Musk’s First Few Dates With Grimes Included Driving With Eyes Closed

• Elon Musk and Grimes told Walter Isaacson about their first few dates together.
• Musk took Grimes for a spin in his Tesla and quizzed her on “Lord of the Rings,” the biographer said.
• The couple has since said they’ve split, but they have two children together.

Walter Isaacson, Elon Musk’s biographer, offered a window into the early days of the Musk’s relationship with the singer Grimes on Monday.

In a post on X, the platform formerly called Twitter, Isaacson dubbed Musk’s relationship with Grimes a “chaotic subplot” in a quote from his forthcoming book on the billionaire.

The biographer said Musk met the singer, whose real name is Claire Boucher, in an elevator when Musk was with his former girlfriend Amber Heard, but their relationship later blossomed over direct messages discussing the concept of Roko’s Basilisk — a thought experiment which theorizes that the creation of AI will lead to an all-powerful being that will punish those that did not help in its creation.

“Musk invited her to fly up to Fremont to visit his factory, his idea of a good date,” Isaacson, who has been shadowing Musk for over a year, wrote in his post. “‘We just walked the floor all night, and I watched him try to fix things,’ Grimes says.”

The biographer said Musk drove Grimes to a restaurant in his Tesla the very next night, hitting the gas, taking his hands off the wheel and closing his eyes while the car was using the carmaker’s Autopilot driver assist feature.

“I was like, oh shit, this guy is fucking crazy,” Isaacson said Grimes told him of the experience. “The car was signaling and changing lanes by itself. It felt like a scene out of a Marvel movie.”

The Tesla CEO later carved the couple’s initials into the wall of the restaurant, Isaacson writes.

The biographer also said Musk quizzed Grimes on “Lord of the Rings” to test out whether she was a “truly faithful fan.” The singer told Isaacson she gave Musk a box full of animal bones and the two would listen to history podcasts and audiobooks before bed.

Grimes and Musk made their first public debut as a couple at the Met Gala in 2018. They have had two known children together. The Tesla CEO told Page Six in 2021 that he and Grimes were “semi-separated” but still loved each other and were on great terms.

Since then, Grimes has reportedly dated whistle-blower Chelsea Manning. Musk was also spotted with Australian actress Natasha Bassett after calling it quits with Grimes. Though, the two are believed to have since split.