Petty’s breakthrough album plays like his most genuine slice of rock ‘n’ roll – probably because his two earlier albums didn’t do much, and that hunger drips through nearly every single groove. ‘Damn the Torpedoes’ heads straight into a world where Byrds-ian folk-rock collides with heartland-sized riffs. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers never hit the brakes.
Not long after You’re Gonna Get It, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers’ label, Shelter Records, was sold to MCA Records. Petty struggled to free himself from the major label, eventually sending himself into bankruptcy. He settled with MCA and set to work on his third album, digging out some old Mudcrutch numbers and quickly writing new songs. Amazingly, through all the frustration and anguish, Petty & the Heartbreakers delivered their breakthrough and arguably their masterpiece with the album Damn the Torpedoes.
Musically, it follows through on the promise of their first two albums, offering a tough, streamlined fusion of the Stones and Byrds that, thanks to Jimmy Iovine’s clean production, sounded utterly modern yet timeless. It helped that the Heartbreakers had turned into a tighter, muscular outfit, reminiscent of, well, the Stones in their prime — all of the parts combine into a powerful, distinctive sound capable of all sorts of subtle variations. Their musical suppleness helps bring out the soul in Petty’s impressive set of songs. He had written a few classics before like “American Girl,”“Listen to Her Heart” — but here his songwriting truly blossoms. Most of the songs have a deep melancholy undercurrent — the tough “Here Comes My Girl” and “Even the Losers” have tender hearts; the infectious “Don’t Do Me Like That” masks a painful relationship; “Refugee” is a scornful, blistering rocker; “Louisiana Rain” is a tear-jerking ballad. Yet there are purpose and passion behind the performances that makes Damn the Torpedoes an invigorating listen all the same. Few mainstream rock albums of the late ’70s and early ’80s were quite as strong as this, and it still stands as one of the great records of the album rock era.
It’s about an hour before Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers play Colorado’s Red Rocks Amphitheatre for what may be the last time. Backstage, Petty is in his dressing room putting on a frontier rebel’s headdress to fight the chill. Keyboardist Benmont Tench is tweeting about the sad state of our country under Donald Trump. Bassist RonBlair has battled stage fright for years since rejoining the Heartbreakers in 2002, after a 20-year sanity break. He wanders into Tom Petty’s dressing room and cops to something you’re not likely to admit to your bandleader unless you’ve known him for 40 years. “I’m kinda nervous, you know,” says Blair in a quiet voice.
Petty rarely describes himself as the leader of his band, but as “the older brother they sometimes have to listen to.” Tonight, he gives Blair some fatherly assurance and a toothy Southern smile: “Let me be nervous for you.”
The band takes the stage and blows through “Rockin’ Around (With You),” the first song on its self-titled first album, from 1976. Petty ends the next few songs strumming in front of the drum set, trading man-crush smiles with drummer Steve Ferrone (Tench jokes, “They should get a room”). Petty even grins through a joyous version of “Walls,” from 1996’s She’s the One, an album he’s complained about for nearly 20 years.
And then there’s a flash of lightning. Rain pours down. The Heartbreakers are shooed into the catacombs of Red Rocks, and 9,000 fans head for cover.
As the bandmates wait out the rain, Petty asks if they want to add their 1999 song “Swingin'” to the second half of the set. Everyone agrees: They do. The Heartbreakers aren’t a democracy, but more of a benevolent dictatorship. This is true when it comes to the set list. “We can make suggestions,” says Tench with a wry smile. “Sometimes they’re even accepted.”
After 20 minutes, the Heartbreakers retake the stage. They play “Swingin’,” which has a chorus where Petty lists icons who “went down swinging,” including Sonny Liston and Sammy Davis. Tench, who sings with Petty on the song, switches it up. Epstein provided the beautiful high harmonies on the record, so Tench sneaks in a tribute to his departed friend: “He went down swingin’/Just like Howie Epstein.”
Petty is supposed to do some acoustic numbers from Wildflowers,his 1994 solo album. There’s just one problem: His guitar is dead, soaked by the rain. There’s confusion and uncertainty on the band mates’ faces for a moment, like it’s a 1975 show at a honky-tonk in Gainesville. Then Petty and Campbell shout across the stage, “Ben, play something!”
Tench, the best keyboardist in American rock, breaks into a pastiche of boogie-woogie, a homage to pianist Pete Johnson. The group chimes in, not quite in sync, until Petty switches to Chuck Berry’s “Carol.” The Heartbreakers fall in line, sounding like the best bar band you don’t want to tell your friends about.
They encore with “American Girl.” The bandmates take a bow, wiping sweat and rain off their faces. Everyone exits, but Petty seems reluctant to leave. He takes a few steps toward the front of the stage and gives a last wave.
One word Petty and the band never mention: retirement. Petty still goes into his Malibu home office to write songs right across from his home studio. He’s mostly a homebody, rarely even venturing the 45 minutes into Los Angeles unless it’s to see his two daughters and his young granddaughter. There was a Mudcrutch tour last year and a turn producing a record for former Byrds bassist Chris Hillman. The Heartbreakers will record again and play live in some capacity. After 40 years, it would be surprising if there weren’t a few regrets. “Howie should’ve gotten some lead on a record,” Tench says of Epstein. “He should’ve produced a record for the Heartbreakers. I would’ve loved that.” Then he shrugs. “But I’m not in charge.”
There’s been a valedictory feel to the Heartbreakers‘ 40th-anniversary tour, which Petty says is the band’s final country-spanning run – the “last big one.” Everyone else is a bit skeptical. “I’ve been hearing that for 15 years,” says guitarist and original Heartbreaker Mike Campbell. “We’ll see.”
The crowds are still there, something Petty is clearly proud of when we sit down in a hotel room on an off day. To be honest, he looks more jittery offstage than on. This may be because he is chain-smoking, alternating between Marlboros and vaping, perhaps as a concession to the Denver Ritz-Carlton’s smoking policy.
Petty says sleep is now his friend. “I need a new Netflix show, does anyone have any suggestions?” he asks just before his assistant ducks out of the room. Someone suggests Bloodline, a noirish series set in his native Florida.
Petty is defiant about the hyper pace of the tour, which hits 30 cities this spring and summer. “Unless you’ve done it, you can’t understand what it is,” says Petty, brushing his scarecrow hair out of his face. “And if you’re not really experienced, you will fall.”
What keeps the Heartbreakers together is simple: The band has been their life since 1976. BenjaminMontmorency Tench III, was a prep-school kid and piano prodigy. Tench wears suits and went to Exeter, but he’s the fiery one. In the Peter Bogdanovich documentary on the Heartbreakers, 2007’s Runnin’ Down a Dream, Tench can be heard screaming at his bandmates to take things seriously. His nickname is Mad Dog. When Tench used to go on one of his tirades, a roadie would slide a dog bowl of water under his piano.
Petty, Campbell and Tench formed the nucleus of the band Mudcrutch, which morphed into the Heartbreakers in 1976, after adding San Diego native Blair on bass and Stan Lynch on drums. Blair fried out and bailed in 1982. He opened a bikini shop in the Valley and was replaced by Howie Epstein, but the band loomed in his subconscious. “I’d dream I’d be walking to the stage, and be like, ‘I don’t know “Mary Jane’s LastDance,”‘ recalls Blair. “I had half a dozen of those nightmares, so I started learning those songs so I could get a night’s sleep.”
This proved fortuitous when Epstein died of heroin-related complications in 2003. “I don’t think the band continues without Ron,” Tench tells me. “Bringing in someone new wouldn’t have worked.”
“About 20 years ago, we stopped doing soundchecks,” says Petty. “It eats up the whole day and we’d argue, and then you’d come back and the sound would be completely different with a crowd.”
The other game-changer was Dylan. By 1986, the band had toured relentlessly for a decade. Off the road, everyone was a mess – some members dealing with substance issues, some just dealing with real life. “The road and the studio are the only places I’ve ever felt completely OK,” says Petty, lighting another Marlboro. “In any other life situation I’m terribly retarded.” Petty got a call from Dylan asking if the band would back him on a tour. Petty raced out a “hell, yes.” Watching footage, you can see him smiling his head off, ecstatic to not be leading the show. The experience taught him how to be inthe Heartbreakers, not just lead them. “That’s when we learned how to really be a band,” says Petty.
One word Petty and the band never mention: retirement. Petty still goes into his Malibu home office to write songs right across from his home studio. He’s mostly a homebody, rarely even venturing the 45 minutes into Los Angeles unless it’s to see his two daughters and his young granddaughter. There was a Mudcrutch tour last year and a turn producing a record for former Byrds bassist Chris Hillman. The Heartbreakers will record again and play live in some capacity. After 40 years, it would be surprising if there weren’t a few regrets. “Howie should’ve gotten some lead on a record,” Tench says of Epstein. “He should’ve produced a record for the Heartbreakers. I would’ve loved that.” Then he shrugs. “But I’m not in charge.”
Four songs into his set Tuesday night at Bridgestone Arena, Tom Petty announced that the band’s next song had not been played live in more than a decade. And with that, Petty and the Heartbreakers kicked into “You Got Lucky,” an ominous masterpiece of a song that elicited a chorus of “hell yeah”s when the minor chords of BenmontTench’s synthesizer blasted through the speakers.
It was a testament to Petty’s seemingly bottomless repertoire of songs that he could dust off a song like that willy-nilly and still have it be an anthemic arena sing-a-long.
With the exception of the opening number, “Rockin’ Around (With You)” the first song on the first Heartbreakers record — and a few other cuts, Tuesday night’s show was heavy on the hits, despite the tour being billed as a celebration of that album’s 40th anniversary.
It was also one of the more raucous and engaged crowds this writer has ever seen at Bridgestone. When Petty played Bonnaroo back in 2013, his set was borderline lethargic, and perhaps that was intentional,given the stoner vibe of the festival. But Tuesday night’s show stood in defiant counterpoint to that. And the crowd, which spanned several generations, responded in kind.
Around the front of the stage, in the not-so-cheap seats, one could find a who’s who of Nashville-based musicians, including Robyn Hitchcock and Wilco’s Pat Sansone. Petty even remarked at one point that if you’re not a guitar player in Nashville, you’re a songwriter. But for the most part, the 66-year-old kept the stage banter to a relative minimum. Indeed, it seemed at times that the sold-out crowd knew every word to every song. And it was remarkable to consider just how well these songs have aged through the years. So many of these classic Petty cuts seem to exist in the ether, and the very idea of a world without his music is hard to fathom.
Tom Petty’s voice is raspier than it was in his heyday, but it still gets the job done. And the Heartbreakers, led by guitarist Mike Campbell, who these days resembles a dread-locked Captain Jack Sparrow, never break stride. It’s easy to see why Rick Rubin has long called them the best rock and roll band in the world.
When Petty and the Heartbreakers released their debut back in ’76, some critics dismissed them as a “nostalgic” act. How wrong they were. The final track of that debut album, and the final song of the night, “American Girl,” still crackles with thunder, sounding as fresh and vital as the day it was released.
In late November, just weeks after the 40th anniversary of their debut record landing on record store shelves, TomPetty and the Heartbreakers got together at their rehearsal space in L.A’s San Fernando Valley to jam, taking the first step toward their just-announced 2017 tour. “We mainly did cover songs,” says Heartbreakers keyboardist Benmont Tench. “When we get together we tend to do a lot of Chicago-style blues songs, but Tom was also making up songs on the spot. We were shaking off the rust.”
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Plot 40th Anniversary Tour Joe Walsh to open most dates, Chris Stapleton to play select shows
The rust had built up after a three-year hiatus from touring (their longest break in 25 years), but the band will make up for lost time on April 20th when they kick off their 40th anniversary tour at Oklahoma City’s Chesapeake Energy Center, staying on the road steadily through late August playing a mixture of arenas, festivals and the occasional stadium. “I’m thinking it may be the last trip around the country,” says Petty. “It’s very likely we’ll keep playing, but will we take on 50 shows in one tour? I don’t think so. I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was thinking this might be the last big one. We’re all on the backside of our sixties. I have a granddaughter now I’d like to see as much as I can. I don’t want to spend my life on the road. This tour will take me away for four months. With a little kid, that’s a lot of time.”
As recently as June, Petty was planning to release a deluxe version of his 1995 solo LP Wildflowers next year, containing an entire bonus disc of unreleased material, and playing it all on a special tour. “The 40th anniversary kind of got in the way of that,” he says. “I looked at the tour they booked and it was all big places. The Wildflowers tour will have to be in smaller places because it’s just a lot of quiet and a lot of it is acoustic. It would be wrong to focus on one album for that tour.”
Without a new LP to promote, the band plans to dig deep into their archives next year, hitting each of their 13 albums and Petty’s three solo discs. From the late Nineties through the early 2010s the group leaned heavily on their many hits when they toured, along with a smattering of tunes from whatever their latest album was at the moment, but in 2013 they did a run of special theater shows at the Beacon in New York and the Fonda in Los Angeles that dramatically broadened the scope of their repertoire. “If I was a fan and they didn’t play ‘American Girl‘ or ‘Free Fallin’‘ I’d be disappointed,” says Petty. “But I want to continue with the vibe we had at the theater shows where we represented plenty of popular songs, but also give the longtime fans some really deep stuff, and we can change the show as much as we want from night to night.”
While nothing is definite at the moment, Petty is into the idea of playing the title track to 1978’s You’re Gonna Get It (unplayed since New Year’s Eve 1978) and the mournful “Room at the Top” from 1999’s Echo, while Tench wants to play the title track to Echo, the Damn the Torpedoes classic “Louisiana Rain” and “StoriesWe Could Tell,” an Everly Brothers song they released on their 1985 live album Pack Up the Plantation. Guitarist Mike Campbell, meanwhile, hopes to convince the group to break out break out “Fooled Again,” “Luna” and “Hurt,” all of which come from their first two albums.
Excluding drummer Stan Lynch, who left the Heartbreakers in 1994 after years of tension with Petty, everyone on those early records remains in the band. “We grew up together and we love playing together more than than playing with anybody else,” says Campbell. “We’ve been through so much together. I don’t want to name names, but a lot of bands go out together and they just don’t like each other. They’re making a lot of money and just clocking in. We’ve never been like that, and we have a chemistry and a telepathy between us that is really rare.”
Many of the deep cuts they hope to revive on the 40th anniversary tour are in regular rotation on Tom Petty Radio, a SiriusXM channel that has occupied much of Petty’s time since the end of the last Heartbreakers tour in 2014. Unlike Bruce Springsteen, Jimmy Buffett and Garth Brooks, all of whom have their own channels on the satellite radio service, Petty personally oversees the station, recording song intros at his own studio and even hosting the interview show Tom Talks to Cool People where he’s interviewed everyone from Micky Dolenz of the Monkees to Doors drummer John Densmore. “I’m in hog heaven with the radio thing,” Petty says. “I want to have the best rock & roll station in the world.”
Before rehearsals begin for the tour in March Petty plans on producing an album for original Byrds bassist ChrisHillman, but once that wraps all of his attention will turn to the live show, which will feature opening act Joe Walsh at many of the U.S. dates. His proclamation that this may be the last major tour is likely to generate a lot of attention among fans and the press, but even his own bandmates are dubious of the claim. “I’ve been hearing him say that of the past 10 years,” says Campbell. “It would be a shame to stop playing while we’re at the peak of our abilities.” Tench feels the same way. “I don’t know what’s on Tom’s mind,” he says, “because he certainly hasn’t said that to me.”
West Coast dates have yet to be announced, and as of now the only European date is a single show at London’s HydePark. “It’s just a matter of blocking out the time to go all the way over there and getting enough money to make it worthwhile with all our expenses,” says Campbell. “But I love going to Europe. I think we’ll probably go there again before we hang it up.” There’s also the matter of recording another studio album. “We’ll get around to that when we can,” says Petty. “But I’m in no hurry to do that now. I do have a contract where I owe my label a record every couple of years, but I always go over that and they always indulge me. I bring them over and show them what I’m working on so they know I’m not just doing nothing. They’re understanding.”
At the very least, Petty is already thinking about bringing Wildflowers on the road after the 40th anniversary tour winds down. “I started talking about that the other day and got a loud, ‘Shut up!'” he says. “Every time I bring it up it hits a wall somewhere. But we’re done in August. After that, it’s not out of the question I’d get the box set together and take it on the road to theaters before the end of the year.” The Heartbreakers are excited about the prospect. “I’d be more interested in an Echo tour than a Wildflowers one,” Tench says with a laugh. “But I love the idea of a Wildflowers tour. I think it’s brilliant. There’s just something about that record. Rick [Rubin]’s influence made it so spare and every little lick meant something. It was a very special record.”
In the meantime, they simply need to simply get though the 40th anniversary tour. “We’re very aware that time is finite,” says Petty. “At the end of the year we’ll say, ‘What do you feel like doing?’ Then we’ll figure out where to go next.”
Tom Petty is headlining one of the British summertime shows this July. Following great trips over the past few years to The Rolling Stones, Neil Young and The Who we’re thrilled to be heading back to one of the great summer events.
These festivals are brilliantly organised and we would highly recommend upgrading to Gold or Diamond VIP packages.
These gives you access to the VIP summer garden area which offers a selection of exclusive bars, restaurants, comfy seating (and toilets without long queues :-))
Diamond VIP includes access to a small pit right in the very front of the main stage.
Gold VIP includes access to a secondary pit just behind the Diamond section
check out Badlands
To commemorate the 40th anniversary of their debut album, Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers are collecting all their studio albums into two new vinyl only box sets.
The Complete Studio Albums Volume 1 (1976-1991)and The Complete Studio Albums Volume 2 (1994-2014) bring together, across 21 pieces of 180-gram vinyl, all 16 studio releases from singer/guitarist Petty, guitarists Mike Campbell and Scott Thurston, keyboardist Benmont Tench, bassists Ron Blair and HowieEpstein and drummers Stan Lynch and Steve Ferrone. (Three of the albums, of–Full Moon Fever(1989), Wildflowers (1994) and Highway Companion (2006)–are solely credited to Petty despite ample contributions from The Heartbreakers and other guest musicians.)
Thirteen of these records have been certified gold or platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, and feature a clutch of rock radio hits, from “American Girl” and “Don’t Do Me Like That” to “The Waiting” and “Don’t Come Around Here No More”; “Free Fallin'” and “I Won’t Back Down” to “Learning to Fly” and “You Don’t Know How It Feels.” And everything from Hard Promises to Highway Companion has been newly remastered for the sets.
In 2015, Petty released “Somewhere Under Heaven,” the first song from an as-yet unscheduled collection of Wildflowers outtakes. This year, he released the second album with his pre-Heartbreakers band, Mudcrutch, and next year he will be honored as the MusiCares Person of the Year.
Humorously (blame pesky production schedules, we imagine), Volume 2 will be available on November 25th, with Volume 1 following two weeks later on December 9th. Petty has spent 2016 on tour with his pre-Heartbreakers band Mudcrutch, alongside guitarist Mike Campbell and keyboardist Benmont Tench. The Heartbreakers last toured in 2014 in support of Hypnotic Eye.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers perform a cover of the Animals classic track “Don’t Bring Me Down” at Farm Aid in Champaign, Illinois on September 22, 1985.
A performance from the first Farm Aid benefit concert. Willie Nelson, Neil Young and John Mellencamp founded Farm Aid and serve on the board of directors. The three agreed that family farmers were in dire need of assistance and decided to plan a concert for America. The show was put together in six weeks and was held on September 22nd, 1985 in Champaign, Illinois before a crowd of 80,000 people. It raised over $9 million for America’s family farmers. Performers included Bob Dylan, Billy Joel, B.B. King, Loretta Lynn, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty and many more. It would have been very difficult for Bob Dylan to decline an invitation to perform at the inaugural Farm Aid concert in Champagne, Illinois on September 22nd, 1985. The entire event was inspired by his onstage comments at Live Aid earlier that year: “I hope that some of the money . . . maybe they can just take a little bit of it, maybe . . . one or two million, maybe . . . and use it it, say to pay the mortgages on some of the farms.”
it inspired Neil Young, John Mellencamp and Willie Nelson to come together and form Farm Aid. In just two months they assembled an incredible lineup that included the Beach Boys, Johnny Cash, John Fogerty, Billy Joel, Randy Newman, Carole King, Loretta Lynn, Roy Orbison, Eddie Van Halen with SammyHagar and many others.
Dave Matthews joined Farm Aid’s Board of Directors in 2001 to help further Farm Aid’s mission of keeping family farmers on their land.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers perform “Straight Into Darkness” at Farm Aid in Champaign, Illinois on September 22nd, 1985. Bob Dylan had been off the road for four years at this point. He didn’t have a backing band, so Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers agreed to take on the task. Their six-song set was heavy on material from Dylan’s new albums, But here we feature the track without Dylan who joined the band later in the set. Just a few months later, Dylan and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers kicked off a triumphant world tour.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers perform “Refugee” at Farm Aid in Champaign, Illinois on September 22nd, 1985.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Setlist:
Bye Bye Johnny
(Chuck Berry cover)
Don’t Bring Me Down
(The Animals cover)
Straight Into Darkness
Refugee
Shake (with Bob Dylan)
I’ll Remember You (with Bob Dylan)
(Bob Dylan cover)
Trust Yourself (with Bob Dylan)
(Bob Dylan cover)
Maggie’s Farm (with Bob Dylan)
(Bob Dylan cover)
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers have digitally released Through The Cracks and Nobody’s Children via theTom Petty & the Heartbreakers Store and all digital distributors including Spotify, Amazon, and Apple Music.
Songs on these releases span from 1973 to 1993 and include early Mudcrutch recordings, demos and alternate versions from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers albums pre-1995, plus some great cover versions. Until now these two discs were previously only available as part of 1995’s Playback box set.
1 On The Street (Mudcrutch Demo)
2 Depot Street (Mudcrutch)
3 Cry To Me (Mudcrutch)
4 Don’t Do Me Like That (Mudcrutch version)
5 I Can’t Fight It (Mudcrutch)
6 Since You Said You Loved Me
7 Louisiana Rain
8 Keeping Me Alive
9 Turning Point
10 Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around (demo)
11 The Apartment Song (demo)
12 Bog Boss Man
13 The Image Of Me
14 Moon Pie
15 The Damage You’ve Done (Country Version)
Got My Mind Made Up (Original Version), Ways To Be Wicked, Can’t Get Her Out, Waiting For Tonight, Travelin’ Baby, Let’s Play House, Wooden Heart, God’s Gift To Man, You Get Me High, Come On Down To My House, You Come Through, Up In Mississippi Tonight.
Cabin Down Below – Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers – Troubadour – Los Angeles CA – Dec 19 2015,
Little Red Rooster (Willie Dixon cover) – Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers – Troubadour – Dec 19th 2015
I’m a Man – (Bo Diddley cover) – Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers – Troubadour – Dec 19 2015, 4th Merry Minstrel Musical Circus. Ron Blair is on bass. Drummer Steve Ferrone was out the the country. Matt Laug from Dirty Knobs was outstanding in his place
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers fans can check out video footage from his recent surprise set, that took place on December 19th in Los Angeles at the Troubadour. The iconic Florida rocker and his longtime band the Heartbreakers made their only live appearance of 2015 at the famed West Hollywood club to perform a 10-song set, which included a rocking rendition of their 1993 single “Mary Jane’s Last Dance.”.
Thirteen Days (J.J. Cale cover) – Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers at the Troubadour – Dec 19th 2015, 4th Annual Merry Minstrel Musical Circus. Ron Blair is on bass. Drummer Steve Ferrone was out the the country. Matt Laug from Dirty Knobs was outstanding in his place.
Dogs on the Run – Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers – Troubadour – Dec 19th 2015
Tom Petty’s appearance was part of the fourth annual Merry Minstrel Musical Circus, a charity event organized by Heartbreaker guitarist Mike Campbell and singer/songwriter Jonathan Wilson in support of the Tazzy Animal Rescue Fund. Described as a “holiday gathering and jamathon,” the night featured plenty of star power, including performances by Jackson Browne and Dawes, as well as ELO’s Jeff Lynne, who joined Tom Petty and company during their set for the songs “Runaway,” “Poor House” and “Roll Over Beethoven.”
Also sitting in on Petty’s set was studio drummer Matt Laug (Alanis Morissette, Alice Cooper, Slash’s Snakepit). Laug sat in for absent Heartbreaker’s drummer Steve Ferrone.
Last Dance with Mary Jane – Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers – Troubadour – Dec 19th 2015
Runnin’ Down A Dream – Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers – Troubadour – Dec 19th 2015, 4th Annual Merry Minstrel Muscial Circus.
Ron Blair is on bass. Drummer Steve Ferrone was out the the country. Matt Laug from Dirty Knobs was outstanding in his place
The band played an eclectic mix of covers and hits. See below for the night’s setlist.
Tom Petty and company have been enjoying some downtime from the road since wrapping their massive tour in support of their last studio album, Hypnotic Eye, earning the band their first chart topping album in their entire 39-year career. Petty is currently involved with Sirius satellite radio hosting his own program “Buried Treasure” on channel 27 and has talked about plans to make a new record with his earlier band, Mudcrutch in 2016. For the latest details on Tom Petty, click here.
Although most of their material is produced and performed under the name “The Heartbreakers”, Tom Petty has also released three solo albums, the most successful being 1989’s Full Moon Fever. In these releases, members of the band contributed as studio musicians.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers setlist at Troubadour:
Cabin Down Below (Tom Petty song)
Little Red Rooster (Willie Dixon cover)
I’m a Man (Bo Diddley cover)
Thirteen Days (J.J. Cale cover)
Dogs on the Run (Tom Petty song)
Runaway (Del Shannon cover) (with Jeff Lynne)
The Poor House (Traveling Wilburys cover) (with Jeff Lynne)
Roll Over Beethoven (Chuck Berry cover) (with Jeff Lynne)
Mary Jane’s Last Dance (Tom Petty song)
Runnin’ Down a Dream (Tom Petty song
30th Anniversary Concert from Gainesville, FL, as Tom Petty turns 60 today
Tom Petty started in 1976 with Mike Campbell on lead, Benmont Trench on keyboards and Stan Lynch on drums as the core group. They lasted through most of the 1980s and 1990s with Howie Epstein stepping into the bassist slot in 1982.
Tom Petty has had a long association with Bob Dylan, backing him with his band, and as a member of the super group The Travelling Wilburys.
His hits are legends of rock like Mary Jane’s Last Dance, I Won’t Back Down, and Free Fallin.
For his 30th Anniversary Concert, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers returned to his home in Gainesville Florida for aconcert filmed by director Peter Bogdanovich. Stevie Nicks is a guest vocalist during part of the concert.
You can watch the whole concert Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers‘Running Down The Dream” on YouTube free on your computer. It’s low res 240p so it looks awful on television. The YouTube sound is decent because it came from the DVD.
30th Anniversary Concert from Gainesville, FL
00:31 – 03:47 01. Listen To Her Heart
04:27 – 10:09 02. Last dance for Mary Jane
11:27 – 14:22 03. I Won’t Back Down
15:06 – 19:54 04. Free Fallin’
21:17 – 24:47 05. Saving Grace
26:12 – 28:41 06. I’m A Man
28:47 – 32:32 07. Oh Well
33:19 – 36:28 08. Handle With Care (meh)
39:47 – 44:12 09. Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around (with Stevie Nicks)-
44:54 – 48:13 10. I Need To Know (with Stevie Nicks)
48:08 -1:00:09 11. It’s Good To Be King
1:00:35-1:03:50 12. Down South
1:05:10-1:09:59 13. Southern Accents
1:10:52-1:15:32 14. Insider (with Stevie Nicks)
1:15:53-1:20:32 15. Learning To Fly
1:20:50-1:27:22 16. Don’t Come Around Here No More
1:27:31-1:32:28 17. Runnin’ Down A Dream (!)
1:34:35-1:40:04 18. You Wreck Me
1:40:39-1:48:23 19. Mystic Eyes
1:49:33-1:54:01 20. American Girl (Stevie Nicks tambo)
The Fat Angel Sings 