Last year, reports of a band called Hollywood Vampires with Johnny Depp and Alice Cooper circulated, but vanished just as quickly as they appeared. Finally, a story about the group broke in Rolling Stone today, and it’s a big one. Depp and Cooper have been recording an album with producer Bob Ezrin (whose name you’ll remember from Phish’s Fuego, among many many other projects), and it includes a song written by the legendary Paul McCartney back in 1969.
The record also features work from Aerosmith’s Joe Perry, who said, “The record is dedicated to all the friends we’ve lost to drugs and alcohol over the years and getting people to come in and cover the songs their friends wrote.” It includes a version of the song “Come And Get It,” which McCartney wrote for the band Badfinger back in the 60’s.
Perry tells the story of McCartney’s role in the sessions:
“I was joking with him and said, ‘You probably wrote this in 20 minutes,'” and he said, ‘Actually, I was in bed sleeping and I knew they needed a song for this band we signed, and I went downstairs and played it on the piano and then went to Abbey Road an hour before the rest of the [Beatles], played all the instruments, made the demo and gave [Badfinger, then called the Iveys] the song.'”
If all goes to plan, the Hollywood Vampires will put the album out later this year, and will tour in support of it! They currently have one date on the books, at Rock in Rio.
[Via Rolling Stone]