Film + TV

Actor-musician Johnny Depp is sickened by all actor-musicians

by Mark Teo

In case you haven’t noticed, there are plenty of actors who are musicians on the side. (Keanu, you gotta bring back Dogstar, dude.) The most prominent of the bunch might be part-time axeman Johnny Depp, the Pirates of the Caribbean who’s been spotted jamming with everyone from Marilyn Manson to Ryan Adams to One Direction. You’d think, then, that the wannabe rockstar in Depp would sympathize with the likes of Macaulay Culkin, Juliette Lewis and Maya Rudolph—they’re just actors who happen to pursue music, right? Wrong.

In an interview at the world premiere of  Mortdecai, Depp made his message loud and clear: Fuck you, Ryan Gosling. You too, Zooey Deschanel. And Blake Sennett? Don’t think Depp’s forgotten about you. Fuck you, too, Joey the Rat.

“That whole idea for me is a sickening thing, it’s always just made me sick,” said the man-bun incarnate. “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.”

He’s right: Depp’s band isn’t called the Johnny Depp Band. They’re actually called P, and Depp and Butthole Surfers guitarist Gibby Haynes played in the band during the mid ’90s. Still, the scarf-entagled human thumb ring added that actors shouldn’t abuse their film-world success to start a music career.

“The kind of luxury now is, anybody with a certain amount of 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. But I hate the idea, ‘come see me play the guitar because you’ve seen me in 12 movies,’ said Depp, who played guitar on Ryan Adams’ No Shadow EP. “It shouldn’t be.”

“You want the people who are listening to the music to only be interested in the music.”

Tell ’em, Johnny.