YM, October 1987 – Johnny Depp and Sal Jenco
Title: Johnny Depp and Sal Jenco
Publication: YM
Issue: October 1987
If you ask Sal Jenco and Johnny Depp where they met, chances are they’ll snow you with a story about a “nostril flaring festival in Rio de Janeiro.” Actually, they met under slightly less exotic circumstances: at grammar school in Florida. Sixteen years later, they’re still inseparable. When Johnny played guitar in a rock band, Sal was the band’s road manager; now that Johnny’s starring on the Fox Broadcasting series 21 Jump Street, Sal’s got a part, too. Perfect foils, Johnny is soft-spoken and baby-face handsome; Sal’s a roly-poly loud mouth. “The only time we argue is over the girls I date,” admits Sal, 24. “He spends too much money on them,” explains Johnny, 23. An aspiring stand-up comic, deadpan Sal will tell you he also raises pygmy Palestinian llamas in Malibu, while straight-man Johnny swallows a laugh. “We’re like brothers, and we’re both major slobs,” says Johnny. Adds an uncharacteristically serious Sal: “Johnny’s very warm, very generous—the best guy I know. What can I tell you, I love the creep.”