WHEN a Worcestershire car dealer was left a message from a ‘Mr Kay’ interested in a vintage Mercedes, he had no idea it was the notorious petrolhead and platinum-selling artist Jay Kay.

But after initially dropping the phone in shock when he realised who it was, Sam Bailey was happy to inform the singer that he had the 1988 Mercedes Benz 300 SL that he was looking for.

Jay Kay, aged 41, who fronts Jamiroquai, called the SL Shop in Stockwood, near Inkberrow, as he wanted to add the classic Mercedes – made famous by Bobby Ewing in the 80s TV show Dallas – to his legendary fleet.

Mr Bailey said: “As everyone knows, he is a bit of petrolhead. His car collection is out of this world.

“He really knows his cars and is properly passionate about them. Luckily, we had the one he was looking for.”

Mr Bailey said the enquiry caught him by surprise.

He said: “I missed the initial call so had a message to call a Mr Kay.

“When he answered I said, ‘Is that Mr Kay?’. He said, ‘It’s Jay’. I said, ‘Sorry, Mr Jay’.”

“No, its Jay Kay,” the singer replied.

Mr Bailey said he dropped the phone when he realised who it was.

The 37-year-old had to deliver the Mercedes to Mr Kay’s house in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, but only had an open trailer available.

The car was pretty dirty by the time they had completed the journey down the M40.

Mr Bailey said: “We wanted to make sure the car was looking good as new when we took it on to the driveway so gave it a bit of clean on the trailer just before we got there.

But Jay Kay came driving past and caught us in the act with the rags in our hands.

“It was a bit embarrassing but it was a good ice breaker.

“After unloading the car we ended up spending about an hour-and-a-half there.

He showed us a few cars but after he realised we were proper car enthusiasts too, he started opening up more garages with better and better cars in. By the end, we had seen the entire fleet.”

Mr Bailey said the singer, who has sold 30 million albums, was very hospitable.

“He is a totally approachable guy and was really interested in the business. He even signed some CDs for us just before we left.

“He doesn’t buy the cars to show off like they are jewellery or something, he buys them because he is a real car anorak and loves all the nitty gritty details about them.”

Jay Kay owns about 37 luxury cars, including an Aston Martin DB5, Lamborghini Miura SV, Ferrari Enzo, Rolls-Royce Phantom V II and a Maserati A6 G/54.

Jamiroquai’s list of hits includes Space Cowboy, Virtual Insanity and Deeper Underground.