Elon Musk took Grimes on a wild ride while courting the Canadian singer that included driving hands-free with his eyes closed to show off his Tesla’s Autopilot feature, according to excerpts from an upcoming tell-all about the tech mogul.
The infatuated billionaire invited the “spellbinding performing artist” to dinner after the two connected online in 2018, writes biographer Walter Isaacson, who offered a sneak peak of the book on Musk’s platform X.
“While driving her to a restaurant, he showed how fast the car accelerated, then took his hands off the wheel, covered his eyes, and let her experience Autopilot,” wrote Isaacson, who was allowed to shadow Musk for over a year.
“I was like, oh sh-t, this guy is f–king crazy,” Grimes told Isaacson, who referred to their whirlwind relationship as a “chaotic new subplot.”
Their rocky three-year romance also began with Musk giving Grimes a pop quiz about the “Lord of the Rings” and the singer gifting the man who has everything with a box of animal bones, writes Isaacson.
The two had met a year earlier when Musk was in an elevator with then-girlfriend Amber Heard before the two broke up in 2018, according to Isaacson’s upcoming book, due out Sept. 12,
The single Tesla boss reached out, ironically on the platform formerly known as Twitter that he now owns, after learning of their shared interest in Roko’s basilisk — a thought experiment that theorizes that artificial intelligence will lead to an all-powerful being that will torture anyone who doesn’t assist in its creation.
Musk and Grimes spent their first date at his Tesla factory in Fremont, Calif.
“We just walked the floor all night, and I watched him try to fix things,” Grimes told the author, who has also written bios of Steve Jobs and Benjamin Franklin.
The courtship continued the next day as Musk picked the singer up for dinner in his Tesla.
Grimes compared Musk’s powers to Gandalf, the wizardly protagonist in JRR Tolkein’s “Lord of the Rings,” which prompted Musk to give Grimes a rapid-fire trivia test on the epic tale, according to Isaacson.
“She passed,” Isaacson wrote.
“That mattered to me,” Musk, 52, noted.
As a gift, Grimes, 35, told Isaacson that she gave Musk a box of animal bones she had collected.
Isaacson’s excerpt also revealed that the lovers listened to an hour of history podcasts and audiobooks before bed.
The duo went on to have two children together — a baby boy named X Æ A-12 Musk, who was born in May 2020 and his parents simply refer to as X, and a girl named Exa Dark Sideræl Musk, who they welcomed via surrogate in December 2021.
Grimes and Musk split in September 2021, before Exa Dark, whom they call Y, was born. However, they reportedly reconnected after the birth of their baby girl.
Last March, Grimes tweeted: “Me and E have broken up *again*.”
“He’s my best friend and the love of my life, and my life and art are forever dedicated to The Mission now,” she added.
With X and Y, Musk is a father to nine children with three different women.
After marrying in January 2000, Musk and Canadian author Justine Wilson welcomed son Nevada Alexander Musk in 2002. Nevada died of sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS, at only 10 weeks.
Musk and Wilson then used IVF to have twins Griffin and Vivian Musk, who are now 18.
The former couple also used IVF to welcome triplet sons Kai, Saxon and Damian in January 2006. The trio are now 16.
Musk also quietly welcomed twins with Neuralink director of operations and special projects Shivon Zilis in November 2021, according to court documents obtained by Business Insider in July 2022.