Key Takeaway
Celebrity biker style comes down to specific rings, bikes and builders. Keith Richards has worn the same skull ring since 1978, its makers say — and they modeled it on a real human skull. Jason Momoa's 1936 Knucklehead is pink. And Johnny Depp shared a skull ring pact with Iggy Pop. These are the stories behind those celebrity skull rings and bikes.
Celebrity motorcycle fashion, in this guide, means the rings, the custom builds and the documented stories behind them. Jason Momoa collects pre-war Harleys, Keanu Reeves co-founded a motorcycle company, and Norman Reedus turned his riding into a TV series, while Keith Richards and Johnny Depp made skull rings part of their look.
Keith Richards — The Ring That Started It All
In 1978 the London goldsmiths David Courts and Bill Hackett, working on a small silver skeleton, carved a miniature skull using a real human skull as their reference. The silver ring that came out of it was their present to Keith Richards at his birthday party in New York. Courts and Hackett say he has worn it ever since.
Other Courts and Hackett work made it into a museum: the Victoria and Albert Museum's collection includes a winged-serpent bracelet they designed and made in London in 1975. Courts and Hackett say it has been copied endlessly. Ours is one of the silver skull rings that follow its style: the Keith Richards skull ring we sell is a tribute to that style in .925 sterling silver, not a licensed reproduction.
We wrote the full story in our deep dive on the Richards skull ring — including who made it and why it looks nothing like the copies.
Johnny Depp and the "Death Is Certain" Skull Ring Pact
In the early 1990s, tattoo artist Jonathan Shaw brought Depp, Iggy Pop and filmmaker Jim Jarmusch into C'est Magnifique, the Albrizio family's New York jewelry shop, and all four ended up wearing the same flat-top skull ring, according to the family. Shaw says they also got the same "death is certain" tattoo, except Iggy, who took the ring and never the tattoo.
A Something About Rocks feature first published in 2022 calls a red-eyed skull ring Depp's Death is Certain ring and credits it to Alfred Albrizio: a boxy skull with red gems for eyes, three clear stones in the forehead and gold accents. The same feature says the ring Depp first bought with the others was plain silver, and it does not say when the red-eyed design came in. Dead Ringers says Depp owns serial #1 of its "Keith" skull ring. The Something About Rocks feature adds that celebrity jeweler Neil Lane, who made rings for the Pirates of the Caribbean films, cast him a gold skull with amethyst eyes.
Depp is often photographed wearing several rings at once. We go through what each symbol on that red-eyed ring is said to mean in our Johnny Depp skull ring guide. If you want the look, we carry our red-eyed Johnny Depp skull ring, inspired by his style but not made by Albrizio.
Jason Momoa's Harleys — and the Pink '36
Momoa bought his first Harley at 19 with money from Baywatch Hawaii. A 1956 Panhead he named "Mabel" after his grandmother, fitted with a 1948 springer front end. That bike launched a collection that has since grown to include three pre-war Knuckleheads — a '36, a '37, and a '39.
The '36 is pink, his favorite color, and its rebuild features in the first episode of his docuseries On the Roam.
But it's his jewelry that connects to motorcycle culture most directly. Judicael Sacred Skulls says Momoa has supported its work since 2017, and he collaborated with Book of Alchemy on the "Bloodlines Skullring," a bronze skull ring that measures 43mm from top to bottom. He also had Leroys Wooden Tattoos make a bone skull ring for Lenny Kravitz to match his own. Asked whether it stood for family, Momoa said, "Yeah, looking out for each other for sure." A man who rides vintage Harleys and had a matching skull ring made for his then-wife's ex-husband — that's a different kind of biker culture.
On the Roam, an eight-part docuseries that follows him across the country through the lens of craftsmanship, premiered on Max in January 2024. His On The Roam x Harley-Davidson apparel collection had launched in July 2023.
Keanu Reeves Co-Founded a Motorcycle Company
Most people know Keanu rides. Fewer know he co-founded ARCH Motorcycle in 2011 with master builder Gard Hollinger, a boutique American manufacturer based in Hawthorne, California.
The origin: in 2007, Reeves asked Hollinger to customize his Harley-Davidson Dyna Wide Glide. Over roughly five years of design and testing, the bike was reimagined until little beyond the Harley engine was left. That personal project became the prototype for the KRGT-1, ARCH's first production model.
The Method 143 uses a carbon fiber mono-cell chassis that also handles fuel storage and air filtration, and ARCH calls it the first American production motorcycle built that way. Production is limited to 23 worldwide. Reeves is one of the company's main road testers; in 2019, Hollinger put his personal tally at roughly 40,000 to 50,000 test miles. "When I don't ride a motorcycle, I go through withdrawal," Reeves told GQ.
In 2025, ARCH Racing joined MotoAmerica's Mission Super Hooligan National Championship, and Corey Alexander finished seventh in the second race at Daytona on the ARCH 2s-R. The team came back for the full 2026 season, which wrapped at Circuit of The Americas in September.
Away from ARCH: in a 2022 interview he named his favorite as a black 1973 Norton Commando 850; he told GQ in 2019 it was the second motorcycle he bought in Los Angeles, around 1987.
Norman Reedus Turned Riding Into a TV Show (and Builders Make Him Bikes)
From Season 5 of The Walking Dead, Reedus rode Daryl Dixon's custom Honda CB750 Nighthawk, built for the show by Classified Moto. Off-screen, he turned his own riding into Ride with Norman Reedus, which has run for seven seasons on AMC. Season 7 aired in September 2025, with rides through Georgia and New Mexico and guests including Kim Coates, Robert Patrick and Zahn McClarnon.
Builders keep making bikes for him. In 2023 Indian Motorcycle revealed a custom Sport Chief that Powerplant Motorcycles built for Reedus, reportedly his first Indian, and Powerplant had already built him a Knucklehead-style custom in 2018.
Jewelry turned up in the show's first episode in 2016: in West Hollywood, Imogen Lehtonen, whose family owns The Great Frog, gave him one of the shop's skull rings before the ride. And on safety, he told Undead Walking in 2020, "I always wear a full face helmet wherever I go."
Travis Barker — Where Punk Met Biker Jewelry
Barker's place in this story is jewelry: the Blink-182 drummer launched two jewelry collections in 2022.
His Skull Collection with Buster + Punch includes a skull necklace in solid cast metal, plated in gold or silver, polished by hand and debossed on the back with the B+P and TB insignias. His first collection as creative director of Clocks + Colours, released in December 2022, mixes sterling silver chains and bracelets with a skull ring, a safety pin-inspired necklace and pieces set with lab-grown diamonds.
Barker said he wanted to create "necessities, pieces that didn't exist" — essentials he would wear every day. It's also how we think about pieces in our gothic ring collection.
Riders and Backers You Didn't Expect
Pink is married to Carey Hart, a former professional freestyle motocross rider and X Games medalist, and she has been photographed riding both Harley-Davidson and Triumph motorcycles. After their son Jameson was born in December 2016, Hart built her a custom motorcycle as a "push present."
Prince William passed his motorcycle test in early 2002, at 19, the palace said at the time. In 2018, The Sun reported spotting him on a Ducati Hypermotard in South London on his way to a five-a-side football game.
Stephen King — yes, the horror writer — guest-starred in Sons of Anarchy Season 3 as Bachman, a "cleaner," and rode a Harley-Davidson Road Glide on camera.
Brad Pitt's production company, Plan B, is one of the partners behind an Isle of Man TT docuseries and a feature film announced in 2024; the feature, Isle of Man, began filming on the island in May 2026. The TT, first held in 1907 on closed public roads, is widely regarded as one of the most dangerous motorcycle races in the world.
The Chain Wallet Comeback
Travis Scott wore a Chrome Hearts wallet chain in Chicago in January 2024, and Billie Eilish wore a silver one to the Los Angeles premiere of her 3D concert film in May 2026. Wallet chains have been back in streetwear since the mid-2010s.
The chain started as plain security gear. US patents for chaining a pocketbook to your clothes go back to the 1800s. Fashion writers trace bikers wearing them from the 1950s and punk picking them up in the 1970s. The basic setup hasn't changed much: on our cross leather biker chain wallet, the chain clips to a grommet, and on a chain like our skull sterling silver wallet chain a T-bar goes through your belt loop, so the wallet stays with you on the bike or on foot.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long has Keith Richards worn his skull ring?
Since 1978, according to its makers. London goldsmiths David Courts and Bill Hackett made the silver ring as a birthday present for Keith Richards in New York, using a real human skull as their reference, and they say he has worn it ever since.
What motorcycles does Jason Momoa own?
Three pre-war Harley-Davidson Knuckleheads from 1936, 1937 and 1939, plus the 1956 Panhead he named Mabel, his first Harley, bought at 19. The pink '36 features in the first episode of his docuseries On the Roam, where a team of builders brings it back to life.
Who builds Keanu Reeves' ARCH motorcycles?
ARCH Motorcycle, the company Reeves co-founded in 2011 with custom builder Gard Hollinger. It's a boutique American manufacturer based in Hawthorne, California. Its first production model, the KRGT-1, grew out of Hollinger's rebuild of Reeves' own Harley-Davidson Dyna Wide Glide, and the Method 143 is limited to 23 units worldwide.
What skull ring does Johnny Depp actually wear?
Johnny Depp has been photographed in several skull rings. One is a boxy red-eyed skull credited to the Albrizio family, whose account says the early-1990s ring he shared with Iggy Pop, Jim Jarmusch and Jonathan Shaw was a flat-top skull. The jewelry brand Dead Ringers says he owns serial #1 of its "Keith" ring.
In celebrity motorcycle fashion, the details matter: the specific rings, the actual builds and the documented riding histories. If you want to browse what we carry, the biker ring buying guide is a good next step.