Nice article with a little more detail about Bruce helping Johnny w/Sweeney. A surprising fact revealed at the end about Vanessa that I never knew :blink:

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/entertainment/...0,4878874.story

Band pal helped Johnny Depp sharpen singing skills
By Patricia Towle | Special Correspondent
February 18, 2008

OK, you never heard of Bruce Witkin.

But if you're watching the Academy Awards on Sunday, you might hear his name.

Johnny Depp — a pal of Witkin's — credits the South Florida native with helping him find his vocal groove.

No small feat when you consider Depp, 44 — who'd never sung a note previously — snagged a Golden Globe and is nominated for an Oscar for his singing performance in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.Having accepted the title role, Depp called Witkin with a plea to help ascertain if he was capable of pulling it off, because director Tim Burton didn't want his actors to lip sync. After privately recording a demo of Depp singing the showcase number My Friends in his Los Angeles studio, Witkin said there was no doubt.

In the film's production notes, Depp admits, "That was the first song I ever sang in my life."

Working from a Broadway cast recording, the two men were forced to pick Stephen Sondheim's demanding melodies apart on the piano and rely on their ears for the vocal lines because neither reads music.

"If there was a long note Johnny needed to hit, he would just get it up and hit it," said Witkin, a 45-year-old sound engineer who records and produces under his own Unison Music label. "To see someone like Johnny, who had never sung before, come into my studio so prepared really blew me away."

Witkin and Depp's friendship dates to 1980, when both played in a Fort Lauderdale garage band called the Kids.

They were so young they often had to sneak in the back doors of clubs — the Button South, the Tree House, the Play Pen and the Candy Store — to play.

"I was the vocalist and played bass; Johnny was our guitarist," recalled Witkin, who dropped out of Hollywood High — with the permission of his mother, a local band manager — to pursue his music career.

"Those early days were a lot of fun and fruitful for guys of our age. We were pulling in around $50 a night between four of us, and we were playing shows and we were surviving."

Depp calls Witkin "a brother." In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, he said, "We worked in bands together, we were on the road together. We lived together when we were teenagers. His mom was basically my second mom." Indeed, last year, at a charity concert in memory of Sheila Witkin, Depp turned up at Club Cinema in Pompano Beach to reunite with his Kids band mates.

After heading to Los Angeles to seek their fortunes, the Kids — a punk/new-wave outfit whose sound was a mix of Ramones, XTC and other '70s-'80s bands of that ilk — survived for a few months before breaking up in 1984, whereupon Depp went into acting. That same year he appeared in A Nightmare on Elm Street — and the rest is box office history.

Witkin continued making music.

He played on bills with Adam Ant, the Romantics, the Pretenders, U2, the Ramones, the B-52's, REM, Chuck Berry, and made an album of his own. But somehow he never hit it big.

"Johnny and I reconnected in 2000, when I started working and touring with his girlfriend Vanessa Paradis, a talented French singer," he said.

Will Witkin's work with Depp in Sweeney Todd open new doors?

"I did it because Johnny's my friend and I wanted him to come out sounding great," Witkin said. "He put this in my hands — and he trusted me with his voice. My goal was for him to be happy with the result.

"I think I succeeded."

Patricia Towle is a freelance writer in Lantana.

-Donna

Thank you, Donna, for finding that great article. News to me, too, about Witkin touring with Vanessa. Very interesting.
I also didn't realize that Johnny doesn't read music, which to me makes his ability to nail Sondheims tunes just that much more amazing. He's got an awfully good ear. (Not to mention all his other parts. :shistle)
Rose

What a wonderful article. Thanks very much for finding it Donna. :thumbsup

Anne x

Great article.. I didnt know that about Bruce and Vanessa!

Thanks!

~ Mary Kay

That is strange, didn't he say he stole a chord book to use to teach himself the guitar? :huh:

Yes, he stole a chord book with pictures so he could see how to place his hands for the chords. He mentioned this in one of his latest inteviews, may have been RStone?

~D

You can see Bruce Witkin performing as part of Vanessa’s band on her Au Zenith concert DVD. The concert was in May 2001.

Thanks Donna.

I would dearly love to hear the name Bruce Witkin, on Sunday, Feb 24--from the Oscar Ceremony stage, out of Johnny's own mouth.

The implication here is that Bruce and Johnny lost touch, reconnecting in 2000. That's a bit of editing license, I'm sure, as the timing simply isn't true. There are photos of Johnny taken by Bruce's wife Sue in 1999. The Kids, always with Bruce and Johnny included, played a few reunion concerts through the years, including one in 1996 when Johnny was filming Donnie Brasco in FL. Ah well, that aside it's a fun article. Bruce seems like a very special guy.

That's right FAN, I remember that. Maybe he was referring to them reconnecting on a more regular basis since he was with Vanessa? I agree, it sounds like Bruce/Johnny are very close---I'm glad Johnny has such close friendships.

-Donna

Great minds think alike. I'm glad Johnny has been able to maintain connections with his talented friends through the years. It must be very difficult, but fun when it happens.