Johnny Depp has appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman many times, but tonight was a first: in addition to a friendly, relaxed interview with Dave, Johnny also played guitar with Bill Carter and the Blame on “Anything Made of Paper,” Bill and Ruth Carter’s song from the West of Memphis soundtrack. Johnny explained how he met Bill and Ruth Carter in the early 1990s: “They’re amazing songwriters, and I met them when I was doing Gilbert Grape in Austin. And we all just hit it off, and so they were my kind of saving grace during that period, because it was a long movie . . . . And we did the movie and then I moved in with them for a few months.”

Asked to explain the history of “Anything Made of Paper,” Bill Carter told Dave that the song was written for Damien Echols, one of the unjustly imprisoned West Memphis Three, and Damien’s wife Lorri Davis. “When Lorri [. . . ] came to visit Ruth and I, she brought three roses that he [Damien] had made out of paper, as a gift, to represent the West Memphis Three. And I asked her what I could send back for him, and she said that all he can have is anything made of paper. So I immediately had this image. A song.”

Pictures of Johnny’s appearance on The Late Show are available HERE. Many thanks to Emma, Evochka, humiliatedgrape and Theresa for sharing pictures; you can read more about Johnny appearance on The Late Show on the Zone’s Pit General Discussion forum.