Four months after the verdict in his defamation trial against ex-wife Amber Heard, Johnny Depp performed with Jeff Beck in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday night
Johnny Depp performed alongside guitarist Jeff Beck at a concert in Washington, D.C., just over four months since a verdict was reached in his Virginia defamation trial against ex-wife Amber Heard.
Depp and Beck, who released an album together over the summer, began their U.S. tour (which goes through November and has stops in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Nashville and more) at The Anthem on Tuesday night. His attorneys from the Fairfax, Virginia, trial, Camille Vasquez and Benjamin Chew, attended the show and posed for photos backstage wearing VIP passes.
On June 1, the jury sided mostly with Depp, 59, and awarded him more than $10 million in damages. They found that Heard, 36, defamed him in her 2018 op-ed about domestic abuse, though she didn’t mention him by name in the article. Additionally, Heard won one of her defamation counterclaims, awarded $2 million in damages. They are both appealing the verdicts.
Some of the avid Depp fans who attended the court proceedings earlier this year showed up for the rock performance Tuesday. Jhoane Garcia, who went to trial frequently, says the concert felt like a reunion of Depp fans who met each other at the courthouse.
“It was great coming here. It felt like a reunion. I saw so many people from the trial. I felt like it was just family being with them again. We were together for six weeks. We went through a lot and we saw Johnny go through a lot as well,” she tells PEOPLE. “And I was so glad to see Camille and Ben, and we all felt really close to each other for some reason, a special connection with each other.”
Beck played the first 45 minutes of the show after the opening act, Desure, who told the audience that he first met Depp in a tattoo parlor. Desure said Depp eventually heard his music and asked him to open for them. He thanked the actor and Beck for bringing him on the tour. The crowd went wild when Depp came out for the second half of the set. The Pirates of the Caribbean actor bowed to the audience and pointed in Beck’s direction. He then walked toward Beck, bowed in his direction and began playing his guitar.
“I get to play with these guys; somehow weird, but amazing,” Depp said after playing his first few songs with Beck. “I want to say thank you to a lot of people who are in this room.” Depp didn’t say much more between the songs he sang lead vocals on, but that didn’t stop some of his female fans from throwing underwear and bras onto the stage during the final song.
PEOPLE confirmed last month that Depp is dating attorney Joelle Rich, who previously represented him during his 2020 U.K. libel case.
In August, MTV featured Depp during its 2022 Video Music Awards broadcast, with the actor making a cameo in a pre-recorded bit with his face digitally superimposed onto the helmet of the show’s Moon Person. Heard’s sister Whitney Henriquez spoke out about the appearance, slamming MTV for his inclusion and calling the organizers “disgusting and clearly desperate.”
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