Johnny Depp Used Music To Escape Abusive Upbringing

(Classic Rock) Johnny Depp has revealed how learning to play the guitar offered an escape from the "nightmare" of his abusive upbringing. The guitarist and Hollywood star was a special guest at the Classic Rock Roll Of Honour in Tokyo and he gave a frank, in-depth interview to Classic Rock about his career in the movies, his role as a guitarist in rock supergroup Hollywood Vampires and his traumatic childhood.

After convincing his mother to buy him "a sh*tty little Decca guitar for 25 bucks, and some little blue Plush amp that sounded like... it was just trash," the young Depp began a lifelong love affair with music.

He adds: "I found a way to escape all the, sort of, nightmare home stuff, you know? It was a pretty radical - a pretty unpredictable - household that I lived in. You never knew what was going to be coming next. It might be an ashtray thrown at your head. Or a shoe."

Depp says the violence came mostly from his mother, but adds: "My dad was good with the belt. But those were different days. They did what they knew best.

"But when I found guitar, from that moment on, like, I don't have any memory whatsoever of puberty. None. Because I just literally locked myself in my bedroom and paid attention to the records, and I learned stuff." Read more here.

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