Actor Johnny Depp and British guitarist Jeff Beck have been accused of lifting a poem recited by a prison inmate decades ago on their new musical collaboration. Depp, 59, and the 78-year-old former Yardbirds axman dropped an album dubbed “18” in July, weeks after the actor’s defamation trial victory against ex-wife Amber Heard.
One of the songs from the album features Depp belting out lyrics that were written by a convicted murderer and robber named Slim Wilson for his poem, titled ‘Hobo Ben,’ in 1964, according to Rolling Stone.
The poem in question was used by American folklorist Bruce Jackson when he met Wilson in the Missouri State Penitentiary in 1964. Jackson featured “Hobo Ben,” among many other poems of Wilson’s, in his 1974 book ‘Get Your Ass in the Water and Swim Like Me.’ Now, Jackson has alleged that Depp and Beck entirely “ripped” them off.
“The only two lines I could find in the whole piece that (Depp and Beck) contributed are ‘Big time motherf–r’ and ‘Bust it down to my level,’” Jackson told Rolling Stone.
“Everything else is from Slim’s performance in my book. I’ve never encountered anything like this. I’ve been publishing stuff for 50 years, and this is the first time anybody has just ripped something off and put his own name on it,” Jackson added.
This comes after actress Ellen Barkin, who was an ex-girlfriend of Johnny Depp, claimed that the Pirates of the Caribbean star drugged her during the first time they got intimate with each other.
As reported by Daily Mail, these revelations are a part of her deposition from the 6000 pages of the court document that were unsealed. In the retrieved texts of their libel suit, Ellen Barkin claimed that Depp is ‘incredibly charming’ like ‘most abusers are’. She added that he gave her a sedative medicine before their first time sex. “He gave me a quaalude and asked me if I wanted to f***,” alleged Barkin.
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