Rock & metal
Johnny Depp
Johnny Depp, an American actor born in 1963, is also a keen guitarist. He performed twice at the Montreux Jazz Festival: in 2018 with his rock supergroup, the Hollywood Vampires, then on 15 July 2022 as a guest of the guitarist Jeff Beck. In Montreux, above all, he measured an immense popularity, adulated more in the street than on stage. The partner of the singer Vanessa Paradis from 1998 to 2012, he is the father of their two children, Lily-Rose and Jack.
Johnny Depp in Montreux: the guitar and the fervour
Two visits to the festival
Johnny Depp has enjoyed playing the guitar on stage for many years. He first came to the Montreux Jazz Festival in 2018 with the Hollywood Vampires, the band in which he plays alongside Alice Cooper.
The excitement then was not that of 2022: in the meantime, a widely publicised trial had made him very popular on social media, especially among the young. On his return, he would be remembered as one of the stars of the edition, adulated more in the street than on stage.
15 July 2022: the evening with Jeff Beck
On 15 July 2022, Johnny Depp stepped onto the stage of the Auditorium Stravinski, at the 2m2c, as a special guest of Jeff Beck, with whom he had just released “18”, an album of covers issued that very day. His fans waited from the afternoon at the artists’ entrance.
After half an hour of rock and blues, Jeff Beck brought on the actor, his guitar spotted like a leopard. Depp launched into “This Is A Song For Miss Hedy Lamarr”, the album’s first single, then covers of John Lennon’s “Isolation” and Jimi Hendrix’s “Little Wing”, before the Beatles’ “A Day in the Life” closed the concert.
The hall emptied calmly, but outside the fervour was total: teenagers chanted his name near his tour bus, amid placards and raised phones. A cigarillo on his lips, Johnny Depp waved, the image of a near-public resurrection.
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