Johnny Depp to release music album with guitarist Jeff Beck

Fresh off his highly publicized, controversial defamation suit, actor Johnny Depp is set to release an album with English rocker Jeff Beck on July 15, a statement released Thursday said.

The 13-track record entitled “18” is largely comprised of covers, the statement from Depp and Beck said, with music from artists including the Beach Boys, Marvin Gaye and the Velvet Underground.

But it will also include two songs the 59-year-old Depp penned: This is a Song for Miss Hedy Lamarr, and Sad M**********n’ Parade.

The duo met in 2016, bonding “over cars and guitars” before Beck, 77, said he began to appreciate “Depp’s serious songwriting skills and ear for music.”

They began working on the LP in 2019.

“When Johnny and I started playing together, it really ignited our youthful spirit and creativity,” Beck said. “We would joke about how we felt 18 again, so that just became the album title too.”

It’s far from Depp’s first foray into music: the actor for more than a decade has recorded and toured with the Hollywood Vampires, a supergroup he started with Alice Cooper and Joe Perry.

“It’s an extraordinary honour to play and write music with Jeff, one of the true greats and someone I am now privileged enough to call my brother,” Depp said in the statement.

Beck is currently on tour in Europe with Depp as a special guest.

Last week, Depp won $15 million in a defamation suit against his former partner Amber Heard, who was awarded $2 million.

The jury found that Heard, 36, defamed Depp in describing herself as a “public figure representing domestic abuse” in a 2018 op-ed published in The Washington Post, though she did not identify the actor by name. Depp held he suffered reputational damage following its publication.

Heard received $2 million in damages because the jury found that one of Depp’s lawyers had defamed her.

The bombastic six-week trial gained widespread attention not least because it was televised and livestreamed, with clips making their way to social media as Heard became a target of online vitriol and mockery.

• Americas