Johnny Depp Gives David Bowie’s “Heroes” a Powerful New Life at Montreux
Johnny Depp steps toward the microphone with a black bandana, dark eyeliner, and a guitar strap over his shoulder. The image has the unmistakable atmosphere of a rock concert, but the song gives it a particular emotional weight. Singing David Bowie’s “Heroes” with Hollywood Vampires at the Montreux Jazz Festival, Depp takes on a melody that carries decades of memories for listeners. His presence draws attention, while the choice of song gives that attention somewhere meaningful to go.
The performance was recorded during the band’s appearance at Montreux in 2018. Its renewed visibility comes from the official live footage released alongside the album At Montreux Jazz Festival, which arrived digitally in August 2026. That distinction matters when a clip begins circulating as a recent discovery. The concert itself belongs to an earlier chapter of the group’s history; the new release allows a much wider audience to encounter that night in a clear, professionally filmed form.
Hollywood Vampires brings together Alice Cooper, Johnny Depp, Joe Perry, and Tommy Henriksen. The group’s name recalls the original Hollywood Vampires drinking club associated with Cooper and musicians including John Lennon, Keith Moon, and Harry Nilsson. In its modern musical form, the band has built a repertoire around original songs and tributes to influential artists. “Heroes” fits naturally into that approach, giving the musicians a way to celebrate Bowie through the act of performing his work.
Bowie released “Heroes” in 1977, with the song credited to Bowie and Brian Eno. Its connection to Berlin and Hansa Studios is an essential part of its recording history. Yet its appeal has always traveled well beyond its original setting. The melody allows a singer to begin with a sense of closeness and move toward a larger emotional statement. That gives a live performer room to bring individual character to the song while keeping its familiar shape intact.
At Montreux, Depp takes the lead vocal, making this a useful opportunity to hear a different aspect of his place in the band. Many viewers will recognize him immediately from the screen, but the performance asks them to follow a voice, a rhythm, and a song. The official video below captures that change of focus. Listen to how his delivery sits within the guitars and how the band supports the melody as the performance gathers momentum.
Depp’s vocal character is part of the attraction. There is a grain to his delivery that suits the song’s atmosphere, allowing the phrases to feel lived in rather than polished into a uniform finish. A cover of a familiar anthem often turns on these small differences. The listener already knows where the melody is going, so attention shifts to texture, phrasing, and conviction. Here, the voice offers a recognizable personality within a song that remains unmistakably Bowie’s.
The band’s surrounding energy gives that voice a substantial setting. Hollywood Vampires approaches classic songs with the physical force of a rock ensemble, and the guitars help establish the scale around the vocal. There is pleasure in hearing a familiar melody carried by musicians who share a clear enthusiasm for the material. The performance can feel personal and communal at the same time: one singer holds the microphone, while the arrangement makes room for everyone around him.
Alice Cooper’s involvement adds another layer of interest. Audiences generally associate his presence with commanding vocals and theatrical stagecraft. For this song, Depp occupies the lead-vocal position, letting the band show a different balance of personalities. That exchange is one of the advantages of an ensemble with several recognizable musicians. Different songs can bring different strengths forward, giving the set variety while preserving the group’s identity.
Joe Perry and Tommy Henriksen are equally important to understanding that identity. Their names place the performance within a network of experienced rock musicians, rather than a standalone celebrity appearance. The interest of the clip grows when a viewer pays attention to the band as a whole. A convincing tribute depends on the relationship between its parts: a vocal needs support, the melody needs space, and the musicians need a shared sense of where the song is heading.
Depp’s relationship with “Heroes” also extends beyond this concert. Hollywood Vampires included a studio version on Rise, released in 2019. The band’s label described that recording as having been made at Hansa Studios in Berlin, where Bowie recorded the original. That connection gives the cover a particularly tangible link to its source. The studio recording and the Montreux performance belong to different settings, but both show the song as an established part of the group’s repertoire.
The same year as Rise, Depp sang “Heroes” with the band on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, an appearance the label identified as his television debut as their lead vocalist. Seen alongside that later performance, the Montreux footage becomes part of a longer musical story. It shows that this song was already finding a place onstage before the studio album reached listeners. The new clip provides access to that earlier stage of the band’s interpretation.
The Montreux album presents “Heroes” within a 19-track set that also includes “Ace of Spades,” “Baba O’Riley,” “Sweet Emotion,” and a closing “School’s Out / Another Brick in the Wall” medley. Those selections reveal the range of references the musicians bring into one concert. Bowie’s song supplies a different emotional shade within that wider program, letting a set built around rock history make room for reflection as well as exuberance.
The recent attention surrounding the footage also demonstrates what an archive can offer. A live recording may wait years before reaching listeners in a form that invites them to revisit it. Once released, the performance can become a discovery for people who missed the original concert or knew the band mainly through other songs. In this case, the close view of Depp at the microphone gives that discovery a clear human focus, while the music provides the reason to stay.
There is a challenge built into covering a song this recognizable: its history arrives with it. Listeners bring their own memories of Bowie, along with expectations about how “Heroes” should sound and feel. A strong interpretation makes that familiarity productive. It gives an audience enough of the song they love to connect immediately, then adds the performer’s own vocal color and the band’s sense of movement. The Montreux version offers that meeting of recognition and personality.
What lingers is the directness of the musical gesture. Depp and his bandmates take a song that means something to them and bring it before an audience, letting a tribute emerge through performance. The footage may initially attract viewers because of a famous face, but its lasting interest lies in the connection between the singer, the band, and Bowie’s composition. For a few minutes, “Heroes” becomes a shared piece of rock history with a fresh voice carrying it forward.
