Never one to trade on goodwill earned except in maybe one or two films per year, Johnny Depp has made it known that he doesn’t abide by the idea of actors who capitalize on their movie fame by pursuing a music career. “That whole idea for me is a sickening thing, it’s always just made me sick,” Depp told reporters before the German premiere of Mortdecai, a film in which he wears a mustache and falls down, regarding where he draws the line on producing respectable art.
As Depp himself acknowledged, “I’ve been very lucky to play on friends’ records and it’s still going. Music is still part of my life. But you won’t be hearing The Johnny Depp Band. That won’t ever exist.” Instead, you will only ever be hearing P, the band Depp formed with Gibby Haynes and Flea, whose debut went straight to Capitol Records on the basis of a strong, mainstream interest in Butthole Surfers side projects. Or Depp’s many live and recorded performances with close musical compatriots who share his specific sensibility, like Oasis, Marilyn Manson, Shane MacGowan, Paul McCartney, Aerosmith, Willie Nelson, Alice Cooper, ZZ Top, Ryan Adams, Butch Walker, Keith Richards, and T-Bone Burnett. All of these gigs were products of Depp’s solid, much-sought-after rhythm guitar work, rather than sickening indulgences afforded to the very famous.
“The kind of luxury now is, anybody with a certain amount of success, if you have a kind of musical being, you can go out and start a band and capitalize on your work in other areas,” said Depp, who maybe technically did that, but at least it didn’t have his name in it. “I hate the idea, ‘Come see me play the guitar because you’ve seen me in 12 movies,” concluded the man whom many people have seen play the guitar, but definitely not for that reason.
Depp then entered the premiere of a movie he’d like you to come see because you’ve seen him in 12 movies.
[via The Hollywood Reporter]