During a 2021 appearance on Jimmy Fallon, actor and model Cara Delevingne showed off her surprising guitar chops by playing Sweet Home Alabama behind her head. Now, she’s returned to the show to perform her new single, and showed that her electric guitar talents aren’t just for a cheap gag.
The 34-year-old Brit made her name as a model before turning to acting, starring in the 2016 film, Suicide Squad, among others. Music, however, has always been one of her other big passions in life, and she’s just released her debut album, Not Normal, to prove just that.
The release has seen her return to the show, triple-humbucker Bigsby-loaded Telecaster Deluxe in hand, to complete a pretty impressive full circle moment.
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“Everyone thought it was a party trick,” she says in an Instagram post reflecting on that 2021 appearance, and her subsequent performance of Crazy, Baby. “It was actually foreshadowing.”
Delevingne’s playing sits atop a bed of pulsing synths, with smart pop-rock hooks and bursts of overdriven barre chord stabs plentiful. But the song also sees her showing some authority on the instrument, with a guitar solo getting a big reaction from the crowd.
It’s not overly flashy, but she shows a strong melodic sensibility with it, and rounds it out with a tapping lick that I’m not sure many people saw coming.
Guitar-touting actors are no new phenomena. Johnny Depp plays in the Hollywood Vampires alongside rock royalty, and he’s also made an album with Jeff Beck.
Paul Mescal, meanwhile, had the chance to have a guitar lesson from Paul McCartney to help with him playing the Beatle in the Fab Four’s upcoming biopics, but it turns out that he didn’t need any help. Then there’s everyone from Adam Sandler to Zooey Deschanel and Kevin Bacon, who rewrote a rock classic with Fallon last year.
Delevingne, then, is in good company, and her performance should be seen as a celebration of the instrument we love.
