{"id":4043,"date":"2025-10-16T03:25:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T03:25:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/countrymusictune.com\/?p=4043"},"modified":"2025-10-16T03:25:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T03:25:12","slug":"a-fans-lament-my-struggles-reconciling-patti-smiths-relationship-with-johnny-depp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/countrymusictune.com\/?p=4043","title":{"rendered":"A Fan\u2019s Lament: My struggles reconciling Patti Smith\u2019s relationship with Johnny Depp"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some gigs are dreams, like\u00a0Patti Smith\u00a0playing\u00a0Horses<\/em>\u00a0in its entirety with her old band at the stunning London Palladium to celebrate the album\u2019s 50th anniversary. But some dreams can also break your heart.<\/p>\n

I was gifted a CD of\u00a0Horses<\/em>\u00a0when I was 17. I\u2019d recently finished re-reading\u00a0Just Kids<\/em>\u00a0for the however-manyth time after buying it by chance as a teenager with no prior knowledge of who Smith was. Instantly, though, she was an idol. I pored over her writing and her story, and then I pored over the music and the lyric book, including her introductory poem where she writes about\u00a0\u201cthe feel of horses long before horses enter the scene\u201d.<\/p>\n

This was music like nothing I\u2019d ever heard before. \u2018Gloria\u2019 was electrifying, \u2018Break It Up\u2019 was dramatic, \u2018Birdland\u2019 was utterly astonishing, bridging the worlds of literature and poetry and punk as I learnt that Smith improvised the track, spiralling that story out of nowhere but her mind and the world of references that lived up there. She implored me to get smarter, read more, and live more.<\/p>\n

Really, she implored me to live the life I do now in this job and in my other writing, even in my choice of holidays, as I pilgrimaged to\u00a0New York just to go to the Chelsea Hotel.<\/p>\n

All of this is to say that I love Patti Smith. Her influence on my life, and the lives of so many others, all dancing in their seats at the Palladium, and at all the other venues she\u2019s entered for decades now, is insurmountable. For so many, she is a beacon of good things, so how do you reconcile it when she does something bad?<\/p>\n

I really did want to keep focus on the gig here. It was incredible. Smith played with more energy than I\u2019ve ever seen her embody, as those 1970s songs clearly still evoke her 1970s self. Seeing many of the tracks live for the first time also felt revelatory. Suddenly, I could see right there in front of me how insane Lenny Kaye is going on the guitar throughout almost the entirety of \u2018Birdland\u2019.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Patti<\/div>
Patti Smith performing in London \u2013 2024. (Credits: Far Out \/ Richard Thompson)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I could see the way a song like \u2018Horses\u2019 seems to almost possess the band. As Smith also scattered reflections and memories from the record throughout the set, the whole experience simply felt deeply special. I was sat there listening to her talk about her early shyness with my eyes wide and teary in awe as Smith feels like a vital figure as someone who built all of this through bravery and artistry alone.<\/p>\n

By the interval, I declared it the best gig I\u2019ve ever been to and excitedly shuffled back to my seat for the second set.\u00a0Opened by her band playing tracks from Television\u00a0as a nod to the CBGB era, the energy stayed high and special as Smith returned to the stage and dove into a \u2018greatest hits\u2019 type of set with a beautiful nod to the Palestinian people during \u2018Peaceable Kingdom\u2019.<\/p>\n

And then it happened. It happened the night before, but I simply thought it wouldn\u2019t happen again. But it did. As Smith was announcing the band, honouring both her children and collaborators she\u2019s worked with for decades,\u00a0she brought out Johnny Depp\u00a0onto the stage.<\/p>\n

Smith and Depp are friends, fine. If she wants to personally align herself with the actor, despite it being proven that she knew about the allegations brought against Depp during texts shown in court, fine. But given the controversy of the figure, I fail to understand why she would spoil the end of a celebratory and magical night by being so needlessly divisive.<\/p>\n

The toxic impact of Johnny Depp is something the world has yet to fully unpack. In 2020, a UK judge ruled that Depp\u2019s assaults on Amber Heard were proven to the civil standard, concluding that The Sun\u2019s reporting on his abusive behaviour was \u201csubstantially true\u201d.<\/p>\n

That finding has never been overturned, even if the 2022 defamation trial in the US \u2013 with its televised circus and social media frenzy \u2013 convinced much of the public otherwise.<\/p>\n

Now, Depp is back on stage at the Palladium while Heard remains largely out of sight and in hiding. It sends a chilling, sickening and disgusting message: spin can overpower substance, and charm can erase violence. That the entertainment industry continues to embrace abusive men is depressingly familiar, but watching one of your own heroes hold hands and cheer them on is its own kind of heartbreak.<\/p>\n

I walked out of the concert last night, and so did many others, all gathering in the hallway outside and sharing upset and anger. The crowd split in an awkward two with half of the choir screaming out \u201cwhat the fuck\u201d or booing Depp. It was a sour and strange end that is hard to rectify. Can I still call that the best gig of my life when I walked out devastated? That\u2019s something to unpack.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some gigs are dreams, like\u00a0Patti Smith\u00a0playing\u00a0Horses\u00a0in its entirety with her old band at the stunning London Palladium to celebrate the album\u2019s 50th anniversary. 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