Johnny Depp, Joe Perry, and Alice Cooper will be in the studio next month, hopefully, piecing together another album for Hollywood Vampires. Depp, Cooper, and Perry are working separately to write songs for the upcoming album. The Vampires started as a tribute band, but in the spring of 2018, the first all original Vampires album will be produced. What will Cooper, Depp, and Perry write to thrill their huge fan base?
Alice Cooper explained that the new Hollywood Vampires album will be hard rock, and all original music written by Alice Cooper, Johnny Depp, and Joe Perry. Read more about Alice Cooper’s statements from the Inquisitr here, but can other information be cobbled together to predict more about the upcoming Hollywood Vampires album?
While the Hollywood Vampires have written a few songs together in the past, most of their work has been performing cover tunes. Now though Johnny Depp, Alice Cooper, and Joe Perry are taking the Vampires to a whole other level with a full album of original music.
As Joe Perry explains to Best Classic Bands, all of the Hollywood Vampires are quite busy, so finding time to get Johnny Depp, and Alice Cooper together for recording can be difficult.
“We’ve talked about putting out another record and I’m hoping that in February we’ll be able to dig in and see what we can come up with before the tour, but that’s going to depend on if everybody is available.”
While Johnny Depp has the unusual situation of being a prolific movie star, as well as an accomplished musician, Joe Perry and Alice Cooper have other bands. Joe Perry explains the difficulties of Johnny Depp, Alice Cooper, and Perry finding time for Hollywood Vampires.
“Johnny has another career he has to deal with and the thing about the Vampires is it’s really about everybody having the time to do it. It’s more like a pickup band in some ways. When everybody’s free, that’s when it happens.”
Alice Cooper is reportedly on tour with his other band, promoting his recent Paranormal album, but Alice plans to be free in February. Joe Perry has been part of Aerosmith for 5o years, and Perry recently completed a solo album. Johnny Depp has scheduled some time away from his busy movie-making career for the Hollywood Vampires.
Alice Cooper reportedly explained that he, Joe Perry, and Johnny Depp have been writing songs separately, that will be used on the Hollywood Vampires album. Joe Perry has also been working on a solo album and has released a single “Aye, Aye, Aye,” perhaps one can tell a bit of where Joe Perry is going with his music lately from the video below.
Joe Perry’s guitar hand is in top form. That much can be gleaned from Perry’s music video above. Joe Perry has not slowed down in the least since the 1970s heyday of Aerosmith. Coupled with Johnny Depp’s fabulous chops, the guitar work is likely to be complex, powerful, hard driving. and skillfully played.
Similarly, everyone is familiar with Alice Cooper’s previous work, including his most recent album, Paranormal. Everyone knows the Alice Cooper sound, as well as the classic signature riffs of Joe Perry as he works those frets. This leaves Johnny Depp as a sort of wildcard for the Vampires. What sort of songs will Johnny Depp write for the new Hollywood Vampires album?
Johnny Depp has quite a few writing credits for original songs, but few were written by Depp alone. As a guitarist, Johnny Depp collaborated in the writing of quite a few songs, but the song he wrote for Iggy Pop, titled “Hollywood Affair” is one of the few Johnny Depp wrote without a collaborator.
Johnny Depp also collaborated with Bobby Durango to write Mary for the Rock City Angels.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AW33fI-iv94
It is exciting to think of new music written by such a skillful artist as Johnny Depp being heard for the first time.
Joe Perry took a very relaxed attitude toward his own recent solo album Sweetzerland Manifesto. Joe Perry wrote the melodies and allowed the singers to write the lyrics. The New York Dolls singer David Johansen, Terry Reid, Gary Cherone of Extreme, and Cheap Trick’s Robin Zander wrote all the lyrics with just a little input from Joe Perry.
Joe Perry explained to Best Classic Bands, he left the lyrics to the singers. Will Alice Cooper write the lions share of Hollywood Vampires lyrics?
“Part of doing a record like this is letting go of the steering wheel. If I wanted to write the lyrics, well, I’ve done plenty of that, but the whole thing is seeing how the music hits them and them feeling comfortable with singing their lyrics. That’s such a big part of it: how they use the words, what their particular comfort range is. But I throw in a line here and there. I’m there listening to everything.”
Will Joe Perry follow this precedent and allow Alice Cooper and perhaps Johnny Depp to write all the lyrics for his Hollywood Vampires songs, or was Joe Perry just saving his best lyrics for the new Vampires album?
Perhaps more can be gleaned from the conditions Hollywood Vampires records under. It seems Alice Cooper, Johnny Depp, and Joe Perry have a unique rule about recording Hollywood Vampires music.
Johnny Depp, Alice Cooper, and Joe Perry do not use drugs, and they do not drink when they record. That alone sets them apart from their forerunners. The Hollywood Vampires pays tribute to rock stars who passed before their time. To Alice Cooper, part of honoring these musicians, many who died as a direct or indirect result of drug abuse, is to stay sober.
Alice Cooper once told Best Classic Bands a bit about the recording process he, Joe Perry, and Johnny Depp went through on a previous Hollywood Vampires album.
“Here we are in the studio making these records of these guys, and everybody in the studio is sober. Johnny’s sober, Joe’s sober, I’m sober, [producer] Bob Ezrin’s sober. Everybody that comes in is drinking coffee or Diet Coke and we’re making this record of these guys that wouldn’t ever have a Diet Coke in their life and at the time when we were drinking with them.”
Alice Cooper, founder of the Hollywood Vampires continued, explaining that musicians rarely dream of a life past 30 years of age. Yet Alice Cooper, Joe Perry, and Johnny Depp found themselves sober in a studio, 50 years later, doing cover tunes for musicians who wrote the music and then passed before their time.
“If you had said ’30 years from now you’re going to be doing a record honoring these guys and you’re going to be in top shape, and you’re going to be drinking Diet Coke’ I would have said ‘You’re out of your mind,’ because none of us planned to live past 30.”
Hollywood Vampires Johnny Depp, Alice Cooper, and Joe Perry will be writing original hard rock music for the new album. Even so, Johnny Depp, Alice Cooper, and Joe Perry still play in memory of the fallen heroes of rock and roll. Here are the tour dates as reported by Best Classic Bands.
Hollywood Vampires Tour Dates with Alice Cooper, Johnny Depp, and Joe Perry May 28 – Moscow, Russia – Olympisky May 30 – St. Petersburg, Russia – Ice Palace June 02 – Hamburg, Germany – Stadtpark June 04 – Berlin, Germany – Zitzdele Spandau June 10 – Helsinki, Finland – Rockin’ Helsinki June 12 – Warsaw, Poland – Torwar June 13 – Prague, Czech Republic – Prague Rocks 2018 June 14 – Mönchengladbach, Germany – Sparkassenpark June 22 – Clisson, France – Hellfest June 24 – Dessel, Belgium – Graspop Festival June 27 – Munich, Germany – Tollwood June 29 – Frankfurt, Germany – Jahrhunderthalle June 30 – Klam, Austria – Clam Castle July 03 – Zurich, Switzerland – Samsung Hall July 07 – Lucca, Italy – Summer Festival July 08 – Rome, Italy – Rock in Roma
Johnny Depp, Joe Perry, and Alice Cooper are committed to producing new hard rock, with perhaps a few modern touches. There will be no alcohol or drugs used in the making of the Hollywood Vampires album.
Johnny Depp, Joe Perry, and Alice Cooper are currently preparing for their Hollywood Vampire recording sessions and summer tour.