The Tom Petty Project

In Conversations With Tom Petty, when Tom tells author Paul Zollo that the band were allowed to pick some of their favourites for the Anthology, Paul asks “So Two Gunslingers is one of your favourites?” Tom Responds “Oh definitely. I love that song. I was really proud of that when it got done.” When Paul comments “It’s a funny song, but meaningful.” Tom responds, “Yeh, it’s a really good anti-war...

Where Tom’s vocal on a song like Refugee or Rebels is like a sharpened steel, his voice here sits more in that butterscotch place that he could employ when he wanted to dial the energy back. Even in the chorus, he doesn’t lean into any vibrato, doesn’t crack or pinch his voice and just lets the melody wash over you. And it’s a song that doesn’t need vocal pyrotechnics because all the explosions in...

Like Learning To Fly, it’s a song that the band would change the arrangement of and when Paul Zollo mentions the acoustic version on the Playback boxset, Tom responds that “It’ll work just about any way you want to play it.” He also goes on to say “It was a tricky one to record. We went through a few changes trying to get the track to sound the way we wanted.” I think that “the Kings Highway” here...

Another recap episode for you this week folks as I try to wrangle guest schedules! This week we're looking back at which live shows my guests wish they could have seen. Winterland? The Fillmore? The True Confessions tour with Bob? The Superbowl half time show? The Gainesville homecoming show on the 30th anniversary tour... There are so many to choose from and some of my guests picked the same...

When Paul asks Tom to confirm that the origin of the song is him hearing a pilot say that learning to fly is easy, but coming down’s the hard part, Tom replies “True. That was the inspiration and I took it from there. Jeff and I wrote that together.” He also comments that it was written pretty quickly, saying “I think we wrote it in an evening. It came quickly because I had written most of the wor...

This week's episode is the second installment The Petty 8ight! I love talking to Pettyheads, musicians, and other people who have been influenced by Tom or his music in myriad ways, but I thought it would be neat to see what non-fans, or non-hardcore fans think of Tom's music if I threw deeper cuts at them. My second #Petty8ight guest is my best friend and musical mentor, Randy Woods. Randy is the...

It's a long one this season folks! But there's so much to talk about with this album and we felt we needed to talk about each individual track. Which song does John think that Kevin rated too low? Which songs made it onto Kevin and John's resqeuenced discs and which songs do they think could have been left off, if any? Check out the playlists below to find out! Please note, there is one small piec...

Another recap episode for you this week folks as I try to wrangle guest schedules! This week we're looking back at the songs of Tom's that my guests would love to hear covered by other artists. This is a question I always look forward to discussing and it's thrown up some brilliant ideas! In order, the people answering the questions are; Dallas Heliker, Gwen Jones, Nic Apostoleris, Janet Lovell, J...

In Conversations With Tom Petty, when author Paul Zollo asks about the origins of the song, Tom explains “It was when Jeff and George (Jeff Lynne and George Harrison obviously), went out to Anaheim to ask Roy Orbison to be in the band (the Traveling Wilburys, again obviously). We were writing everything we saw. One line I remember that we saw on a billboard was “every day is judgment day”. That la...

I do wonder whether the friend who’s treehouse he’s slept in is the same girl from the opening verse. There’s almost a Forrest and Jenny vibe to it if you link those two verses. “She never looked different but something would change” is later in the timeline, and the later treehouse reference snaps you back to a more innocent time. I know that this isn’t the case because the third verse is ad...

This bonus episode sees Dan Spiess return to the podcast to fill us in on what we can expect at this year's Tom Petty Weekend in Gainesville. There are so many cool things to do, from the Wildflowers exhibit at the Cade Museum, to the Gainesville tour bus, to the Heartwood Soundstage Storytellers sessions! The lineup is insanely good, the beer lineup is equally impressive and I'm looking forward t...

Everything is alright. For now at least. And that’s where I think this song becomes much more interesting. Despite the light fluffiness of the verse progression and the sincere expression of adoration in the lyrics, that caveat on the title line, we’re alright “for now” belies a slight tension in Tom’s state of mind. Now, it just could that no other words fit as well as “for now”, but given that T...

The lyrics in this one are again, really direct and simple. Tom reminisces about his two room apartment and that he’s glad he doesn’t live there any more, but there’s a fondness in the tone. In the second verse, we hear that there’s a similar nostalgia for a former relationship that he sometimes remembers wistfully. The chorus underscores all this by giving his current state. “Oh yeah, I’m alright...

Today we hear what Django and Dan would pick as their favourite album, who they'd love to see open for the Heartbreakers and which song they'd love to have joined the band on stage to perform. Petty Theft is currently in the middle of their 20th Anniversary Tour (so you know they have to be good, because you simply don't last that long if you aren't!) and you can check out tour dates, find out mor...

Another half hour with Tommy today folks. Wait til you hear who he would like to see open for Tom Petty and which artist he wants to hear cover a Tom Petty song! Please check out Tommy's (brilliant) website here: https://www.tommyedwinmusic.com . Also, check out his song Empty Chair, from the album "Fade To Memory": https://youtu.be/MGAfmr4Y54U?si=jBEiJQpB3u39412P Don't forget to follow me on soci...

Today's special bonus episode is a conversation I had with San Francisco-based tribute band Petty Theft. I chatted for just about an hour and a half with bassist Django Bayless and lead singer/rhythm guitarist Dan Durkin, the two founding members of the band about how the band came together, how they choose songs to cover, and of course, their love of Tom's music. As I said to the boys during the...

Today's episode is a conversation I had with the wonderful Tommy Edwin. Tommy and I connect over on Twitter months ago and I've been a fan of his music (and his personality) ever since. I love having conversations about Tom Petty's music with other musicians because, even when we're not talking directly about Tom. the ways in which he influenced people always shines through. Tommy Edwin is not exc...

Something that my season seven guest Ivan Anderson said that stuck with me, was that “Listen to Her Heart” is a 'little' song. And by that, he wasn’t being dismissive. He was saying that it wasn’t covering a weighty topic and it was compact and accessible. I’d say exactly the same thing about this one. It’s neat and compact. It has a superb hook in the pre-chorus and the whole thing is imminently...

Yer So Bad could almost be the most important song in the entire Tom Petty canon. Almost. Probably not the most important, but it was the first song that Tom showed to Jeff Lynne and from there, the rest of Full Moon Fever and then The Traveling Wilburys dropped effortlessly into place. You have to think there was a little magic in the air that night. Tom tells Paul Zollo, “It was around this time...

Every hardcore Tom Petty fan knows that when Tom took the record to the execs at MCA, they didn’t like it at all. When Paul Zollo asks Tom why in Conversations with Tom Petty, Tom replies “They didn’t hear a single!” One of the other issues with the record that it was only nine tracks long. So while Jeff Lynne, who coproduced the record, was out of town, Tom and Mike recorded the lullaby, Alright...

In his fantastic memoir, Tom Petty and Me, Jon Scott calls Runnin Down a Dream “One of the greatest driving songs I’ve ever heard” and you get his point completely. It’s a juggernaut of a rock n roll song but isn’t overpowering sonically. Again Jeff Lynne leaves enough space for the song to breath but adds in enough flare to keep you interested all the way through. It’s an urgent and riveting song...

“I do like that song. I think it’s a really sweet song. A nice sentiment. Very simple. Extremely simple. It’s not complex in any way” One thing I always find interesting in reading Paul Zollo's book is the way that Tom often seems to be looking at his own songs from the outside. The book came out in 2005 and in preceding decade, Tom had only played the song six times, so you can see why some of th...

Love is a Long Road is a really durable song and though I pointed out that it has a few rock tropes in it, they’re not overdone and not dated and I think this song really holds up well in its original recorded form. It’s another song with a very simple structure but with a couple of nice twists and turns in it. Listen to the song here: https://youtu.be/2AilA-M6N5U Check out this great live Sounsta...

As it does with so many people, this song resonates with me in many different ways and has become part of my general outlook on life. For me, it’s less a combative thing and more about holding firm to certain principles. Loyalty. Decency. Humility. All big words and and big ideas generally, but they are important and they’re important to me. Maybe this is not a unique association that I’m making,...

 “I'm gonna free fall out into nothin'. Gonna leave this world for awhile.” This is exactly what great music does to me. It takes me out of my body and out into the creative ether. It helps me let go of anxiety or sadness or anger or grief and just soar on the music. I know that not everyone has that experience with music but it’s like a drug in a lot of ways. It alters your mood, changes you...