The actor also paid tribute to Jeff Beck at a Hollywood Vampires concert in Paris on Sunday
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Johnny Depp is paying tribute to late friend Jeff Beck.
On Saturday, for what would have been the musician’s 79th birthday, Depp, 60, shared a photo on Instagram of himself and Beck working on a car engine.
He wrote in the caption, “Happy birthday my dearest brother Jeff. You are with me, always. You are everything!!! Your fellow giant toddler… eternal love and worship.”
Beck, a British guitarist known for The Yardbirds band, died “after suddenly contracting bacterial meningitis” in January, his family revealed at the time.
At a concert in Paris on Sunday, Depp, who is currently on tour with his band The Hollywood Vampires, honored Beck onstage. He addressed the crowd at one point and explained why a white Stratocaster guitar stood centerstage on a riser unused for most of the performance.
“Bonjour, good evening,” said Depp. “We recently, all of us, lost a dear friend, Jeff Beck. Yesterday was his birthday. I would like to introduce you to one of his friends. His best friend — his Strat.”
Lifting the guitar off its stand, the Oscar nominee continued, “He would want his dear friend Joe Perry on this,” and handed the guitar to his bandmate Perry, 72, who performed a medley of Link Wray’s “Rumble” (a song Depp and Beck played in concert) and “Beck’s Bolero.”
Beck released a collaborative album titled 18 with Depp last year. Depp said in a statement at the time, “It’s an extraordinary honor to play and write music with Jeff, one of the true greats and someone I am now privileged enough to call my brother.”
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At the same time, Beck said of Depp, “I haven’t had another creative partner like him for ages. He was a major force on this record. I just hope we will take him seriously as a musician because it’s a hard thing for some we to accept that Johnny Depp can sing rock and roll.”
Back in January, a source told we that Depp was “totally devastated” after Beck’s death and was “by Jeff’s bedside” along with “some other rock stars” before Beck’s death.
“They had a really tight friendship, they were extremely close, and he got even closer over this past summer when they were touring together,” the source said. “The sickness came on really quickly and it all deteriorated rapidly in the last couple weeks.”