Johnny Depp made a surprise appearance on stage with rock guitarist Jeff Beck in Sheffield on Sunday night.

Singing and playing guitar, Depp performed covers of Jimi Hendrix’s Little Wing and Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On, as well as John Lennon’s song Isolation, of which he and Beck recorded a studio version in 2020. .

The performance comes in the middle of its highly publicized US court case against ex-wife Amber Heard, brought by Depp, who accuses Heard of defamation after he published an article in the Washington Post that called himself a victim of domestic violence. Heard counterattacked.

For seven weeks, a jury has listened to both sides’ allegations of abuse towards the other and will deliberate on a verdict after meeting again on May 31.

Depp has long dabbled in rock music, notably with his supergroup Hollywood Vampires alongside Alice Cooper and Aerosmith’s Joe Perry. In 2015, they recorded with Paul McCartney, and Depp appears in the video for McCartney’s song My Valentine, also playing guitar. Footage of the performance, which has been part of McCartney’s live set since 2013, was shown during McCartney’s US tour amid the Depp trial, although McCartney has not commented on the case.

On releasing their version of Isolation in 2020, Beck said: “Johnny and I have been working on music together for a while now and we recorded this track while we were in the studio last year…you’ll hear it more of Johnny and I in a bit.” However, there have been no further releases since Isolation.