Songfacts®:

• Before finding fame and fortune as a leading Hollywood actor, Johnny Depp was a guitarist. He continued his music career as a sideline, collaborating with the likes of Oasis, Patti Smith, and Aerosmith. In 2012, Depp, Alice Cooper, and Joe Perry founded the supergroup Hollywood Vampires, which worked with such big names as Paul McCartney, Dave Grohl and English guitarist Jeff Beck. The latter played guitar on "Welcome To Bushwackers," a track from the Vampires' 2019 Rise album.
  
  Soon after, Depp asked Beck to play lead guitar on a song he'd written titled "This Is A Song For Miss Hedy Lamarr." The tune was the catalyst for the duo recording an entire album together titled 18.
• Vienna-born Hedy Lamarr was both one of the greatest mid-20th century movie actresses and a prominent inventor. In World War II she helped develop a torpedo guidance system that led to GPS, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technology.
  
  As her beauty faded and her acting work dried up, Lamarr became increasingly reclusive. There were shoplifting scandals and lawsuits against her publisher for fictionalizing her autobiography. After settling in Miami Beach, Florida, in 1981, the telephone became Lamarr's only means of communication. She died in Casselberry, Florida, on January 19, 2000, of heart disease, aged 85.
  
  Here, Depp pays homage to the actress/inventor. He reflects on Lamarr's tragic last decades hidden away in her Florida home.
• After seeking approval from Hedy Lamarr's estate, Johnny Depp dropped the song on June 9, 2022. Its release came just days after the conclusion of The Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard trial, where Depp successfully sued his former wife for defamation. The timing surely isn't coincidental, as the song's concept ties in what Depp underwent in the courtroom. There are parallels between Lamarr isolating herself away from the masses and the airing of Depp's dirty linen in public.
• This is one of two Johnny Depp originals on 18; the other 11 tracks are covers. The album title comes the youthful feeling the project brought to Beck and Depp. "When Johnny and I started playing together, it really ignited our youthful spirit and creativity," said Beck. "We would joke about how we felt 18 again, so that just became the album title too."
• Beck's wife Sandra drew and designed the album cover, which features an illustration of Beck and Depp as 18-year-olds.