Left: Nick Mason (Raph_PH, CC BY 2.0). Right: Mason's Ferrari 250 GTO (Mikaël Restoux, CC BY 2.5). Both via Wikimedia Commons.
Platinum records pay for a lot of horsepower. Most rock stars stop at one loud Lamborghini and a photo op. These 10 kept going, and since car legends grow faster than odometers, we split what’s on the record from the rumors.
1. Nick Mason (Pink Floyd)
Pink Floyd’s drummer may own the most valuable car of any rock star alive.
Verified: Mason bought a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO in 1977 and still drives it at events like the Goodwood Revival. He has raced at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and he co-wrote the book Into the Red about his favorite cars. His collection is managed under the name Ten Tenths.
Rumor Mill: Nobody knows what his GTO would fetch today, but with other 250 GTOs selling for $50 million or more, estimates for his car run even higher. Mason has shown no interest in selling.
2. Jay Kay (Jamiroquai)
Jay Kay treats Ferraris like sneakers: buy, flip, repeat.
Verified: Jay Kay bought a Ferrari Enzo new in 2003 and later sold it for a big profit. He added a Ferrari LaFerrari and has owned classics like the Lamborghini Miura and Ferrari F40.
Rumor Mill: Fans swear his UK garage holds dozens of cars at once. He flips them so often that nobody outside the garage can verify the count.
3. Eric Clapton
Slowhand didn’t just buy a Ferrari. He commissioned his own.
Verified: A longtime Ferrari owner, Clapton commissioned the Ferrari SP12 EC through Ferrari’s Special Projects program. Unveiled in 2012, the one-off is built on a 458 Italia and styled as a tribute to the 1970s Ferrari 512 BB.
Rumor Mill: Reports put the price of the SP12 EC at around $4.7 million. Neither Clapton nor Ferrari has confirmed the figure.
4. Brian Johnson (AC/DC)
Johnson’s car hobby comes with a helmet.
Verified: Johnson has competed in the 24 Hours of Daytona and in vintage races on both sides of the Atlantic. He also hosted the TV series Cars That Rock with Brian Johnson, where he told the stories behind legendary cars.
Rumor Mill: Fans love to guess what’s parked in his Florida and UK garages. Johnson would rather tell you how one drives.
5. James Hetfield (Metallica)
Metallica’s frontman prefers custom hot rods over factory supercars.
Verified: Hetfield’s custom cars were showcased in 2020 at Los Angeles’ Petersen Automotive Museum in the exhibit Reclaimed Rust: The Car Collection of James Hetfield. The show featured his “kustom” builds alongside some of his guitars.
Rumor Mill: Around the time of the exhibit, reports suggested some of the cars could be headed to auction, and collectors started guessing which cars would go first.
6. Jeff Beck
The late guitar legend didn’t pay someone to build his hot rods. He built them.
Verified: Beck was a lifelong hot rod builder, famous for his 1932 Ford roadsters and coupes. He did much of the work himself in his workshop in England, and his builds earned respect from hot rod purists.
Rumor Mill: Beck is often said to have claimed he’d have built cars full-time if music hadn’t worked out, a story fans love to repeat.
7. Rod Stewart
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Rod Stewart has been buying Italian exotics since the 1970s.
Verified: Stewart has owned a string of Lamborghinis and Ferraris over the decades, including the Lamborghini Miura, and he regularly shows up at classic car events.
Rumor Mill: Car forums have credited him with everything from a Ferrari Enzo to a Countach over the years. The exact lineup, past and present, is hard to pin down.
8. Sammy Hagar
The man who sang “I Can’t Drive 55” has clearly never had to.
Verified: Hagar is a longtime Ferrari collector. In January 2024, his one-of-one 2015 Ferrari LaFerrari sold at Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale for $4.675 million.
Rumor Mill: Fans have long debated how many Ferraris Hagar has owned over the years. He has hinted there are plenty more where the LaFerrari came from.
9. Jay-Z
Jay-Z’s name is welded to a car he may never have owned.
Verified: The one-off Maybach Exelero concept car appeared in Jay-Z’s 2006 music video for “Lost One,” and he has name-checked Maybach in his lyrics for years.
Rumor Mill: For years, the internet claimed Jay-Z bought the Exelero for $8 million. That purchase has never been confirmed. The car is real; the receipt is the part nobody has produced.
10. Justin Bieber
Bieber’s cars have made almost as many headlines as his albums, and not always the kind he wanted.
Verified: Over the years Bieber has owned a string of high-end rides, including a heavily customized Ferrari 458 Italia that he later sold.
Rumor Mill: In 2022, reports claimed Ferrari had “blacklisted” Bieber over how he modified and handled his 458, barring him from buying new models. Ferrari never publicly confirmed the story.
The Encore
Mason’s GTO is the trophy, Beck’s roadsters are the soul, and Jay-Z’s mystery Maybach is the argument starter. Which garage would you take the keys to, and who did we leave out?
Images via Wikimedia Commons under the licenses listed in each caption.
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