When Patti Smith introduced Johnny Depp on stage throughout her fiftieth anniversary live performance for Horses on the London Palladium, it ought to have been a simple second of celebration.
Two icons – Smith, punk’s enduring poet, and Depp, the beloved actor and musician – sharing the stage for a rendition of Folks Have the Energy.
However as a substitute, the second sparked one thing extra dissonant amongst followers, given the sophisticated determine Depp has change into.
Smith launched Depp with: ‘And Johnny? And Johnny Depp? The unique Johnny,’ she informed the group, nodding to her personal lyric from Land / Horses: ‘the boy checked out Johnny.’
The second felt weighed down by Depp’s public picture, which has been reshaped by years of authorized battles and allegations of abuse from his ex-wife, Amber Heard.
On Reddit, many followers expressed disappointment in Smith’s choice.
@Strawberryskullskill wrote, ‘Ugh. The true instance of how white cis-men normally don’t actually get cancelled.’
One other person, @Moriturism, added bluntly: ‘nothing means something to wealthy ‘political’ artists. simply empty phrases and cash making.’
The feedback communicate to a rising cultural weariness: the sense that celebrities will at all times shut ranks, regardless of who will get damage. For half a century, Patti Smith has personified integrity and rise up, however to many, that picture flickered on this second.
And this isn’t the primary time she’s aligned herself with Depp. He performed guitar on her 2012 album Banga and has appeared along with her on stage earlier than, together with a current tribute live performance in New York.
She’s additionally spoken glowingly about him on social media. As @silliestjupiter put it on Reddit, ‘She LOVES him, she posts glowing reward for him typically sufficient that my view of her has been tainted for some time now.’
What occurred between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard?
Johnny Depp sued ex-wife Amber Heard for defamation over her 2018 Washington Publish op-ed, by which she described herself as a survivor of home abuse (with out naming him).
Heard had accused Depp of repeated bodily violence, emotional abuse, and sexual assault throughout their marriage, together with claims that he struck her, threw objects, and assaulted her with a bottle throughout a 2015 struggle in Australia.
Depp denied all allegations, asserting that Heard was the abuser, and testified that she punched him, threw bottles, and as soon as severed a part of his fingertip throughout an argument. He claimed she fabricated proof to painting herself as a sufferer and harm his profession.
The 2022 Virginia trial turned a world media spectacle, with in depth testimony, audio recordings, and images from either side. The jury largely sided with Depp, discovering that Heard’s op-ed statements have been false, defamatory, and made with ‘precise malice.’
Depp was awarded $10.35 million (£8.2 million), whereas Heard received $2 million (£1.6 million) on one component of her countersuit — over Depp’s lawyer calling her allegations a ‘hoax.’
Each appealed however settled later that yr, with Heard agreeing to pay Depp $1 million (£790,000), which he pledged to charity. The case fueled intense public debate about home abuse, credibility, gender, and the function of social media in shaping justice.
Nonetheless, some followers argue that anticipating purity from counterculture icons misunderstands their historical past totally.
@Trap_Cubicle5000 wrote, ‘Right here’s my alternative to counter the simple-minded punk rock historical past revisionism that’s over repeated—punk rockers in America have been by no means completely leftist, and their “politics” have been virtually at all times extra centered on shock worth than on something coherent… Folks confuse artists with political figures.’
It’s a reminder that punk’s rise up was by no means synonymous with progressivism and that Smith, like many icons earlier than her, could also be certain extra by fame’s interior circle than by any single creed.
Nonetheless, many argue that the result of the Depp v. Heard trial was overwhelmingly exonerating to Depp, and to disregard that’s to disregard the court docket’s choice. Seemingly, Smith is amongst those that imagine that he isn’t the abuser Heard claimed he was.
Nonetheless, when an artist who constructed her profession on empathy and radical honesty invitations somebody accused of violence into her highlight, it doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It tells survivors and the viewers one thing about whose voices nonetheless get amplified.
Patti Smith as soon as sang that folks have the ability, however this week, a lot of her listeners have been left questioning precisely who she believes ought to maintain it.
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