Johnny Depp: Alice Cooper Defends Hollywood Vampires Bandmate Amid Abuse Allegations

Alice Cooper is defending bandmate Johnny Depp concerning last year’s headlines about the 55-year-old’s physical appearance, as well as his ongoing lawsuit against ex-wife Amber Heard.

Cooper, who makes up a quarter of his, Depp’s, Joe Perry‘s and Tommy Henriksen’s rock group The Hollywood Vampires, told Billboard that he’s never seen Depp “happier” amid the ongoing case involving Heard and reports of his health.

“All the stuff you heard last year about Johnny, 99 percent was just bull,” Cooper said. “I’ve never seen him look better in my life. I’ve never seen him happier. I’ve never heard him play better, and the way the press would have it is ‘he’s a total destruction and ready to die.’ Totally not true.”

Cooper said that the band’s upcoming album will include songs written by Depp about his frustrations over the abuse allegations leveled against him.

“I’m spewing his venom on this album, which is kind of good,” Cooper, 71, said.

As previously reported, Depp filed a $50 million defamation lawsuit against Heard earlier this month, claiming she accused him of domestic abuse to advance her career. The lawsuit cites a Washington Post op-ed by Heard in which she discusses her experience with domestic abuse. In the suit, Depp claims that even though he’s not named in the Post article, it was clear she was referring to him. He said that the allegations against him were “categorically and demonstrably false.”

He also accused the Aquaman actress of beginning her relationship with Tesla co-founder Elon Musk a month after marrying Depp in 2015.

According to the lawsuit, Heard had “late night” visits with the billionaire at the Los Angeles penthouse she shared with Depp when he was out of the country, PEOPLE reports. The Pirates of the Caribbean star claims Musk had access to the penthouse the same day Heard “presented her battered face to the public.”

A representative for Musk told PEOPLE that his relationship with Heard did not start until May 2016, after Heard and Depp split earlier that same month.

“Elon and Amber didn’t start seeing each other until May 2016, and even then it was infrequent,” the rep said. “Their relationship didn’t become romantic until some time later.”

Heard claimed Depp attacked her on May 21, 2016 and photos appearing to show her face bruised were made public. But Depp claimed in the lawsuit that her claims were “conclusively refuted by two separate responding police officers, a litany of neutral third-party witnesses, and 87 newly obtained surveillance camera videos.”

Depp’s lawsuit pointed out that he was dropped from Disney’s next Pirates of the Caribbean movie four days after Heard’s op-ed was published.

In her own statement, Heard called Depp’s lawsuit “frivolous.”

“This frivolous action is just the latest of Johnny Depp’s repeated efforts to silence Amber Heard,” Heard’s attorney, Eric M. George, told Deadline. “She will not be silenced.”

Heard and Depp were married for 15 months before she filed for divorce in May 2016, and the divorce was finalized in January 2017. She received a $7 million settlement, most of which went to charitable causes, including groups helping victims of domestic violence.

Heard briefly dated Musk in 2016 through August 2017. They got back together briefly in January and February 2018.

MICHAEL CAMPANELLA / Contributor / Getty