn’t get to drive very often while on tour, he told Jeremy Hart of ‘Motor Trend’, “If I had to drive the band to a gig, it would be in a Rolls. Imagine driving this on the road to Perth across the desert. The boys had an old tour bus in the early days and it took forever to get there and the sun was always in your eye and the heat and that’s where [Bon] came up with the words to ‘Highway to Hell.’ Little bit of Australian history and AC/DC history there for you…”

Johnson, not only owns a Rolls-Royce Phantom but also a 1928 4.5 Litre Bentley Vanden Plas Le Mans Tourer. He cleverly named the vehicle “Thunder Guts” and can be seen driving it down the streets of his hometown for as mundane a task as going to get the paper from the shop every morning.

Hooper & Co (coachbuilder) started as Adams and Hooper in 1805. Although they first built horse drawn carriages for British royalty such as King William IV, Queen Victoria, and King Edward VII, they moved into making elegant motor bodies for the automotive industry’s top tier at the turn of the 20th century.

They built the most luxurious and exquisite vehicle bodies with no consideration for cost and what resulted was some of the most beautifully crafted cars in the world. Although already supreme in their original build, Hooper & Co created a series of Rolls-Royce bodies that are truly amazing. Check these out!

1920 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost 40-50

1913 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost

1929 Rolls-Royce Phantom,limousine coachwork by Hooper

Rolls-Royce Phantom IV, Touring limousine, 7 seater for HRH The Prince Regent of Iraq, 1953

Although this car began as an ‘overall matt black’, John Lennon, Beatles singer/songwriter and antiwar activist, became bored with the plain color and started entertaining the idea of having the vehicle painted “psychedelic”.

It was hardly an easy thing to accomplish with the Rolls-Royce, but in April of 1967 he made it so. The car’s rear seat was modified to also serve as a double bed and Lennon later had a SONY television, telephone, and portable refrigerator installed.

Because the Rolls-Royce is synonymous with British dignity, many were outraged by the vehicle’s colorful exterior, especially in downtown London. An elderly woman reportedly chased after the brightly painted Rolls and attacked it with her umbrella screaming, “You swine, you swine! How dare you do this to a Rolls-Royce.”

The Phantom V Limousine was mainly used by the Beatles between 1966-1969. Many other rock stars, such as the Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan, were also seen temporarily driving around in the Rolls that defined a decade.