Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford shared a photo with Hollywood actor and Hollywood Vampires guitarist Johnny Depp, who became a controversial name after the Amber Heard trials, and Priest fans are not happy that Halford supports Depp.
Rob Halford wrote in the caption of his post, “‘lifers’ heavymetal ink steel throwback love family friends fans one world peace respect all, Ross Halfin.”
A Judas Priest fan commented on Rob Halford’s post, “No, Metal God. You’re still the Metal God, but this is disappointing.” Another Judas Priest fan commented on Halford’s post, “Oh no, not the wife beater!” Another Judas Priest fan commented, “Unfollowing, there’s no room in my feed for abusers.”
The backlash shows that the Depp case still divides audiences years after the verdict, and it also places Halford’s post inside a wider rock-world network that reaches well beyond music.
The anger among fans traces back to Depp’s legal battle with ex-wife Amber Heard. Jurors awarded Depp $15 million in compensatory and punitive damages after finding that Heard had defamed him, while Heard won one of three counter-claims and was awarded $2 million in compensatory damages. The seven-member jury found Depp entitled to $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages, with the punitive amount later reduced under Virginia law.
Depp denied abusing Heard throughout the proceedings, and the split verdict left both sides with damaged reputations. The ruling that both Depp and Heard were defamed capped a lurid six-week trial that raised questions about whether either actor could overcome a tarnished public image.
Public reaction has remained polarized since then. The jury concluded that Heard defamed Depp while acting with “malice” when she described herself as a victim of domestic abuse. The June 2022 verdict continues to spark controversy, and the attorneys involved have said they would like to see society correct itself in the years since.
That divide is visible in how commentators have framed the outcome. One abuse-victim advocate wrote: “As a divorce coach and advocate for abuse victims, I know a lot of women who were rocked by the jury siding with Johnny Depp in his defamation suit against ex-wife Amber Heard.” The same outlet described Depp’s courtroom victory as a pyrrhic one, which reflects how sharply opinion still splits over him.
Depp’s musical background is the other half of why he appears in Halford’s photo at all. Depp was a guitarist before he became a leading Hollywood actor, kept music as a sideline and collaborated with acts such as Oasis, Patti Smith and Aerosmith, before founding the supergroup Hollywood Vampires with Alice Cooper and Joe Perry in 2012. Depp is a respected guitar player who originally came to Hollywood to become a musician, and he played guitar in a 1990s band called P alongside members of Butthole Surfers.
His most prominent recent musical partnership was with the late guitarist Jeff Beck. Depp joined Beck for a series of UK shows while awaiting the trial verdict, and the pair had been working on material together for two years before releasing the joint album 18 in July 2022. The two released 18 shortly before Beck’s death in 2023, and Depp has written or played guitar on songs for a range of artists across his career.
Halford and Judas Priest have long moved in the same rock orbit that produced the photo. The image came through photographer Ross Halfin, who has documented heavy metal and classic rock stars for decades and whose work regularly places musicians, actors and other celebrities from the same scene together. That crossover tradition helps explain why a Judas Priest frontman would appear alongside an actor-guitarist, even when parts of the fanbase object to the company he keeps.
