Johnny Depp’s fame grew in recent months after starring in the most mediatic defamation lawsuit in Hollywood against his ex-wife Amber Heard, which somehow allowed him to publicize the alternative projects he has in music, which is his true passion. And few people know it, but before being an actor Depp wanted to be a guitarist, and even during his teenage years he waspart of several rock bands until life took him to the world of cinema.
In an interview for Actors Studio, the actor revealed that he learned to play guitar from the age of 12 and dropped out of high school at the age of 16 in 1979 to pursue his dream of being a musician. In fact, the woman he married in 1983, Lori Anne Allison, was the sister of the bassist and singer of “Six Gun Method”, a band he belonged to for a short time.
Also, when he had a 14-year-long relationship with French singer Vanessa Chantal Paradis, the two connected their passion for music, but since Depp was dedicated to acting, he directed the music video for Paradis’ song “L’incendie” and wrote some songs with her.
Hollywood Vampires, Johnny Depp’s rock band
Besides doing collaborations with some artists like his friend Jeff Beck, with whom he released the song ‘This Is A Song For Miss Hedy Lamarr’, the actor currently belongs to the rock band ‘Hollywood Vampires’ formed by Alice Cooper, Joe Perry of Aerosmith and Tommy Henriksen.
They were formed in 2015 and according to what they have mentioned in some interviews, it is a group in which they have fun and do cover songs they like from rock stars of the seventies.
It is said that in 2011, Cooper needed a guitarist and found out that Johnny Depp knew how to play guitar, so he invited him to play in a pub and since then he was part of the group.
Depp once said that he hated the idea of people believing that he jumped from acting to music and stated that his foray into the rock band was to do what he loves to do the most without having the goal of “being famous” for it.
“We didn’t form the Hollywood Vampires with the idea of being a supergroup, the idea was to be a bar band, covering artists we admire and offering the opportunity for young audiences to discover somewhat forgotten songs by great bands,” he said.
Rock City Angels, Johnny Depp’s first band
One of Johnny Depp’s first important projects as a musician was, in addition to the group “The Kids” which later changed its name to “Six Gun Method”, was “Rock City Angels”, in which although he had short participation, it was a key piece for his career as a musician.
The band was founded in 1981 in Florida by singer Bobby Bondage and bassist Andy Panik under the name “The Abusers” and sometime later they changed the name and adopted a glam rock image and hardcore punk style.
It was until 1986 that Depp officially joined the band as guitarist and even co-wrote the song “Mary” from the first album called “Young Man’s Blues”. We leave it for you to enjoy:
Story originally published in Cultura Colectiva in Spanish
