Alice Cooper recently came off a two-month tour with his Hollywood Vampires bandmate Johnny Depp, yet he says they never spoke about Depp’s widely publicized defamation trial against ex-wife Amber Heard.
“I don’t think it was ever mentioned on the tour because nobody cared,” Cooper said in an interview with Vulture. “I never watched a moment of the trials. It was so blown out of proportion. It was such a Hollywood thing. I knew Johnny was gonna win because how many people have other exes literally on their side testifying for him? That never happens. I turned it right off and said, ‘Well, you know, Johnny will weather this storm and when he’s onstage, he’s our guitar player.’”
Cooper formed Hollywood Vampires with Depp and Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry in 2012. The group toured across the U.K. and Europe from June to July, one year after the televised defamation trial.
When asked if there was hesitancy to bring Depp on tour, given the domestic abuse allegations against him, Cooper said, “Not at all.”
“If you talk to Johnny about it, it was something that happened,” he said. “He was just like, ‘Yeah, yeah, what’s the next song?’ For Johnny, it was one of those things where… you can’t say it got blown out of proportion, but I don’t know why they would televise the proceedings, right? It’s because of the fame of both people.”
Cooper added, “The best thing I said about the whole thing was, ‘They should do a remake of “War of the Roses” with Johnny and Amber.’ Who’s not gonna go see that? I’m going to see that! To make it even better, make their lawyers Angie and Brad. All you need is a really funny director, and that’s gonna be a monster hit.”
In June 2022, a Virginia jury found that Heard had defamed Depp when she wrote a 2018 Washington Post op-ed alluding to her past claims of domestic violence. The jury also found that Depp defamed Heard in the course of fighting back against her charges.
Depp was awarded $10 million in compensatory damages, plus $5 million in punitive damages — which were reduced to $350,000 in accordance with the state’s statutory cap. The jury awarded Heard $2 million in compensatory damages for her counterclaim.
