How River Phoenix's death outside Johnny Depp's Viper Room club changed the actor forever
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Johnny Depp, who won a defamation lawsuit against ex-wife Amber Heard, has found himself in troubled waters in more than once. One instance being the death of his friend, 23-year-old musician River Phoenix. While the death of the musician from a heroin and cocaine overdose was tragic, it was even more surreal as the ‘Stand by Me’ star died just outside the gate of The Viper Room.
It was August 1993, and a young Depp, riding on the success of his back to back hits, invested in the West Hollywood nightclub, The Viper Room. He wanted to make the club a safe haven where young celebrities of Hollywood could just be themselves. However, within months, tragedy struck as the ‘Across the Way’ crooner was found convulsing just outside the front door of the club and died. After that, ‘Edward Scissorhands’ star faced a tough time to go back to the club.
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Following the incident, rumors were rife that Depp gave Phoenix the drugs. In an interview with Rolling Stone in 2018, he opened up about the accusations, saying, “Imagine living with that.”
‘I got angry’
In a 1996 interview with Playboy, Depp explained how the rumors have affected him. “When River passed away, it happened to be at my club. Now that's very tragic, very sad, but they made it a fiasco of lies to sell f*****g magazines. They said he was doing drugs in my club, that I allow people to do drugs in my club.”
Depp continued, “What a ridiculous f**king thought! 'Hey, I'm going to spend a lot of money on this nightclub so everyone can come here and do drugs. I think that's a good idea, don't you? We'll never get found out. It's not like this place is high profile or anything, right?' That lie was ridiculous and disrespectful to River.”
Depp also considered the effect of Phoenix's death on the parents of the club's employees, “But aside from River, and his family trying to deal with their loss, what about people who work in the club? They have moms and dads in, like, Oklahoma, reading about the place where their daughter tends bar and thinking, Jesus, she's out in Hollywood swimming around with these awful creatures!”
Calling the speculations “vicious,” Depp said that the accusations “hurt." He took some time off to deal with Phoenix's death. “I closed the club for a few nights. To get out of the way so River's fans could bring messages, bring flowers. And I got angry,” he said.
‘It had nothing to do with the club’
It was then that Depp revealed, he could not go to the club without thinking of the incident. “At first it was. I couldn't go to the club without thinking of it,” he said. However, he later realized that “it had nothing to do with the club.” He said, “Later I came to terms with the fact that it had nothing to do with the club. He was here a very short time. It had nothing to do with anything, really, except that what he ingested was bad, and now there is nothing we can do.”