The Tom Petty Project

This song was a little bit of a grower for me and it’s one that’s definitely gone up a little since I sat down to pull it apart to see what secrets it’s hiding. The fact that, yet again, there is a d…

“You think that you're above me. You think that you're so big. Well, I saw you kick that dog. When the wind blew off your wig” This is Tom’s brilliant whimsy, channeled through Dylan’s cynicism to fa…

“We grew up fast and no-one seemed to notice. We grew up fast and we grew up alone”. All of us latch key kids can relate very easily to what he’s communicating here. Even though our parents loved and…

 “Half of me is ocean. Half of me is sky”. There’s something so brilliantly grand and epic about that line. The ocean and the sky are both vast and hint at the complexity of being human. You also hav…

Pete Nester is down in Gainesville at the Tom Petty Weekend, subbing in for me as I can't be there. He's been doing a fantastic job of connecting me with the weekend via messages, video clips, and ph…

Another roving report from our man on the ground out at the Tom Petty Weekend in Gainesville. This time, my pal Pete Nester catches up with the main man, Jake Thistle, and also chats to Jared Hart, s…

Surprise! Here's a special episode for you. My pal and roving reporter Pete Nester, from the Honest and Unmerciful Record Review Podcast, is down in Gainesville and grabbed some time with the brillia…

Today’s bonus episode is the second part of my conversation with the wonderful Shawn Murphy. We dug down into which opening act he'd like to see at a Heartbreakers show and his choice for which artis…

Today’s special episode is part of a fantastic conversation I had with the brilliant Shawn Murphy, a lifelong Pettyhead who built and maintains the amazing Tom Petty Trail.com website. Shawn and I ch…

Before we kick off the season proper, let's listen to which version of Walls my guests so far have picked! When I wrote the question, "Which do you prefer, Walls (Circus) or Walls (No. 3), I assumed …

I enjoyed previewing season ten and talking about Wildflowers before we started digging into the songs and figured, “you know what, let’s do that for each season moving forward!” So I’m going to spli…

This week's episode is the fourth 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 w…

As the fall leaves come in, Eric Senich starts thinking about listening to his favourite Tom Petty album! Eric is also a fellow drummer so the song he picked to perform with the Heartbreakers is a St…

Today’s episode is a wonderful, sprawling conversation that I had with the inimitable host of the Booked on Rock podcast, Eric Senich. Eric and I met through the Van Halen show, And the Podcast Will …

Another excellent conversation with John about an album that we both obviously adore. We both talked a little about how the album lands differently for people of a certain age and particularly the wa…

Every story needs an ending and this song gives us that final scene of the hero walking away into the sunset to begin the next chapter of their life. It’s an ending that starts a new beginning. It’s …

This episode is a fairly hastily organized chat that I had with Jeff Slate and Jake Thistle about the upcoming Wildflowers and Some of the Rest mini-tour that they’re embarking on which kicks off at …

I’m expanding the non-Petty aspect of the podcast just a little by looking for conversations with artists who might not be strongly or directly influenced by Tom’s music but share some characteristic…

Tom explains to author Paul Zollo in “Conversations with Tom Petty” that “I remember us tracking it all night and being really frustrated that it wasn’t working. Then they came on the idea of having …

Today’s episode is part two of my wonderful conversation I had with Nora Hayward Olsen; her answers to my ten questions. Nora hit me with a new artist I'd never heard of and was most apologetic about…