A new project by Johnny Depp will soon be arriving.
A rep for Depp confirms to E! News that the actor is releasing a new album next month with guitarist Jeff Beck.
Beck broke the news of the project’s upcoming release date during a June 2 performance with Depp in Gateshead, England, per The Guardian.
“I met this guy five years ago and we’ve never stopped laughing since,” Beck noted. “We actually made an album. I don’t know how it happened. It will be out in July.”
Beck and Depp have recently taken the stage together numerous times in the U.K. The actor first joined Beck at a concert in Sheffield on May 29. The pair later performed at Robert Albert Hall in London–where Depp’s ex Kate Moss was spotted leaving the venue post-show. Moss’s concert appearance was six days after she testified in Depp’s defamation trial against his ex-wife Amber Heard.
Viral Moments From Johnny Depp and Amber Heard’s Defamation Trial
Throughout their tour, Depp has joined Beck on the guitar for covers of classic hits such as Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” and Jimi Hendrix’s “Little Wing,” as seen in videos posted from the performances. The duo also performed their 2020 collaboration titled “Isolation,” a remake of John Lennon’s 1970s song by the same name.
The news of their upcoming album came just one day after Depp won the defamation lawsuit.
Depp filed the suit against Heard after she wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post in 2018. In the personal essay, Heard labeled herself as a “public figure representing domestic abuse.” She never mentioned Depp’s name in the piece. Depp’s lawyers argued in prior court documents that Heard “concocted the story in hopes of generating positive publicity and to advance her career.”
The documents went on to argue that Heard’s essay “depends on the central premise that Ms. Heard was a domestic abuse victim and that Mr. Depp perpetrated domestic violence against her.”
After more than six weeks, a Virginia jury found Heard liable for defaming Depp and awarded the actor $15 million in damages. Following this verdict, the judge reduced punitive damages to the state cap of $350,000, making Depp’s total damages almost $10.4 million. (Heard, who countersued her ex-husband for $100 million, was awarded $2 million in compensatory damages.)
Following the verdict, Heard’s attorney Elaine Charlson Bredehoft shared that her client plans to appeal the case.
“She has some excellent grounds for it,” Bredehoft said during a June 2 appearance on Today.
Bredehoft added that there were a “number of the evidentiary issues” in the trial. “There was so much evidence that did not come in.”
“Defamation is not intended to shut survivors down, and if that’s the message that the public takes from this, we’re going to have a major problem,” says Sarah Klein, an attorney and survivor. She joined LX News host Tabitha Lipkin to discuss the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard defamation trial verdict.
