In their latest musical collaboration, actor Johnny Depp and British guitar hero Jeff Beck are accused of plagiarizing a poem read by a jail prisoner decades ago.
Depp, 59, and the 78-year-old former Yardbirds axman published "18" last month, just weeks after the actor won his defamation battle against ex-wife Amber Heard.
Johnny Depp, Jeff Beck Accused of Plagiarism on New Album
According to Rolling Stone, one of the album's tracks contains Depp saying remarks that were said by a convicted murderer and robber named Slim Wilson in 1964. Slim Wilson, actual name Willie Davis, was a railway hopper and gambling fraud who delivered a series of filthy poetry.
The poetry, dubbed "toasts," was recorded by folklorist Bruce Jackson when Wilson was incarcerated at Missouri State Penitentiary, according to the source. In his 1974 book 'Get Your Ass in the Water and Swim Like Me,' Bruce Jackson taped Wilson reading a toast named 'Hobo Ben,' and provided a copy of the piece.
Lines from 'Hobo Ben' were virtually verbatim repeated on Depp and Beck's new experimental spoken-word song 'Sad Mother--n' Parade,' for which the duo earned the sole composition credit. According to the publication, Jackson's son, Michael Lee Jackson, is a lawyer who specializes in music and intellectual property.
Michael is said to be considering legal action against the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' star and 'Going Down' guitarist. According to the report, legal action would be difficult because "Hobo Ben" was an oral tradition with no confirmed creator. According to Jackson, who is a SUNY Distinguished Professor and the James Agee Professor of American Culture at the University of Buffalo, the stolen lyrics are more of an ethical concern than a legal one. New York Post reported.
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Depp's aide reportedly acknowledged that the Hollywood star kicked Amber Heard in the head in text messages that were deleted from the former couple's defamation trial.
Over the weekend, more than 6,000 previously sealed pages in the case, which made headlines around the world when it was aired, were made public. The US defamation trial began on April 11 in Fairfax, Virginia, and resulted from a lawsuit brought by Depp against his ex-wife in March 2019.
Depp claimed that Heard defamed him in a Washington Post op-ed in which she identified herself as a public figure representing domestic abuse. In November 2020, Heard filed a counter-suit, requesting immunity from Depp's accusations.
According to Independent, on June 1, a jury ruled decisively in Depp's favor that Heard had defamed him in three remarks. Jurors also determined that one of three remarks emphasized in Heard's counter-suit defamed her. Depp was granted $10.35 million in damages, while Heard received $2 million. They have both filed appeals against the jury's verdicts.
Another recent charge comes from two-time Emmy nominee Christina Ricci, who claims that three-time Oscar nominee Johnny Depp explained what homosexuality was to her when she was nine years old. The 42-year-old former child star appeared on the set of Mermaids in Massachusetts, when she was in her debut film, with co-star Winona Ryder, in 1989, someone accused her of being homophobic.
When they began their four-year affair, which ended in 1993, the 59-year-old nineties heartthrob was 26 and the 50-year-old Oscar nominee was 17. In Sally Potter's 2000 indie thriller 'The Man Who Cried,' the California-born, New Jersey-raised actress filmed her first sex scene with Johnny Depp, which she described as strange because he was like a big brother.
Ricci and Depp also had a moment in Terry Gilliam's 1998 black comedy Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, where they portrayed love interests in Tim Burton's 1999 supernatural horror 'Sleepy Hollow,' as per Daily Mail.
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