The Mercedes Looked Like Nobody Should Have Walked Away
Macklemore is back in the national headlines in September 2026, but nearly a decade ago the Seattle rapper made news for an entirely different reason. On the night of July 28, 2017, he was driving through Langley on Whidbey Island when a 1986 Chevrolet pickup crossed the centerline on a curve and struck his Mercedes head-on. Washington State Patrol photos released afterward showed a luxury sedan with its entire front end crushed inward, bodywork peeled away and the engine compartment mangled beyond recognition.
The remarkable part was what happened inside. Macklemore and the two passengers riding with him all walked away without serious injuries. The pickup driver suffered facial injuries and was transported for treatment. Police later said the pickup driver had a blood-alcohol concentration of .19 percent nearly two hours after the collision, more than twice Washington’s legal limit, and he was subsequently charged with DUI.
Macklemore later described believing he was going to die during the impact. Looking at the wreckage, it is not difficult to understand why.
His Car Was a $190,000 V12 Mercedes-Maybach
This was not an ordinary Mercedes sedan. Local reporting identified Macklemore’s car as a 2016 Mercedes-Maybach S600, one of the most expensive and sophisticated sedans Mercedes-Benz sold at the time. Its original sticker price was around $190,000, depending on equipment. Under its enormous hood sat a 6.0-liter twin-turbocharged V12 producing 523 horsepower and 612 pound-feet of torque. The S600 weighed more than 5,200 pounds and stretched well beyond a normal S-Class in pursuit of limousine-like rear-seat space.
It was also loaded with the kind of safety technology that helped define the modern flagship luxury sedan. The Maybach included multiple airbags, electronic stability systems, forward-collision warning with automatic braking, blind-spot assistance, lane-departure intervention and technology designed to prepare occupants when the car detected an impending rear impact. Whether any individual system directly affected Macklemore’s crash cannot be determined from the public reports, but the car had been engineered around the idea that luxury also meant surviving violent accidents.
(Washington State Patrol photos)
The Mercedes was totaled. That almost seems secondary when three people emerged from a head-on collision largely unharmed. Macklemore did receive an unrelated citation at the scene because his driver’s license had been suspended over an unpaid ticket. He later paid the outstanding ticket, had his license reinstated and pleaded to the lesser offense of driving without a valid operator’s license, paying a $150 fine.
Macklemore Is Back in the Headlines for a Very Different Reason
The crash has resurfaced as an interesting footnote because Macklemore, whose real name is Ben Haggerty, is once again at the center of a major news cycle. On September 14, 2026, he announced that he had been removed from the remaining U.S. dates of Ed Sheeran’s Loop Tour following pro-Palestinian remarks he made while opening for Sheeran at MetLife Stadium earlier in the month. Tour promoter Messina Touring Group said multiple venues would not host shows with Macklemore on the lineup. Sheeran subsequently said removing him was the promoter’s decision rather than his own. Several other supporting artists then withdrew from the tour in solidarity with Macklemore.
That current dispute involves politics, music and the enormous business surrounding stadium tours. The 2017 incident is much simpler, and considerably more automotive: a nearly 5,300-pound Mercedes-Maybach S600 met an older Chevrolet pickup head-on on a dark Whidbey Island road.
The Mercedes was destroyed. Its occupants were not. For all the attention paid to the S600’s V12, reclining rear seats and six-figure price when it was new, the most impressive thing Macklemore’s Maybach ever did may have happened in the few violent seconds before it became a total loss.
