The four icons Johnny Depp heralds as his favourites: “A true legend in every sense”
When you model what is perhaps your most famous movie character on Keith Richards, it becomes somewhat of a prerequisite to be into music. Scratch that, it becomes somewhat of a prerequisite to be a snarling rocker, who always wears a trilby and leather jacket. Yes, Johnny Depp, like the rest of us, is a walking cliché.
Of course, beneath that cliche is a genuinely talented artist. Strip the guitar off his back, and what remains is arguably one of the best actors of a generation. Starting off as the brooding heartthrob before developing into a mercurial character actor who embraces the bizarre, he has become a stalwart of the big screen.
But before all of that, his heart was truly elsewhere. Music was where he foresaw his famous career and he took all the necessary steps to try and actualise that. Forming bands, hanging out in the smoky hallways of LA’s most famous venues, Depp was fully immersed in the Californian music scene.
While the big screen eventually occupied a large amount of his exposure, that didn’t stop him from scratching a much needed itch. He milked every ounce of opportunity his globe-trotting fame provided him, sharing the stage with guitarist Jeff Beck and Alice Cooper as part of the Hollywood Vampires group, as well as Iggy Pop and Marilyn Manson as a guest on stage.
Such a side career has given him an element of kudos in music circles, a weight to his musical opinions that perhaps his filmmaking counterparts didn’t have. So when Depp was asked to reel off a list of his favourite artists, fans waited with bated breath to find out who would be played next on their rotation, courtesy of Depp’s recommendation.
“To be honest, I could choose any Patti Smith record” he said. Adding “They are each a gift from the gods. Alongside Dylan, Waits, and Richards, she is one of music’s great survivors, and a true legend in every sense of the word. As important a poet as has ever drawn breath.”
In keeping with Depp’s ability to use his fame to swim in circles us mortals could ever dream of, he managed to actually inspire a Patti Smith song. Having met at one of her gigs in Los Angeles in 2007, Smith and Depp formed a loving friendship that saw them share literature, art and political ideas with one another.
The kinship formed by the pair allowed Smith to begin filling a personal void left by the death of her brother and in light of that, she felt compelled to pen a track in his honour. The song ‘Nine’ from her 2012 album Banga focuses on dreamstate observations and muses over the human experience in an artistically abstract way, but Smith confirms that the kernel of the idea came from time spent with Depp.
She said, “I went to visit him in Puerto Rico when he was filming The Rum Diary. It was his birthday and I didn’t have a present, so I wrote him a song.” Not a bad gift for a man who seemingly already has it all.
