HOLLYWOOD VAMPIRES, who consist of AEROSMITH’s Joe Perry, actor Johnny Depp and legendary rocker Alice Cooper, has released the official music video for their cover version of “You Can’t Put Your Arms Around A Memory”. The track, which appeared on HOLLYWOOD VAMPIRES’ 2019 album “Rise”, was originally written and recorded by the great Johnny Thunders in 1978 and features Perry on lead vocals.
The three legends first came together to record in 2015, bonding over a shared love of their favorite songs and a desire to celebrate their “dead, drunk friends” by playing the songs of the fallen heroes. Riotous performances ensued around the world.
In 2019, HOLLYWOOD VAMPIRES completed a triumphant seven-city North American tour which included a sell-out show at the famous Greek Theatre in Los Angeles and were voted the “best performance” of 2018 at London’s Wembley Arena.
HOLLYWOOD VAMPIRES‘ sophomore album “Rise”, produced by Tommy Henriksen and the HOLLYWOOD VAMPIRES, was hailed as one of the purest, most unapologetic and enjoyable rock and roll albums of 2019, made by masters of the craft and true fans of the form. Unlike their 2015 debut record, the latest album consisted mainly of original material, written by the band. There are however, in the spirit of the VAMPIRES‘ original mission, three covers of songs originally written and recorded by legendary rockers who died far too young.
Four years ago, Cooper told Billboard about his chemistry with Depp and Perry: “That’s a very odd thing about this. You’ve got three alpha males who are used to running the show, and all of a sudden, three guys are sitting there with zero arguments. The whole thing is, ‘Okay, let’s try that.’ Every time they would send me a track with scratch vocals on it, if I worked on it and chopped it up and did my thing, it would turn into an Alice song. I took my fingerprints off of it. I would hear the song and say, ‘Let’s do it as it was written.’ My instinct might be to say that this part goes too long or the intro goes too long, but that’s what makes it interesting.”
Regarding HOLLYWOOD VAMPIRES‘ decision to record a second album as a follow-up to 2015’s “Hollywood Vampires”, which debuted at No. 43 on the Billboard 200, Cooper said: “We looked at each other and went, ‘Let’s do another album, but let’s make this one original.’ And just like that, Johnny was writing, Joe was writing, Tommy was writing, I was writing … and we just all kind of put it together while I was on tour. Tommy produced it, and the next thing you know, we had an album. The cool thing about it is that it doesn’t sound like an Alice album, it doesn’t sound like an AEROSMITH album: It sounds like a HOLLYWOOD VAMPIRES album.”