Joe Perry Takes Guitar Lessons From Johnny Depp, Says Alice Cooper

Alice Cooper says one of the reasons his Hollywood Vampires guitarists Johnny Depp and Joe Perry get along so well is because they have a teacher-student relationship. But it's not in the order you might think.

"The great thing about Johnny Depp and Joe Perry is, Joe Perry actually takes guitar lessons from Johnny Depp sometimes," Cooper told Billboard in a recent interview. 

Yes, actor Johnny Depp has a lot of tips for rockstar Joe Perry, who has authored some of the most recognizable songs, riffs and solos in the history of rock and roll. It seems insane, but Cooper elaborated. 

"Well, Johnny was a guitar player way before he was an actor," the shock rocker Cooper continued. "We all kinda knew that. I didn’t know how good he was until he came up and played with us two or three times."

Cooper says Depp proved himself over and over again in the early Hollywood Vampires sessions and left little doubt that he was a real deal musician.

"When we put the Hollywood Vampires together, one night Joe got sick and couldn’t play, and Johnny played all the leads. Everybody in the audience was in shock, because Johnny’s a great guitar player. He’s not an actor trying to be a rock star; he’s a rock star that accidentally became an actor."

Of course just because Perry is a famous rock star doesn't mean he has nothing more to learn on the guitar. But what does Johnny Depp actually work on with Perry that Perry didn't know before joining a band with the actor?

Cooper says it actually has a lot to do with a film Depp did back in 2000.

"There was a movie that he did called Chocolat where he played a gypsy jazz guitar player, and he plays all the Django Reinhardt stuff, and that’s the stuff Joe was sitting there listening to going, 'What is that?' [Johnny] goes, 'Let me show you how to play this stuff.' I’m watching Joe trying to pick up the chording on the stuff and I’m going, 'That’s great! These two guitar players are teaching each other stuff!'"

Any guesses as to how much Depp charges for lessons?

Elsewhere in the same Billboard interview, Cooper predicted a comeback of the showmanship and songwriting that was characteristic of rock and roll music in the 1980s. 

"Rock 'n' roll should be a fun music," he said. "These bands like Poison and Warrant and Ratt, they were really having fun with the audience. To me, that was a very positive time in rock 'n' roll. I wish we'd get back to a little more of that. Guns N' Roses, they'd get up there and just kill the audience. Musically, the band was so good."

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