Johnny Depp, Alice Cooper, and Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry are joining forces in a new rock supergroup called “Hollywood Vampires,” Cooper revealed on his Instagram page this week.
According to Cooper, the trio’s debut performance will be at the Rock in Rio festival in Brazil in September. The band will share main stage duties with Queens of the Stone Age and System of a Down.
The “Hollywood Vampires” name comes from a drinking group involving famous rock stars in the ’70s. According to Rolling Stone, Cooper, John Lennon, Ringo Starr, Keith Moon, and Harry Nilsson formed the “Lair of the Hollywood Vampires” at West L.A.’s Rainbow Bar and Grill, where members had to outdrink each other to get into the group.
Cooper reportedly first met Depp on the set of 2011’s Dark Shadows; the actor has played a handful of shows alongside “the godfather of shock rock” since. Depp reportedly met Perry when he contributed backup vocals to Aerosmith’s 2012 album Music From Another Dimension.
According to the Rock in Rio festival website, the supergroup has already recorded an album.
In January, Depp told media at the premiere of his most recent film Mortdecai that he finds it “sickening” when actors attempt their own musical pursuits.
“The kind of luxury now is, anybody with a certain amount of success, if you have a kind of musical being, you can go out and start a band and capitalize on your work in other areas,” Depp said. “But I hate the idea, ‘Come see me play the guitar because you’ve seen me in 12 movies.’ It shouldn’t be (that way). You want the people who are listening to the music to only be interested in the music.”