Johnny Depp's Enjoying A New Career Outside Hollywood, And Even Alice Cooper Sounds A Little Jealous

Johnny Depp and Alice Cooper in 2020
(Image credit: Rich Fury/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)

While Johnny Depp is best known as a character actor, he’s a man of many talents. Depp is also an artist and musician, and he’s been leaning on the latter quite a bit lately. Since the Depp/Heard defamation verdict was revealed, he’s been touring as a guitarist, including with his band Hollywood Vampires. The Pirates of the Caribbean actor is enjoying his new career outside of Hollywood, and even Alice Cooper sounds a little jealous.

Cooper and Depp make up part of Hollywood Vampires, a band made up of celebs that have played together for years. Depp also toured with his late friend Jeff Beck, so he’s been putting a ton of focus on music lately. Alice Cooper recently did a radio interview (via Rock Celebrities), where he joked about being jealous of how popular Johnny is at their shows. In his words:

You have no idea. You have no idea. It’s so funny because Joe [Perry] is on the left side of the stage, I’m in the middle, Johnny is on the right. Every woman is looking on the right side of the stage. Every once in a while, I slide over there just to get a little bit of that and then go back to my spot.

Sounds about right. While Hollywood Vampires are all celebrities, Johnny Depp is a super popular public figure. His long legal battle with Amber Heard only seemed to endear some fans with him, and they’re showing up to his gigs now. 

Of course, the Edward Scissorhands icon hasn’t left the film business for good. Depp’s first post-trial movie recently had it premiere, and he’s also lined up a directing gig. What’s more, Depp will be working with big names like Al Pacino on that project. We’ll just have to see if/when he appears in another major motion picture.

Later in that same interview, Alice Cooper spoke more about what Johnny Depp is like a musician and bandmate. Despite his acting career and megafame, he’s in Hollywood Vampires because of his talent as a guitarist. In Cooper’s words: 

Johnny’s great. When he’s with us, he’s not a movie star – he’s a guitar player. And he’s a great guitar player. You don’t go out with Jeff Beck unless you can play guitar, and he really is a player.

Clearly there’s a ton of love shared between Cooper and Depp. These statements stand in juxtaposition to recent reports that Depp’s bandmates were worried about him and possibly staging an intervention related to his drinking. According to that report, the Hollywood Vampires canceled a number of gigs due to the actor.

We’ll have to wait and see when Johnny Depp returns to the big screen. In the meantime, check out the 2023 movie release dates to plan your next movie experience. 

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Corey Chichizola
Movies Editor

Corey was born and raised in New Jersey. Graduated with degrees theater and literature from Ramapo College of New Jersey. After working in administrative theater for a year in New York, he started as the Weekend Editor at CinemaBlend. He's since been able to work himself up to reviews, phoners, and press junkets-- and is now able to appear on camera with some of his favorite actors... just not as he would have predicted as a kid. He's particularly proud of covering horror franchises like Scream and Halloween, as well as movie musicals like West Side Story. Favorite interviews include Steven Spielberg, Spike Lee, Jamie Lee Curtis, and more.