Alice Cooper recently spoke about the touring challenges facing his rock supergroup Hollywood Vampires. He addressed the topic in an interview on Trunk Nation with Eddie Trunk.
When asked why Hollywood Vampires performs significantly more in Europe than in America, Cooper explained that Johnny Depp’s base in London — combined with a surge in acting opportunities following his high-profile legal victory — has made it difficult to bring the band stateside.
“We can’t get Johnny out of London,” Cooper said. “He lives in London. He has a house in LA and New York. But Johnny is doing a lot of acting now. When he won the lawsuit, all of a sudden, everybody wanted Johnny back down. Because he cleared his name.”
Cooper went on to describe just how busy Depp has become since winning his defamation case against Amber Heard. He noted the unexpected consequence it had on the band’s availability.
“So he’s directing now. He’s doing movies. He’s done three movies since I think I’ve seen him last,” Cooper continued. “So it’s hard getting him out of London. But the last time we were there, when we played, he said, ‘I’m in a 44-room castle by myself. I can’t wait to get on stage.’ You know, I can see why. He was like, ‘I gotta get on the road.'”
Cooper also took a moment to highlight Depp’s musical abilities, underscoring that his bandmate’s commitment to the group is genuine. “He’s a serious guitar player,” Cooper added. “He can play stuff acoustically that a lot of guitar players can’t even start to play.”
To understand why Depp’s absence carries such weight for the band, it helps to look at how Hollywood Vampires came together — and what the group has always meant to its members.
Hollywood Vampires is an American rock supergroup formed in 2012 by Alice Cooper, Johnny Depp, and Joe Perry. The group’s name is a direct nod to Cooper’s own history: he founded a celebrity drinking club called The Hollywood Vampires in the 1970s, whose members included John Lennon and Harry Nilsson. Decades later, Cooper revived the name as a tribute act-turned-original band, bringing in Depp and Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry as co-founders.
Louder Sound reported that what makes the group particularly unlikely is that its members — once associated with rock excess — came together in a far more grounded chapter of their lives. Cooper himself is a well-known advocate of sobriety. The band initially formed to record a covers album paying homage to rock legends who died young. It eventually went on to release original material as well.
The band has consistently found a stronger audience in Europe than in the United States. This pattern predates Depp’s post-lawsuit career resurgence. As Equipboard noted, Hollywood Vampires has been more active on the European touring circuit, with scheduling and Depp’s London residency playing a central role in shaping where the group performs.
Depp’s legal victory in 2022 over Amber Heard marked a turning point — not just personally, but professionally. With his name cleared, studios and directors began reaching out again, pulling him back into a world of film work that had largely gone quiet during the trial. Cooper’s comments make clear that while the verdict was a win for Depp, it came with a trade-off for the band — more film sets, fewer tour dates.
Hollywood Vampires continues to schedule European shows as Depp navigates a busy slate of acting and directing projects. Fans on the other side of the Atlantic are still waiting for the group to make its way back to American stages.
