Motorbikes and rock and roll go hand in hand.
Whether it’s the sense of rebellion, freedom or the anonymity that riding a motorcycle brings, rock stars and celebrity actors have long been attracted by the lure of two wheels and an engine.
The number of A list rock stars snapped on their bikes in the 1960s and 1970s is almost too long to list, but leading the pack was the King of Rock and Roll himself, Elvis Presley. The all-American icon was a bona fide petrolhead who owned a huge number of cars and bikes over the years. The King rode many different makes and models of bikes over the years and rode a small Honda Superhawk in the 1964 movie Roustabout. His passion, understandably, was for big-bore Harley-Davidsons and last year the last motorcycle he owned, a 1976 Harley FLH sold for a staggering $800,000.
American rockers, perhaps helped by the Californian sunshine, have been the epitome of cool on their motorcycles. Iconic Doors frontman Jim Morrison owned a 305cc Honda Scrambler, not dissimilar to the one ridden by Elvis on the silver screen, at the height of his fame, while Bob Dylan was another high profile motorcyclist.
In the days before celebrity endorsements and manufacturer freebies, Dylan was a huge motorcyclist. He was famed for riding a British Triumph, arguably the coolest motorcycle brand in the world at the time, and even wore their T-shirt on the cover of his legendary 1965 album Highway 61 Revisited.
Dylan famously crashed his Tiger T100 in July 1966, forcing him to abandon his tour and take a hiatus while he recovered from his back injuries. That same year saw another tragic accident, when Claudette Orbison, wife of rocker Roy, died in a motorcycle accident. Both Roy and Claudette had been keen motorcyclists and were riding together on a motorcycling holiday when a truck pulled out in front of her bike and left her fatally injured.
Arguably a 1967 motorcycle accident defined the career of another American rock icon, when a 17-year-old Bruce Springsteen was badly beaten up after colliding with a car in Freehold, New Jersey. Riding a small Yamaha, the future stadium star suffered concussion and a badly damaged leg, injuries which would see him fail his medical when drafted into the US Army during the Vietnam War years.
These days Springsteen remains a devoted biker and is regularly seen riding his Harley-Davidson. Despite headlining Harley’s 105th anniversary bash back in 2008 and famously he hung out with some of the bikers who rescued him after breaking down in 2016.
That breakdown wasn’t on one of his Harleys, rather a customised Moto Guzzi from New York’s 20th Century Cycles. That bike shop is owned by fellow rocker Billy Joel, who is a massive motorcycle enthusiast. He started out riding Yamahas in the late 1970s and over the years has put together a massive collections of bikes, mainly from Italy, with Guzzis being his favourite brand.
Neil Peart might not have been a household name like Springsteen and Joel, but the Rush drummer was universally considered one of the very best in the business and had a passion for bikes that saw him undertake a soul searching massive road trip, which turned into the 2002 memoir, Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road.
The Canadian drummer was a fan of the ubiquitous BMW GS, putting 100,000 miles on the R1100GS he rode for Ghost Rider, and regularly racking up over 20,000 miles a year until his death, from cancer, earlier this year.
Taking it to the max
While Peart, with his big miles and Iron Butt rallies, was undoubtedly a huge bike fan, some rock stars have taken their obsession with bikes to even higher levels.
Here in the UK, Prodigy frontman Keith Flint was famous for his love of sports bikes. The Firestarter singer developed a passion for trackdays and went on to compete in endurance racing on a Suzuki GSX-R1000. His Team Traction Control went on to race with some success in British Superbikes and at the Isle of Man TT races, until his untimely death early last year.
Aerosmith signer Steven Tyler is another to have taken his love of bikes to the limit. The flamboyant American rode bikes in his early years, but it was in the 1990s that he really got back on two wheels. Harley boss Willie Davidson was apparently such a big Aerosmith fan that he gave Tyler and his bandmates a new Fat Boy each in 1990, and the band would repay the complement 23 years later when they headlined the Motor Company’s 110th anniversary part.
In that time, Tyler also became a partner (with engineer Mark Dirico) in Dirico Motorcycles, a custom chopper company making high-end boutique bikes, and even made an appearance at EICMA, Milan’s motorcycle show, as a guest of Metzeler, whose tyres were used on the bikes.
Brits on board
It’s not just US stars who love to ride. Welsh rockers, the Stereophonics paid homage to the classic road trip movie Easy Rider, with their promo video for the song I Wouldn’t Believe Your Radio, and bassist Richard Jones remains a regular rider these days – being spotted recently riding an Indian on the Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride. Another bassist with a love for the road is JJ Burnel of The Stranglers, who has a particular passion for Triumphs.
It’s not just the men that are into their bikes. The ‘70s and ‘80s saw a number of female singers associated with motorcycling, most notably Joan Jett and Suzi Quatro, and today feisty pop rocker Pink flies the flag for the ladies.
With bikes that include a Triumph Bonneville and Harley-Davidson Sportster, she was once famously quoted as saying ‘some girls like diamonds. I like carbon fibre and chrome.’
