Tom Petty
Tom Petty’s Last Dance
Some of the most shocking nights in music are the ones that seem the most normal. My parents were in town for my son’s third birthday in September 2017. Ho-hum. Unbeknownst — or rather, very unbeknownst to me – my mother’s favorite singer-songwriter, Tom Petty, was playing a three-night stand at the Hollywood Bowl to close out his 40th-anniversary tour. The tickets were long sold out — and if you’re familiar with the Bowl, for a decent ticket, you know it’s going to set you back at least three digits. My mother didn’t deserve that. I volunteered to cover the show for my former infernal freelance rag, OC Weekly. I asked for the final night. Besides, on this tour, Petty and the Heartbreakers performed the same songs at each show. The Arroyo Seco festival took place earlier that year by...
Foo Fighters, Eddie Vedder, Stevie Nicks and More Celebrate Tom Petty’s 70th Birthday
Tom Petty would’ve turned 70 on October 20, and to celebrate the milestone birthday some of the late rockstar’s friends, colleagues, and admirers joined forces for a virtual party. After nearly three hours of covers on SiriusXM’s Tom Petty Radio from dozens of artists including the Raconteurs and the Killers, a three-hour-long livestream kicked off that featured more covers and birthday wishes, both new and archival. Among the performances, Foo Fighters put their spin on “Honey Bee,” the Flaming Lips covered “Listen To Your Heart,” Beck did “Don’t Come Around Here” with Jeffertitti, Spoon performed “Breakdown,” Margo Price brought a country flare to “Crawling Back To You,” Brandi Carlile did “Wildflowers,” and the Heartbreakers’ Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench reunited to close o...
Tom Petty’s Wildflowers & All the Rest Offers an In-Depth Look Into One of His Finest Moments
By the early 1990s, Tom Petty was enjoying his second big wave of success. He’d spent two high-flying decades making hits and touring with his band, the Heartbreakers. He’d released two platinum albums as part of the Traveling Wilburys, a supergroup featuring Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Roy Orbison, and ELO’s Jeff Lynne. And, with Lynne as producer, he’d crafted two critical and commercial monsters: 1989’s solo debut Full Moon Fever and 1991’s full-band effort Into the Great Wide Open. Creatively, the sky was the limit but personally, his life was a shambles. His marriage to first wife and partner since his teenage years, fellow Florida native Jane Benyo was falling apart. It was time to move on. Wildflowers was Petty’s sprawling, sometimes painfully self-aware, and often idiosyncrat...
Tom Petty’s ‘Leave Virginia Alone’ Video Gives an Intimate Look at One Woman’s Journey
With Tom Petty’s Wildflowers & All the Rest box set arriving in just a couple of weeks, Petty’s estate has released a new powerful video for “Leave Virginia Alone.” Not only does it give you a beautiful cinematic portrayal of a woman navigating many different parts of her life, but it’s extra special because it is co-directed by Mark Seliger and the late singer-songwriter’s daughter, Adria Petty. “We were very resourceful about trying to create a character that could be assigned to anyone,” Adria Petty told David Fricke SiriusXM’s Tom Petty Radio. “That’s why Virginia in this video is very mysterious but she has her little glimpses of characters. We really worked to cast someone authentic—that felt like they were really feeling their feelings and someone that you could believe. We...
Tom Petty’s Wallflowers & All the Rest Due Out in October
The release of Tom Petty’s Wildflowers & All the Rest has been discussed for a while now, and finally, the Petty Estate has announced a release date. The long-awaited reissue has been slated to release on Oct. 15 via Warner Records. The box set celebrates his 1994 album, co-produced with Rick Rubin and Mike Campbell, and was curated by his daughters, Adria and Annakim Petty, and wife Dana Petty. “I broke through to something else,” Petty told Rolling Stone in a 2014 interview. My personal life came crashing down, and it derailed me for a while. But I was at the top of my game during that record.” As with many special reissue drops, you can get Wildflowers & All the Rest in various formats including a variety of CD/LP combo sets that progressively include more tracks. And then there...
Tom Petty Estate Issues Unreleased Song ‘There Goes Angela (Dream Away)’
In June, Tom Petty’s estate announced that the long-awaited Wildflowers box set would finally see the light of day. They shared an unreleased demo of “You Don’t Know How It Feels” from it, and now there’s more. On Wednesday (Aug. 5), the estate released “There Goes Angela (Dream Away),” another home recording from the collection. But there’s a catch. If you want to hear it, you need to go to Tom Petty’s website and go through a quiz to unlock it. Sorry, those are the rules. Ultimately, if the quiz works out in your favor, Petty’s latest previously unreleased drop can be downloaded right to your computer. “There Goes Angela (Dream Away)” is an easygoing, acoustic track with a smooth harmonica opening that’s fit for any ...
Listen to a Demo of Tom Petty’s ‘You Don’t Know How It Feels’
Even before Tom Petty died in 2017, there were talks that his beloved 1994 album Wildflowers (which was produced by Rick Rubin) would be getting a special edition that would include a number of rarities and songs that didn’t make the cut. Tonight, the first signs of that project coming to fruition are here. On SiriusXM’s Tom Petty Radio, an eight-track demo version of “You Don’t Know How It Feels” was played by Petty’s daughter Adria. “The family and the band are in a joyful process of discovering the Wildflowers sessions and demos and wanted to share a tiny bit of that with the fans today,” she said per Stereogum. It’s been a busy week for the Petty family. On Saturday night, they issued a strongly worded statement to the Trump campaign to stop using “I Won’t Back...
Tom Petty’s Estate Rips Trump for Using ‘I Won’t Back Down’ at Campaign Rally
On Saturday night, President Donald Trump had a rally in Tulsa that was sparsely attended. Apparently that wasn’t even the worst piece of news of the night for him. Upon hearing that the president came out to the 1989 anthem “I Won’t Back Down,” Tom Petty’s estate issued a blistering rebuke of its usage. “Both the late Tom Petty and his family firmly stand against racism and discrimination of any kind,” a statement from the estate read. “Tom Petty would never want a song of his used for a campaign of hate. He liked to bring people together.” “Tom wrote this song for the underdog, for the common man and for EVERYONE,” it continued. “We want to make it clear that we believe everyone is free to vote as they like, think as they like, but the Petty family doesn’t stand for this. We believe in A...
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