Today would have been Tom Petty’s 70th birthday. To honor the iconic rocker, the Petty estate has organized separate audio and visual livestreams for this Friday, October 23rd, in the hopes of raising awareness for charities including Save Our Stages (NIVA)), Arts In Medicine, Digitunity, and MusiCares.
The Birthday Bash main event kicks off at 7 ET on TomPetty.com and Amazon’s Twitch channel. For Petty purists, the highlight will be performances by Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench, the guitarist and keyboardist for Petty’s legendary backing band The Heartbreakers. Additional musical exhibitions will come from Adam Sandler, Amos Lee, Beck, Brandi Carlile, Chris Stapleton, Dave Stewart, Dhani Harrison & Graham Coxon, Emily King, The Flaming Lips, Foo Fighters, Gary Clark Jr., Jackson Browne, Lady Blackbird, Lucinda Williams, Lukas Nelson, Margo Price, Mosshart-Sexton, Norah Jones, Patterson Hood of Drive-By Truckers, Roger McGuinn, Sabina Sciubba, Spoon, Stephen Stills with Christopher Stills, Susanna Hoffs and Wesley Schultz of The Lumineers.
But that’s not all. In addition to the scheduled performances, the Birthday Bash will feature a number of special guests such as Eddie Vedder, Jakob Dylan, Jimmy Iovine, Kiefer Sutherland, Lenny Kravitz, Marty Stuart, Olivia Harrison, Post Malone, Rick Rubin, and Stephen Perkins of Jane’s Addiction. But some guests are more special than others, and a statement announcing the event highlighted one “very special guest” — the otherworldly Stevie Nicks
The audio-only portion of the evening begins at 4:30 ET on SiriusXM’s Tom Petty Radio. It’s hard to top the live guest list, but the Petty estate has come close. Expect to hear from Caamp, Dawes, Grouplove, Jason Isbell, The Killers, Kurt Vile, The Raconteurs, Resynator featuring Grace Potter, Starcrawler with Mike Campbell, Larkin Poe with Steve Ferrone, Low Cut Connie, Andrew Leahey and The Homestead, Arts In Medicine Hospital Band, Edan Archer, Emma Swift, Hannah Harber, Hannah Wicklund, Have Gun Will Travel, Hedges, Jake Thistle, Jeff Slate’s Weekend Wilburys, Johnathan Coody, Michigan Rattlers, Miss Tess, Mr. Cool, Sunkat, The High Divers, and Tristen Orphans.
Editors’ Picks
It’s been a great month to be a Tom Petty fan. Last week, his estate released the massive super-deluxe reissue Wildflowers & All the Rest, which included the previously-unreleased songs “Confusion Wheel” and “There Goes Angela (Dream Away)”.
