JOHNNY DEPP HAS INSTAGRAM
Actor and musician John Christopher Depp II made his Instagram debut on Thursday with a photo of him sat on a wooden bench in what resembles a cave surrounded by candles. The 56-year-old was clad in his signature bohemian look of plaid shirt, brown suspenders, faded jeans and black framed glasses. The star's hair was tucked behind his ear and his arms were rested on his legs showcasing a multitude of tattoos. A light projector could be seen giving the impression that the Cry-Baby star was being filmed which was given weight by the cryptic caption: 'Hello everyone... filming something for you now... gimme a minute.'
Johnny finished his monologue or as he refers to it 'seemingly talking to myself' by plugging a new collaboration with one of his 'all-time guitar heroes' Jeff Beck, a two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee. The pair have reimagined John Lennon's 1970 song Isolation, a fitting track for this period of 'true 'isolation'' as Beck calls it. Of the timely release, Depp says: 'Lennon’s prothetic words are pure poetry—the profundity of his lyrics seemed to Jeff and me especially fitting for what's happening right now—the song's about isolation, fear and the existential risks to our world so we wanted to give the song to you and we truly both hope in our own little way it helps you get through these unusual times that we are experiencing.' Jon Blistein of Rolling Stone calls it 'riveting' and 'transforming Lennon’s tidy piano rocker into a moody, bluesy ripper,' Lake Schatz of Consequence of Sound refers to it as 'rather poignant' and Paul Monkhouse of Metal Planet Music says it is 'beyond sublime and a total masterclass by the best in the business'. The cover kicks off delicately with the lyrics: 'People say we got it made / Don't they know we're so afraid / Isolation' before bursting into a heavier rock sound alongside the words: 'I don't expect you / To understand / After you've caused / So much pain / But then again / You're not to blame / You're just a human / A victim of the insane.'
Famous friends were quick to comment including Aerosmith and Hollywood Vampires guitarist Joe Perry with '🤘🏻🎸🤘🏻,' South London supermodel Naomi Campbell with 'Yeah you joined ❤️❤️❤️' and '70s punk poet Patti Smith with 'I know that mystic cave well.' Instagram also got in on the action with 'welcome to our magical world Johnny! 🍭🐇❄️🧙♂️⚔️🎰✨.'
Fans also offered up virtual support with comments ranging from 'Omg welcome!!! 😭😭❤️❤️ to 'justice is coming ⌛⚖️.'
The star racked up 176,000 followers in 15 minutes according to Vogue Paris and 600,000 in 3 hours according to People Magazine. The Chocolat actor followed in the footsteps of Friends star Jennifer Anniston who hit 1 million in 5 hours 16 minutes last October. The Along Came Polly actress temporarily crashed the popular picture-sharing site and holds the record for fastest account to reach the milestone. Depp has so far amassed 3.5m followers with celebrity profiles including podcast king Joe Rogan and Blow co-star Penélope Cruz. The hunk is also tracking 110 from Queen drummer Roger Taylor to Skins alumna Kaya Scodelario. The 'Occasional Thespian' appears to have shifted focus to his 'first love' following the musical collaboration with a photo of him intently strumming '"Greeny,"' a ''59 Les Paul, once owned and played for many, many moons, by the incredible Peter Green from early days of Fleetwood Mac!!!'
Depp is guitarist for rock supergroup Hollywood Vampires formed in 2015 alongside Alice Cooper and Joe Perry. The band are named after a '70s drinking club created by Cooper at the Rainbow Bar and Grill on Sunset Strip. The story of how the Vampires started goes that Johnny and Alice were at the 100 Club in London when they said 'let's go down and be a bar band for a night and just do covers.' Depp 'knew every song' shouted from the crowd and 'that's when the nucleus of the thing got started.' On recruiting Perry, Johnny tells E! News: 'We spent some time together playing a little . . . started to write and record—Joe walked into the studio and said 'I'm in.'' In an interview with earMUSIC, Alice recalls 'the idea of the Vampires in the beginning was to honour our dead drunk friends—the Jimi Hendrixs, the Jim Morrisons, the John Lennons . . . pretty much put a bar band together.' The rocker also recounts to SAPO a time when The Who drummer Keith Moon would 'buy a costume and show up as a different character almost every night.' The trio's self-titled debut pays tribute to '70s rockstars with the exception of Raise The Dead and My Dead Drunk Friends with Cooper saying of the latter: ''My dead drunk friends,' they would have laughed at that. It was their sense of humor.' Their second album Rise features 'original songs' 'from Johnny's diaries' and is described as 'what would happen if we three wrote songs.' Of Depp's performance, his bandmates heap praise: 'When he's on the stage banging on his guitar that's him through and through' says Joe and 'you've seen the real Johnny when you see Johnny on stage' adds Alice.
Johnny's musicality is somewhat of a mystery with Joe Perry telling A-Sides Music: 'I don't think there's a person I've talked to that knows that he plays guitar.' The actor does in fact as Vulture put it have a 'long love affair with rock and roll.' The star picked up the guitar when he was 12, 'a shitty little Decca . . . for 25 bucks' as he calls it to Louder Sound and a gift from his mother Sue. He taught himself how to play later dropping out of Miramar High School to join The Kids who achieved local success from 1980 to 1984. The band disembarked before they hit the big shot with Depp alluding to why with Scott Rowley: 'We recorded stuff but we always had these producers that wanted to make everything really like syncopated and tight...' In 1986, the then 23-year-old hooked up with Rock City Angels, a group that were the epitome of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll with Classic Rock Magazine going so far as to question if they were killed off to make way for Guns N' Roses. Johnny joined for half a year lending his writing skills to bluesy track Mary which featured on the band's 1988 debut Young Man's Blues.
1993 saw the Oscar nominee form a band called P along with Butthole Surfers Gibby Haynes, actor Sal Jenco and singer-songwriter Bill Carter. In an interview with Jean-Baptiste, the film star calls it 'first and foremost a group of four friends who like to laugh, goof around, and make noise together.' The group's self-titled EP starts Lou Reed-ish before transforming into a psychedelic rock trip alongside reggae and grunge. The band would play the odd gig at the Viper Room, a former grocery store turned Hollywood haunt owned by Johnny and Jenco. The boys were performing on the night of River Phoenix's death with Haynes later recalling to Spin that they were playing '"Micheal Stripe,"' a song with 'River's name in it.' Around the same time, the actor struck up a friendship with The Pogues frontman Shane McGowan, probably being drawn to the Irish man through his own Celtic roots. The wannabe rock star featured in the often drunk hellraiser's video for That Woman’s Got Me Drinking, his solo work with The Popes from his album The Snake. The actor recently rocked up to his old pal's wedding to journalist Victoria Mary Clarke clad in a mafia-esque meets rockabilly ensemble.
The guitarist hit pause on his musical endeavours to embark on a career in acting which he says 'happened by mistake the acting thing' 'because let's face it paying the rent is a difficult thing in Los Angeles.' His friend and fellow thespian Nicholas Cage advised him to give the screen life a try. Depp made his debut in 1984's A Nightmare on Elm Street before rising to prominence as Officer Tom Hanson in police series 21 Jump Street. His breakout role came in Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands alongside fiancé Winona Ryder followed in 1994 by critically acclaimed Ed Wood with Janet Maslin of The New York Times writing that Johnny had 'proved himself as an established, certified great actor.' Despite mixed reviews for 1998's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas his take as Ichabod Crane in 1999's Sleepy Hollow revived his status as a serious contender in Hollywood with film critic Roger Ebert praising the star's ability to 'disappear into characters, never more readily than in one of Burton's films.' Alice Cooper calls him 'probably the most versatile actor out there' and Ria Prieto of Lifestyle.INQ also considers his aesthetic to be 'complex and diverse.' Perhaps the actor's most popular portrayal is Captain Jack Sparrow who he played in fantasy swashbuckler Pirates of the Caribbean from its inception in 2003 through to 2017. Of his buccaneer alter ego, the idol says 'he's definitely a big part of me' and 'I was sponging as much of him [Keith Richards] as I possibly could for the character.'
The actor's personal life has somewhat overshadowed his on-screen work following a much-publicised break up from ex-wife Amber Heard. The saga started in 2016 when a picture obtained by TMZ appeared to show the Aquaman star's bruised eye later rocking up at court with said injuries. The story was that the then 30-year-old had filed for divorce after 18 months of marriage and acquired a temporary restraining order claiming to 'live in fear that Johnny will return to . . . residence unannounced to terrorize me, physically and emotionally.' Depp denied the allegations saying 'Amber is attempting to secure a premature financial resolution by alleging abuse.' Despite a settlement of $7m being reached and a joint statement that there 'there was never any intent of physical or emotional harm,' their feud was reignited in 2019 when Heard wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post claiming to be a victim of 'sexual violence.' Depp sued Heard $50m for defamation calling it an 'elaborate hoax' in a lawsuit gathered by PEOPLE and that the abuse was in fact the other way around which was given legs by two leaked audios obtained by DailyMail.com where Heard can be heard saying: 'I don't know what the motion of my actual hand was, but you're fine, I did not hurt you, I did not punch you, I was hitting you' and 'I can't promise you I won't get physical again, God I f**king sometimes get so mad I lose it.'
The Kentucky native also blamed Amber for the loss of his lucrative role as Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean 6 as revealed by The Washington Post that states Disney 'dropped Depp from the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise four days after the op-ed was published.' However, there has never been a statement on this from the company, rather, that production chief Sean Bailey wanted 'to bring in a new energy and vitality' as told to The Hollywood Reporter in 2018. 'I love the [Pirates] movies, but part of the reason [writers] Paul [Wernick] and Rhett [Reese] are so interesting is that we want to give it a kick in the pants. And that’s what I’ve tasked them with.' Original screenwriter Stuart Beattie also said to DailyMailTV: 'I think he’s had a great run.' In an interview with GQ, the actor alleges 'Disney hated me. [They were] thinking of every way they could to get rid of me, to fire me. 'Oh, we’re going to have to subtitle him.' 'We don’t understand Captain Jack Sparrow. What’s wrong with him?' 'What’s wrong with his arms?' 'Is he drunk?' 'Is he mentally fucking stupefied?' 'Is he gay?'' 'Back in 2016, it was rumoured that Disney purposely attempted to 'distance' themselves from Depp when abuse allegations made by Heard were made public' which was given potential by a recent report in We Got This Covered that claims 'the recent turn of events in Depp’s legal battle and the overwhelming support from the public in his favor has some of the Mouse House executives now lobbying for his return behind the scenes.' Petitions have also played a part with one on Change.org reaching 185,730 signatures and an update from the starter that 'a website is claiming due to the petitions, Disney is considering to bring our Johnny Depp back as Captain Jack Sparrow in the upcoming reboot.'
The film star is also embroiled in a libel against British tabloid newspaper The Sun and its executive editor Dan Wootton over an article he published in 2018 asking 'How can J.K. Rowling be ‘genuinely happy’ casting wife-beater Johnny Depp in the new Fantastic Beasts film?' In the piece Wootton blasts the Harry Potter writer calling her 'the worst type of Hollywood hypocrite' for supporting the #MeToo and Times Up movements but also standing by her leading man who according to Dan 'overwhelming evidence was filed to show Johnny Depp engaged in domestic violence against his wife Amber Heard.' Lily-Rose's father was pictured outside the High Court in London on 26 February in a polished look of navy suit, pocket square, shirt, scarf and sunglasses. He had a rolled up cigarette in his mouth and was carrying two notebooks to match his blue ensemble.
As far as future projects go, the Golden Globe winner was expected to start filming wizardry fantasy Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them 3 but that is like other movies currently on hold. The quirky actor will reprise his role as Gellert Grindelwald in J.K. Rowling's third instalment alongside Edie Redmayne as Newt Scamander and Jude Law as Albus Dumbledore. Other works in the pipeline include Waiting for the Barbarians based on J. M. Coetzee's novel of the same name and Minamata about war photographer W. Eugene Smith and his mission to Japan to uncover the devastating effect of mercury poisoning in coastal communities. In regards to the star's music, the guitarist alludes to future collaborations with 'my dear friend and my brother Jeff' in his debut IGTV with 'I reckon there's more to come' as does Beck on his Instagram: 'You’ll be hearing more from Johnny and me in a little while.' The Hollywood Vampires are set to hit the U.K. this autumn stopping off at Leeds, Glasgow, London and Birmingham. Of the tour, Perry told Kerrang!: 'I’m looking forward to be getting back on the road with the guys in the Vampires this summer. It’s going to be great to get to play a bunch of tunes from our new album as well as a few from our dead, drunk friends.'