On Nov. 12, 2022, guitar legend Jeff Beck, who died on Jan. 10 at the age of 78, took the stage for the last time during a show at the Grand Sierra Resort and Casino in Reno, Nevada, for a room full of more than 2,500 fans, and played alongside his recent collaborator and friend Johnny Depp.
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The show was the final in a run of dates with Depp in 2022, in support of the duo’s collaborative album 18, a collection of covers of songs by Marvin Gaye, John Lennon, The Miracles, The Everly Brothers, Janis Ian, and more, as well as original tracks, including “Sad Motherfuckin’ Parade,” written by Beck and Depp and “This Is a Song for Miss Hedy Lamarr,” co-written by Depp and Tommy Henriksen.
Many of their 18 tracks made it onto Beck’s final set list with Depp, including their rendition of the Velvet Underground’s “Venus in Furs,” an instrumental of The Beach Boys’ “Caroline, No” and their closing cover of Killing Joke’s 2003 track, “Death and Resurrection Show.”
Opening the show with his own solo instrumentals, Beck pulled out Blow By Blow tracks “Freeway Jam” and his cover of Syreeta’s “Cause We’ve Ended as Lovers”—one of several tracks written and contributed by Stevie Wonder for Beck’s 1975 album.
Beck also added on his “You Never Know,” “Star Cycle,” and “Big Block,” along with an instrumental of Irish musician Davy Spillane’s “Midnight Walker” and Robert Johnson’s “Me and the Devil Blues.”
“When Johnny and I started playing together, it really ignited our youthful spirit and creativity,” said Beck, who called the actor and musician a “kindred spirit.”
Depp and Beck first became friends in 2016 and later began collaborating. In 2020, the duo released their first song together, a cover of John Lennon’s 1970 John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band track “Isolation.” Depp, who said that he and Beck were “musical soulmates” shared that the guitarist and his wife Sandra Cash also helped him cope during the 2022 defamation lawsuit against his ex-wife, Amber Heard.
“There was a couple who very much helped to keep me alive, sane and happy through the weirdness,” shared Depp, “and that was Jeff and Sandra.”
Jeff Beck and Johnny Depp Set List, November 12, 2022:
- “Freeway Jam”
- “Loose Cannon”
- “Midnight Walker”
- “Big Block”
- “Caroline, No”
- “You Know, You Know”
- “Me and the Devil Blues”
- “Star Cycle”
- “Brush with the Blues”
- “You Never Know”
- “Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers”
- “Rumble”
- “This is a Song for Hedy Lamarr”
- “Isolation”
- “Time”
- “Venus in Furs”
- “A Day in the Life”
____ENCORE - “Corpus Christi Carol”
- “Little Wing”
- “The Death and Resurrection Show”
Photo: Venla Shalin/Redferns
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