Johnny Depp has one word for actors who capitalize on their fame to make music – “sickening.” According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Depp was at the Berlin premiere of his film, Mortdecai, when he unleashed a verbal attack on his fellow actors who are also musicians. “That whole idea for me is a sickening thing, it’s always just made me sick,” Depp explained. The actor didn’t recall any names but Russell Crowe, Jared Leto, and Billy Bob Thornton may be some of the actor/musicians Depp is referring to.
On the contrary, Depp plays the guitar, and he performed with Marilyn Manson last year at Los Angeles’ the Roxy. Manson and Depp also performed in 2012 at the Revolver Golden Gods Awards. The actor appeared on Manson’s cover of Carly Simon‘s “You’re So Vain.” The song was released as a bonus track. Overall, Depp has played guitar on other artists’ albums too, including the Black Keys, Oasis, the New Basement Tapes, and Rock City Angels (band signed to Geffen Records). To defend his position, Depp said occasionally playing music is fine, “I’ve been very lucky to play on friends’ records, and it’s still going.” Depp added, “Music is still part of my life…But you won’t be hearing The Johnny Depp Band. That won’t ever exist.”
The actor considers himself a low-key musician, and he doesn’t feel he is using his acting career to gain exposure in the music business. “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.” Depp concluded his argument by saying, he hates the idea of actors thinking people should come see them play music because they’ve seen the actor in a movie. He added, “You should want the people who are listening to the music to only be interested in the music.” Most recently, actor Eddie Murphy just released his reggae song, “Oh Jah Jah.” The song is scheduled to be released on January 27th. In 2013, Murphy appeared on the song “Red Light” with Snoop Lion (aka Snoop Dogg).