Alice Cooper says there's 'no drama' with bandmate Johnny Depp amid legal woes: 'He's one of my best buddies'
Johnny Depp "can't wait to get back onstage," his friend and bandmate Alice Cooper says of the actor who last week was denied an appeal against his "wife beater" libel ruling in the U.K.
In a new interview with The Daily Beast, Cooper, 73, says Depp's legal troubles and fallout from his rocky marriage to ex-wife Amber Heard won't get in the way of their plans to release a new Hollywood Vampires album. Depp, 57, and Cooper formed the supergroup in 2015 alongside Aerosmith's Joe Perry, 70.
"There’s no drama," Cooper says of Depp, whom he calls "one of my best buddies" in the interview. "[Johnny] said, 'Hey, that’s another world. That has nothing to do with what I’m doing in the band.' He’s like, 'I can’t wait to get back onstage.' He’s one of my best buddies."
Related: Johnny Depp refused permission to appeal against High Court ruling
According to Cooper, the Pirates of the Caribbean star has been writing songs, which the veteran rocker expects to have been inspired from his recent personal dramas.
"I know Johnny was writing all last year, when that whole thing was going on with him," Cooper tells the outlet. "But you know, that’s not going to stop him from going home and writing. In fact, it probably helped. I’m expecting some pretty interesting songs."
He adds, "It’ll be great when we all get together. You know, the crazy thing about that band is you’ve got eight guys in the band, and you’ve got three alpha males leading it, but there’s never been one argument. Nobody’s ever even raised their voice to anybody in that band. It’s really cool."
Cooper also voices support for his friend's music talents.
"And he just made an album with Jeff Beck. For anybody that thinks Johnny’s not a guitar player, Johnny can play, man. When Joe got sick and couldn’t play in New York, actually, Johnny and Tommy Henriksen played all the leads. People were shocked. They just went, 'What?!' They didn’t know he was that good."
It's not the first time Cooper has defended Depp amid his legal fight and divorce from Heard, who has accused him of domestic abuse.
"All the stuff you heard last year about Johnny, 99 percent was just bull,” Cooper said in a 2019 interview with Billboard.
“I’ve never seen him look better in my life,” the singer added. “I’ve never seen him happier. I’ve never heard him play better, and the way the press would have it is he’s a total destruction and ready to die. Totally not true.”
In his Daily Beast interview, Cooper also speaks openly about his sobriety, his religious faith and his "truly unpolitical" platform.
"When people say, 'Well, you’re Republican, so…' I’m not actually Republican," he says. "I’m actually very in the middle. I’m a moderate. I try to find the good on both sides, and I think that’s the way to be. But if you’re Christian, and you’re homophobic, and you’re anti-this and anti-that, that’s just wrong. My view of Christianity is bigger than that."
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