Sir Paul McCartney‘s latest tune, “Early Days,” is an ode to his time growing up with John Lennon, playing music and getting through the rough patches. And its accompanying video, which debuted Monday, is a poignant and beautiful ode to growing up with the best and worst of life. Oh yeah, it also features a near split-second Johnny Depp cameo — but we’ll get to that later.

First, we want you to feast your eyes on the video. Directed by Vincent Haycock — whose work includes musical vignettes for Lana Del Ray, Calvin Harris, and Florence and the Machine, just to name a few — the 5-minute clip is an homage to those struggles that, while so often feel singular, are largely very universal. As much is evidenced in the aspiring musicians at the heart of its story.

As for that Johnny Depp cameo? Chalk it up to Sir Paul just bein’ Sir Paul. As it stands, “Early Days” is currently the third video of McCartney’s that Depp has shown up in (the other two were 2012’s “My Valentine” and last year’s celebrity-filled “Queenie Eye”): “It’s getting to be a running gag,” McCartney said. “He’s like the Alfred Hitchcock of my videos.”

“I happened to ring Johnny Depp. I said, ‘Come along and we’ll sit around and jam with these blues guys.’ He said, ‘Yeah, OK, count me in, man.’ I knew it was an offer he couldn’t refuse.” But Depp wasn’t the only impressive person in the jam sesh: McCartney rounded up a veritable smorgasbord of impressive musicians, including Roy Gaines, Al Williams, Dale Atkins, Henree Harris, Motown Maurice, Lil Poochie and Misha Lindes.

What do you think of the clip? Sock it to us in the comments.