When Mike Skinner of The Streets released his third studio album, The Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living, it asked us to unpack the lyricist’s rise to fame — and his subsequent inner monologue that also dissected time and time again what fame can be, for good and for bad. It was yet another seminal body of work, following on from the debut EP Original Pirate Material and the follow up to that, A Grand Don’t Come for Free. In Skinner’s catalog, many of the songs go down in history as greats — and so does the Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow.
Fittingly, Skinner once owned a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow, notably this very example you see here. It now finds itself up for grabs on the auction site Collecting Cars, and it is nothing short of a piece of music history.
The R-R SS has appeared in music videos for decades, most famously in Coldplay’s “MAGIC” and within the works of the psychedelic rock band Kula Shaker. Elsewhere, Freddie Mercury once owned one, and “insisted that we sign all of the (EMI/Elektra) contracts, all of us together, in the back of the Roller because this was the first Rolls he’d ever owned,” per the band’s manager Jim Beach.
Skinner’s example is featured on The Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living‘s album cover, thus continuing the car’s musical legacy. It’s far from stock, as the 1974 model was extensively modified by Skinner before featuring on the album cover to appear in the form it’s in today.
Under the bonnet is a 6.75-liter carburetor-mated V8, upgraded with an Edelbrock air cleaner that works to drive the rear wheels through a three-speed automatic transmission. As for the exterior, it’s been re-painted in “Gloss Black” and sits on a whopping set of 22” Center Line “Smoothies” rims, tucked under the arches thanks to an air suspension. A twin-pipe central exit exhaust is another oddity, but things only get more unique inside.
Here, Skinner added the front seats from a Porsche 928, a custom pair of rear seats designed to match, and fully reupholstered everything in tan leather. Naturally, a custom sound system was added, as were custom door handle plaques reading “THE BEATS,” a play on his band’s name.
It is currently listed on Collecting Cars with a bid of £25,750 and the sale concludes at 8 p.m. BST/3 p.m. ET, today.
In other news, the new Toyota Prius has been tuned.
