General - Part 3
- On Halloween night in 1993, River Phoenix passed away outside The Viper Room due to a drug overdose. No-one expected it and Johnny couldn’t bring himself to talk about the incident for some time - he said it truly broke his heart.
- Johnny’s long-term friend Sal Jenco now manages the Viper Room and had to deal with a similar circumstance when Jason Donovan collapsed outside the club.
- For Kate Moss’s 21st Birthday, Johnny decorated the Viper Room with balloons and roses. He even got Gloria Gaynor to perform I Will Survive.
- He once went on holiday with Kate, Noel Gallagher and Noel’s girlfriend at the time Meg Matthews.
- Johnny was staying at the Mark Hotel in New York with Kate when Roger Daltry phoned down to reception to complain that his neighbouring room was causing quite a disturbance - Johnny had trashed his presidential suite! The police were called and the two were ordered by security to leave the hotel there and then.
- Johnny later claimed that he had found an armadillo in the wardrobe and that must have been what caused the damage. However, when questioned on the armadillo’s whereabouts Johnny said it must have ‘gone out of the window or something’. It is rumoured he paid around $10,000 worth of damages to the hotel.
- After a heavy drinking competition with Iggy Pop, Johnny smashed a window of the Lone Star Roadhouse, shattering glass over a woman who later went on to sue him.
- When Hunter S. Thompson died, Johnny paid for his memorial event - which included shooting his ashes into the air by cannon!
- In 2004, Johnny formed a production company called Infinitum Nihil which is run by his Sister Christi. The company have released films including The Rum Diary, Hugo and Dark Shadows.
- The Rum Diary was an unpublished novel by Hunter S. Thompson and became Johnny’s homage to him. The film wasn’t expected to break even - but Johnny said “he really couldn’t care less about the money, as soon as you care about the money the movie process becomes something very different”.