The Tom Petty Project

“It's good to be king and have your own way. Get a feeling of peace at the end of the day” There’s security in success, but there’s an ominous cautionary tone that creeps into the next line, “And when your bulldog barks and your canary sings, You're out there with winners, it's good to be king”. When your bulldog barks and your canary sings. Dogs usually bark as a warning. Canaries were used in co...

Legendary Nashville songwriter, Harlan Howard is purported to have coined the expression “three chords and the truth” and friend and colleague Bob Dylan is also remembered for the great line “All I need is my red guitar, three chords and the truth”. Well that’s all this riff is. Three chords. No passing chords, no fancy inversions or suspended notes. Just three chords - D A E. Mike Campbell was an...

On certain days, I think “Time to Move On” is the best song on Wildflowers, on other days, other songs take that honour. It’s a song that resonates with so many people because it gives us that glimpse into someone finding freedom, if not exactly peace. Despite being the fourth most streamed song from Wildflowers on Spotify, "Time to Move On" was not played live very many times. In fact, on setlist...

We’re all quick to judge people, whether they cut us off in the fast lane, or don’t hold a door open for us as we’re heading out of the grocery store. But we don’t know what that person is going through, emotionally, psychologically, physically. That disconnect is amplified a hundredfold when it’s in the context of a famous person. Wealth and stardom and all the trappings of comfort don’t mean muc...

Everything about the way this song is crafted sneaks up on you. It’s a masterclass in how you take an idea and flesh it out into a fully-fledged tour de force piece of art. And that’s not to say that this song isn’t wonderful when played just on an acoustic guitar, or on piano with just the vocal accompaniment. It’s a great song in its bones, but it’s dressed in such elegant musical finery that it...

When climbers finally decide to take on the holy grail of all ascents, Everest, they first face a nine day journey to base camp, which includes two full rest days. This journey alone weeds out about thirty of explorers. Those who are lucky enough to make the arduous trek to the first staging post are then faced with Mount Everest growing ever upwards into the clouds before them. Well my fine frien...

One last non-Petty episode before we being digging into Wildflowers! This time, Russell Mark, from The Nextdoors is back to talk about their new single "Swing and a Miss". We talk about perfection in art and whether it's worth striving for, we nerd out over specific production choices and songwriting form, and of course, we talk about Gary Carter, and America's pastime. It was a lot of fun ch...

This is another special non-Petty episode of the podcast with the fantastic Jake Thistle, who found time in his insanely busy schedule to sit down with me to discuss his label debut, The Half Left Out. We chatted a little about Gainesville and Tom of course, but mainly we dug into the weeds around his full debut release, with topics ranging from album sequencing, how different producers bring diff...

A really fun one today folks. John and Kevin dig deep into inclusions and ommissions from 1993's Greatest Hits. We have a conversation about formats (CD vs vinyl), chronological ordering vs sequencing, and whether ballads belong on Greatest Hits compilations. Both John and Kevin have one song that the other feels simply doesn't belong on the Greatest Hits album and have a fulsome conversation abou...

Today’s episode is the third installment in my Petty 8ight series, where I bring in musicians who aren’t Pettyheads, give them eight deeper cuts that they likely haven’t heard before, and get their thoughts on them. In this episode, my willing newbies are Sean and Todd McGinity. The brothers are based in Winnipeg and have a long history of writing, recording and playing shows both together in band...

A major change in this cover version is the format of the lyrics. Something in the Air is a fairly ominous call to arms. The original was released in May of 1969 when the Vietnam War was still raging at its most furious. Speedy Keen said that told ZigZag magazine in 1975 of the song "It was a reflection of what I was seeing at the time". But rather than using the overtly observational third verse...

When author Paul Zollo asks Tom about the song in his book Conversations With Tom Petty, and mentions that the song had been partially written some years previously, Tom confirms this, saying, “That was one I wrote during the Full Moon Fever sessions. I wrote all but the chorus. I just had the loop going around and around and really had most of the words and everything. And I played the tape for R...

In March and April of 1992, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were wrapping up the European final leg of their Into The Great Wide Open tour. This leg saw them play dates in Germany, the UK, Ireland, Belgium, Switzerland, France, Norway, and on April 3rd, they closed out the tour in Malmo, Sweden, playing an extended set of 28 songs to 6000 Swedish fans, closing out with Learning to Fly, Making Some...

Today's episode is my ten questions with the brilliant Peter Nester. I usually put these out as bonus episodes in the same week as my chat with that guest, but Pete's answers to these questions were so thorough, considered, and beautifully expounded, that I felt this needed to be a regular release. I guarantee you'll hear which artist he wants to cover which Tom Petty song and go "Oh, damn, yeh I...

This is a special non-Petty episode of the podcast. I haven’t recorded one in ages, but when former guest Jeff Slate reached out to me to ask if I’d be interested in talking to him about his new single which is out now and the album it’s from which will drop in May, it wasn’t a hard sell for me as I'm a fan of both his music and his writing. We had a great chat about throwaway lyrics, production d...

I have two words for you: Yogi Berra. But what does the Yankees catcher have to do with my conversation with Pete Nester? Tune in to find out! Today's episode is a sprawling, hugely enjoyable conversation I had with a fellow music podcaster who I've been listening to for a couple and a half years now. Pete was very supportive of this show right from the getgo and offered me some valuable advice wh...

Another long one this season folks! But again there's so much to talk about with this album and we felt we needed to talk about each individual track. John and I had a good discussion about the background to the recording of this album and where this sits in the evolution of Tom's songwriting. We also didn't have a "producer for the day" discussion because we agreed that the album is sequenced pre...

The lyrics in Built to Last are unambiguously hopeful and quietly resilience. Perhaps it’s Tom’s last attempt to build a creative buttress around his failing marriage. Perhaps its an equal attempt to put up a wall around a band that had gone through a major friction point and were probably still unsure what direction they would be taking. The lyric feels, in some ways, like a more introspective co...

I know that, because you’re listening to this podcast that you must love rock n roll music. And when you hear the crackle of a cable being plugged into an amp, or that low buzz from the speaker, there’s just something primal and irresistible that happens to you if you love this type of music. Your whole body responds to it in both a physical and emotional way. It’s not “just” music. It becomes lik...

Another simple song, another catchy hook, another memorable idea that Tom puts into our heads and leaves there as a treat. I’m 100% sold on Into The Great Wide Open these days, where I didn’t listen to it front to back very often before. This song is another little forgotten deep cut that does so much with so little, very economically. The core idea is a fairly profound one but it’s wrapped up in...

Today's episode is my ten questions with the amazing Mark Lindsey. As a veteran of over 40 Heartbreakers shows and as a guy who has seen Mudcrutch, Bob Dylan, ELO, and Bob Dylan live, my questions about opening acts, shows Mark would like to see, and Mudcrutch or the Wilburys became all the more interesting. His picks for people to cover Tom Petty songs were also on the money! Don't forget that Ma...

In Conversations With Tom Petty, Tom says “I struggled with the lyrics quite a bit. It was one of those things where you struggle and you always wonder if you got everything out of it that you could.” He does go on to say that during a rehearsal for the song he found that he enjoyed the lyrics, but I think the way they’re crafted belies any notion of uncertainty on his part. I love that alternatin...

Today's episode is my wonderful conversation with one of the finest human beings you're going to find anywhere on the planet. As well as being a lifelong superfan of Tom Petty and a veteran of over 40 of his shows, Mark also runs the Sight and Sound Care charity that provides free vision care, including examinations, contact lenses and glasses to musicians and music industry workers all across the...

Today's episode is a conversation I had with Milwaukee-based musician Trapper Schoepp. We discussed his love of Tom's music, the background behind his cover of Free Fallin' which you can find on all streaming platforms, his co-write with Bob Dylan (yes, you read that right!) and he rapid-fire answered my ten questions, which is why they aren't being broked out into a separate episiode. We were als...

Today's episode is Doc Wiley and Chris Gillette's answers to my ten questions. Doc found a good hack to my question "Which Tom Petty concert from history would you like to have seen" and Chris talked wonderfully about Walls and mentioned that The Waiting played it during their PBS special, which will be airing in January next year. For more info, videos, and performance dates, please check out the...