DAVID LETTERMAN: How are you?

JOHNNY DEPP: Good.

Thank you so much for being on the program tonight. This is an exciting night. Here’s how dumb I am. I didn’t realize that when you wanted to be in show business, it was going to be as a musician. You are a musician, and that’s what you thought you would be . . . a famous, whatever, musician.

Yeah, since I was about twelve.

Twelve years old. And what are your instruments? Do you play multiple instruments?

Mostly guitar.

You started in Kentucky? Is that where you started?

Yeah . . . yeah, I think it was.

And then you went where? Where did you go from Kentucky?

South Florida.

And then you went to Hollywood? Los Angeles?

Yeah.

And you were going to be a music star.

Well . . . not necessarily. I was going to be a guitar player.

You were going to be a guitar player. And where did you see yourself as a guitar player? As a really good . . . like a studio guy?

[Laughing]: Not necessarily good . . . no.

Oh . . . [looking surprised] not good? [Audience laughter]

I was all right.

But you’d never thought about acting?

Never once. No.

That’s crazy, isn’t it?

Yeah . . . [smiling] it is now. [Audience laughter]

So what was the turning moment? You’re out there in California, you have your guitar, and suddenly, you’re an actor . . . ?

Well, the sudden realization of, you know, rent. Bills. You know, when that pops in your head, you realize that at some point, you’ll have to deal with the inevitable.

But you know, that story often goes the other way. Somebody goes out there to be an actor, and suddenly they’ve got no money, so they go to play the guitar to make money. You did it just the opposite!

Weirdly.

How did somebody get your first gig, if you were a guitar player? Because that means you weren’t actually out there auditioning.

No, uh . . . my band moved from Florida to Los Angeles.