— an acid-fueled escapade with Johnny Depp that could have ended in disaster high above New York City. In his newly released memoir Rumors of My Demise, Dando opens up about the surreal night he and Depp dropped LSD and raced around the scaffolding of Atlantic Records’ 20th floor. The shocking confession offers a rare, unfiltered glimpse into the reckless, free-spirited energy of the 1990s rock scene — and the unexpected friendship between two pop-culture icons at their peak.

The Beginning of an Unlikely Friendship

According to Dando, his first encounter with Johnny Depp came during the recording of It’s a Shame About Ray in 1992 — the album that cemented The Lemonheads’ place in the alt-rock landscape. At that time, Depp was already one of Hollywood’s rising stars, thanks to Cry Baby and Edward Scissorhands. Their worlds collided when Winona Ryder, then Depp’s girlfriend, introduced him to Dando’s music by making him a mixtape of The Lemonheads’ songs. Depp instantly became a fan. The admiration soon turned into a genuine friendship — one that blurred the line between Hollywood glamour and grunge authenticity. Dando even moved into Depp’s Los Angeles home for several months, and the two spent countless nights immersed in creative chaos, surrounded by artists, actors, and musicians who defined the early ‘90s counterculture.

The Day Everything Got Wild

One day, Dando recalls, the two friends decided to take LSD together — a seemingly harmless idea that quickly escalated into one of the most reckless adventures of their lives. As the acid began to take effect, they visited Atlantic Records, Dando’s record label at the time. The building was under renovation, and its upper floors were surrounded by metal scaffolding. To Dando and Depp, high on hallucinogens, this wasn’t just construction — it was an invitation. “What if we climbed out onto the scaffolding and said hello to everyone through the windows?” Dando remembers thinking. What followed was pure madness.

The LSD Rush on the 20th Floor

Fueled by the psychedelic rush, Dando and Depp crawled out of the office and onto the 20th-floor scaffolding, laughing uncontrollably as they circled the building. The sight of two famous men — one a rock star, the other a movie icon — dangerously close to the edge of a skyscraper sent the record label’s employees into panic mode. “Everyone in the office was losing it,” Dando writes. People reportedly feared the worst: What if Johnny Depp falls to his death during an LSD trip? The chaos of that moment reflected everything about the decade — wild, spontaneous, and teetering on the edge between brilliance and disaster.

A Surreal Cigarette Break

After several laps around the building, the duo decided they needed cigarettes — as if balancing on high-rise scaffolding wasn’t risky enough. They climbed back inside and casually walked into the office of Dando’s A&R representative. The scene, according to Dando, was comically absurd: two men clearly high, pretending nothing unusual had happened, sitting in an office filled with nervous energy. “We sat there smoking cigarettes, all of us pretending it was totally normal,” Dando recalls. The A&R rep, however, was far from calm, reportedly unable to believe that the pair had just risked their lives minutes earlier.

Laughing It Off — and the Bond Behind the Madness

When the LSD wore off, Dando and Depp found themselves back at home, laughing hysterically about the night’s events. For Dando, it wasn’t just a reckless story — it was a reflection of Depp’s down-to-earth nature despite his fame. “He was just an extra-fun friend,” Dando writes. “No ego, no star trips, even though he had everything to lose.” This comment paints a picture of Depp that contrasts sharply with his later public persona. During the 1990s, before controversies and legal battles overshadowed his image, Depp was known for his artistic curiosity, his affinity for misfits, and his deep respect for musicians. Dando’s anecdote perfectly encapsulates that side of him — wild, curious, and entirely human.

The LSD Era and Its Reckless Creativity

Stories like this are more than tabloid fodder — they’re snapshots of an era. The early ‘90s were a time when the lines between music, film, and rebellion blurred. LSD, once associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, made a quiet resurgence among creative circles. Artists saw it as a tool for breaking boundaries and exploring consciousness. For many, it was a rite of passage — and for some, like Dando and Depp, it led to moments that defined their youth. While their rooftop stunt could have ended in tragedy, it also symbolized the fearless spirit that fueled their generation’s art.

The Aftermath — Reflections from a Wiser Dando

Decades later, Dando’s tone in his memoir is not one of pride but of nostalgia mixed with disbelief. He admits that he’s lucky to have survived the rock ’n’ roll chaos of that time. His honesty, however, gives weight to the story. Rather than glorifying drug use, it reveals the impulsive recklessness of youth — and how close fame can come to implosion. In an industry where many didn’t make it out alive, Dando’s survival feels miraculous. His reflections also offer insight into Johnny Depp’s early years, a time when the actor balanced global fame with an underground edge, before Hollywood politics and public scrutiny took their toll.

Johnny Depp’s Silence

As expected, Johnny Depp has not commented on the story. His representatives reportedly declined to respond to media inquiries, leaving fans to speculate about his version of events. Given Depp’s long history with music — from his collaborations with artists like Oasis and Marilyn Manson to his work with the Hollywood Vampires — it’s not hard to imagine that he and Dando shared a genuine creative chemistry. Whether or not the scaffolding incident happened exactly as described, it’s clear their friendship left a lasting mark on both men.

Why This Story Still Captivates Fans

So why does this decades-old tale still fascinate audiences today? Part of it lies in its mix of danger, fame, and absurdity. It’s a story that feels too wild to be true, yet too vivid to be fiction. Two cultural icons, high on LSD, running around a skyscraper — it’s both terrifying and hilarious. But more than that, it humanizes stars like Dando and Depp, reminding us that beneath the fame and fortune, they were young men chasing moments of freedom in a world that constantly demanded their performance.

The Cultural Echo of a “Lost Generation”

In many ways, this revelation also echoes the ethos of a generation that lived fast and sought authenticity in chaos. The grunge and alternative scenes of the 1990s thrived on breaking rules and rejecting the polished perfection of mainstream media. Evan Dando’s memoir doesn’t just tell a scandalous story — it preserves the cultural DNA of an era when risk and creativity went hand in hand. His LSD adventure with Johnny Depp isn’t just gossip; it’s a metaphor for an entire artistic movement teetering on the edge of self-destruction and transcendence.

A Final Reflection

As the public revisits stories like these, there’s a collective fascination with what fame does to the human spirit. For Dando, Rumors of My Demise serves as a testament to survival — proof that the same chaos that nearly destroyed him also shaped his artistry. And for Depp, who has weathered countless controversies, this story offers a reminder of his freer, more innocent past — when life was about friendship, laughter, and music rather than courtrooms and headlines. Whether readers view the story as hilarious, horrifying, or both, one thing is undeniable: it captures a moment in pop culture history that could never happen today.

In an age where every move is recorded, the image of two famous men balancing on scaffolding twenty floors above Manhattan, laughing uncontrollably under the influence of LSD, feels almost mythic — a relic of a time when rock stars and movie icons lived without filters, and every night had the potential to become legend.