The Tom Petty Project

Latest Episodes:

All or Nothin' Dec 06, 2023

Show notes

“You could almost take Mike [Campbell] for granted, because anything you asked him to do, he did it. And more. I don’t remember ever throwing anything his way that he couldn’t do. He could do it, and do it better than you thought. He will give you back your idea better than you had it in the first place. THAT’S a great musician.” - Tom Petty

The implication I’ve always taken from the abrupt ending is that in this conversation about all or nothing, this final act of musical vandalism is the protagonist choosing nothing, instead of all. It’s a perfect way to end this song and what an incredible way to end side one of the record!

Today’s episode covers the last song on side one of "Into The Great Wide Open". "All or Nothin'".

You can listen to the song here:https://youtu.be/1-lJXljp1YM

Here is the live version from 1991: https://youtu.be/SE30UQ-YTQI

And if you want to hear Annie Lennox joining Tom and Bob Dylan on stage, you can hear that here: https://youtu.be/zatisDlB2is

Don't forget to follow me on social media, like, subscribe, and please, leave a rating if you like the show.

Follow: https://linktr.ee/tompettyproject

Listen: https://pod.link/1580769475

All music, including the theme song, provided by my very best friend Randy Woods. Check him out at https://www.randywoodsband.com

A special thanks to Paul Zollo. Without his book, "Conversations with Tom Petty", this podcast wouldn't be nearly as much fun to research.

The Tom Petty Project is not affiliated with the Tom Petty estate in any way.

Producer: Kevin Brown

Executive Producers: Paul Roberts, Steve Ursell

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-tom-petty-project.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

10 Questions with Matt Jaffe Dec 02, 2023

Show notes

Today's episode covers the Ten Questions part of my conversation with Matt Jaffe.

We had a great conversation about Walls (Circus) vs Walls (No 3), Matt surprised me with who he would have cover a Tom Petty song, but since he's said it, it's been stuck in my brain. He also gave a superb answer to my final question and described Tom Petty in 3 words absolutely brilliantly!

Please check out Matt's website here: mattjaffemusic.com and go check out his Youtube channel here: @MattJaffeMusic

Don't forget to follow me on social media, like, subscribe, and please, leave a rating if you like the show.

Follow: https://linktr.ee/tompettyproject

Listen: https://pod.link/1580769475

All music, including the theme song, provided by my very best friend Randy Woods. Check him out at https://www.randywoodsband.com

A special thanks to Paul Zollo. Without his book, "Conversations with Tom Petty", this podcast wouldn't be nearly as much fun to research.

The Tom Petty Project is not affiliated with the Tom Petty estate in any way.

Producer: Kevin Brown

Executive Producers: Paul Roberts, Steve Ursell

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-tom-petty-project.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Matt Jaffe Dec 01, 2023

Show notes

Today's episode is a conversation I had with the wonderful Matt Jaffe.

After cutting his teeth on open mics around the Bay Area, San Francisco songwriter Matt Jaffe was discovered by Jerry Harrison of Talking Heads. Together, they produced his first album at the age of 16, cementing Matt's dedication to music. Soon, he formed a band, dropped out of college, and has not looked back. Since then, Matt has cowritten with Chuck Prophet and Tom Higgenson of Plain White T’s, crisscrossed the country opening for Blues Traveler and Alejandro Escovedo, and recorded half a dozen albums alongside luminaries of the Bay Area music scene. Inspired by the great lineage of rock n' roll, he marries literary lyrics with the undeniable urge to dance.

I sat down with Matt on November 2 of this year to talk about his music and the influence of Tom Petty's music in his life. Yet again (man, I've been lucky!) I was so lucky to be able to talk to such a warm, articulate, and genuine artist. I know you'll enjoy Matt's perspectives on everything from the whether the voice is merely an instrument to how Mike Campbell transcends mere soloing as a guitarist and not being intimidated by having Steve Ferrone play drums on his first record!

Please check out Matt's website here: mattjaffemusic.com and go check out his Youtube channel here: @MattJaffeMusic

Don't forget to follow me on social media, like, subscribe, and please, leave a rating if you like the show.

Follow: https://linktr.ee/tompettyproject

Listen: https://pod.link/1580769475

All music, including the theme song, provided by my very best friend Randy Woods. Check him out at https://www.randywoodsband.com

A special thanks to Paul Zollo. Without his book, "Conversations with Tom Petty", this podcast wouldn't be nearly as much fun to research.

The Tom Petty Project is not affiliated with the Tom Petty estate in any way.

Producer: Kevin Brown

Executive Producers: Paul Roberts, Steve Ursell

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-tom-petty-project.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Dark of the Sun Nov 29, 2023

Show notes

In 2004/2005 when Paul Zollo is interviewing Tom for his seminal book, Conversations With Tom Petty. Tom bemoans to Paul that The Dark of the Sun was never played live. He says “It got lost in the shuffle of that album. There were so many songs on it. I thought it was a good little song.”

This is another one of those tracks that I sometimes forget about and then when I hear it think, “man, that’s a great song!” and then when I hear Mike’s solo, I think “Man, that’s a REALLY good song!” It’s slick, it’s short, and it’s an upbeat ray of sunshine.

Today’s episode covers "The Dark of the Sun", the penultimate track on side one of "Into The Great Wide Open".

You can listen to the song here:https://youtu.be/tr_LGFe7XeU

Don't forget to follow me on social media, like, subscribe, and please, leave a rating if you like the show.

Follow: https://linktr.ee/tompettyproject

Listen: https://pod.link/1580769475

All music, including the theme song, provided by my very best friend Randy Woods. Check him out at https://www.randywoodsband.com

A special thanks to Paul Zollo. Without his book, "Conversations with Tom Petty", this podcast wouldn't be nearly as much fun to research.

The Tom Petty Project is not affiliated with the Tom Petty estate in any way.

Producer: Kevin Brown

Executive Producers: Paul Roberts, Steve Ursell

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-tom-petty-project.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Two Gunslingers Nov 22, 2023

Show notes

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 song”.

Today’s episode covers "Two Gunslingers", the fourth track on "Into The Great Wide Open".

You can listen to the song here:https://youtu.be/_x8dIyRTKHo

To hear the 2013 live version from the American Treasure compilation, check that out here: https://youtu.be/1fKXeVZ5XXA

To listen to the latest episode of Honest and Unmerciful, which covers John Cougar Mellencamp's "Scarecrow" album, go here: https://tinyurl.com/c6st53cb

And to check out Jake Thistle's new EP/album, "The Half Left Out", you can find that here: https://tinyurl.com/26fp3skj

Don't forget to follow me on social media, like, subscribe, and please, leave a rating if you like the show.

Follow: https://linktr.ee/tompettyproject

Listen: https://pod.link/1580769475

All music, including the theme song, provided by my very best friend Randy Woods. Check him out at https://www.randywoodsband.com

A special thanks to Paul Zollo. Without his book, "Conversations with Tom Petty", this podcast wouldn't be nearly as much fun to research.

The Tom Petty Project is not affiliated with the Tom Petty estate in any way.

Producer: Kevin Brown

Executive Producers: Paul Roberts, Steve Ursell

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-tom-petty-project.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Into The Great Wide Open Nov 15, 2023

Show notes

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 this song come from that wonderful turnaround, the tonal shift in the chorus, and one of the best narrative lyrics Tom, or anyone, ever wrote. Whereas songs like "Something Big" or "Dogs on the Run" have a loose narrative that leave plenty to the listener’s imagination, this one is a much more fully realized and theatrical lyric. It’s Tom following the flow and seeing where the story takes him.

Today’s episode covers the title track from "Into The Great Wide Open". There is one piece of profanity in the episode when Tom is telling a story.

You can listen to the song here:https://youtu.be/tOQ-h-2pDDU

If you want to see the official video, you can check that out here: https://youtu.be/xqmFxgEGKH0

For the brilliant live version from Take The Highway, look here: https://youtu.be/VB1IJKrhAP8?t=211

And if you've never seen Tom's acceptance speech at the 2016 Musiccares Person of the Year event, check that out here: https://youtu.be/WHw1ZxYY-oQ

Don't forget to follow me on social media, like, subscribe, and please, leave a rating if you like the show.

Follow: https://linktr.ee/tompettyproject

Listen: https://pod.link/1580769475

All music, including the theme song, provided by my very best friend Randy Woods. Check him out at https://www.randywoodsband.com

A special thanks to Paul Zollo. Without his book, "Conversations with Tom Petty", this podcast wouldn't be nearly as much fun to research.

The Tom Petty Project is not affiliated with the Tom Petty estate in any way.

Producer: Kevin Brown

Executive Producers: Paul Roberts, Steve Ursell

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-tom-petty-project.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kings Highway Nov 08, 2023

Show notes

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 isn’t at all a reference to the road that runs through Brooklyn, New York. If I had to guess, that was just one of Tom’s little flashes of genius. I’d bet that he had “and we’ll ride down the …something… highway” and toyed with different words to slot in there. A lesser writer could have gone with "wide highway", or "long highway", or "cold highway" or some type of adjective, but using “King’s highway” reinforces that idea of better, or more, or grander. It’s a great little bit of writing.

Today’s episode covers the second track from "Into The Great Wide Open", Kings Highway.

You can listen to the song here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-h3gXKArWyw

Here's a great live, full band arrangement from the Into The Great Wide Open tour: https://youtu.be/OdqDeBzqlP0

If you want to hear the acoustic version that Tom and Paul Zollo were talking about in Conversations With Tom Petty, you can find it here: https://youtu.be/wM-sHhnvZeM

And to see a fantastic behind the scenes rehearsal from the Dogs With Wings tour, check this out (Howie's harmonies are stunning): https://youtu.be/AnMT-46q3mo

Don't forget to follow me on social media, like, subscribe, and please, leave a rating if you like the show.

Follow: https://linktr.ee/tompettyproject

Listen: https://pod.link/1580769475

All music, including the theme song, provided by my very best friend Randy Woods. Check him out at https://www.randywoodsband.com

A special thanks to Paul Zollo. Without his book, "Conversations with Tom Petty", this podcast wouldn't be nearly as much fun to research.

The Tom Petty Project is not affiliated with the Tom Petty estate in any way.

Producer: Kevin Brown

Executive Producers: Paul Roberts, Steve Ursell

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-tom-petty-project.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Petty Live - Recap! Nov 01, 2023

Show notes

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 shows for similar reasons!

In order, the people answering the questions are; Dallas Heliker, Gwen Jones, Nic Apostoleris, Janet Lovell, Megan Volpert, Dan Spiess, Corey Morrissette, Katie Moulton, Michael Washburn, Ivan Anderson, Tommy Edwin, Dan Durkin, Django Bayless, and.... me!

Don't forget to follow me on social media, like, subscribe, and please, leave a rating if you like the show.

Follow: https://linktr.ee/tompettyproject

Listen: https://pod.link/1580769475

All music, including the theme song, provided by my very best friend Randy Woods. Check him out at https://www.randywoodsband.com

A special thanks to Paul Zollo. Without his book, "Conversations with Tom Petty", this podcast wouldn't be nearly as much fun to research.

The Tom Petty Project is not affiliated with the Tom Petty estate in any way.

Producer: Kevin Brown

Executive Producers: Paul Roberts, Steve Ursell

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-tom-petty-project.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Learning To Fly Oct 25, 2023

Show notes

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 words and I had gotten a tune in my head. We sat down and spent a whole evening on it. But that’s fairly quick, if it comes in a day or two.”

Sometimes, the best way to write a great song is to not overthink it. I'd argue this is the greatest gift that Jeff Lynne gave to Tom Petty, because it changed everything from this point forward, directy or indirectly. Tom tells author Paul Zollo “That’s been one of our most popular songs. We still get a lot of requests for that in movies, and people always want to hear it in the show. People embrace it.”

Today’s episode covers the lead track from "Into The Great Wide Open", Learning to Fly.

You can listen to the song here:https://youtu.be/s5BJXwNeKsQ

If you want to the live version from Gainseville in 2006, check it out here: https://youtu.be/4p_f7Df2-oM

Here's the live version from 1994 at the Shoreline Amphitheatrein Mountainview, CA that I talked about with Benmont's amazing piano part: https://youtu.be/KxTnlCEsUWY

And if you want to check out the final performance of Running down a dream, you can find it here:https://youtu.be/SnOOYrPkVYk

Don't forget to follow me on social media, like, subscribe, and please, leave a rating if you like the show.

Follow: https://linktr.ee/tompettyproject

Listen: https://pod.link/1580769475

All music, including the theme song, provided by my very best friend Randy Woods. Check him out at https://www.randywoodsband.com

A special thanks to Paul Zollo. Without his book, "Conversations with Tom Petty", this podcast wouldn't be nearly as much fun to research.

The Tom Petty Project is not affiliated with the Tom Petty estate in any way.

Producer: Kevin Brown

Executive Producers: Paul Roberts, Steve Ursell

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-tom-petty-project.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Petty 8ight with Randy Woods Oct 18, 2023

Show notes

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 guy who does all the little musical interludes. He's also a songwriter, singer, guitarist, all round musician, sound engineer, producer,foley artist, score composer, post-production engineer and basically, if it makes a noise, Randy knows how to deal with it and make it sound great! He's also my cohost on the Seaside Pod Review and all round exemplary human being who I love and admire immensely. He's also unafraid to talk about things he doesn't love in music and, as with Scott Haskin, he surprised me with which song he took off the list and which three songs made his EP.

If you want to (and you REALLY should) check out Randy's music, you can find it here.

Apple: https://music.apple.com/ca/artist/randy-woods-band/1193736961 and https://music.apple.com/ca/artist/absofunkinlutely/275156677

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0RDFoyY7zxn0gbzmIBudV8 and https://open.spotify.com/artist/1EcCTu5SUl2r5PMgRuNp11

Don't forget to follow me on social media, like, subscribe, and please, leave a rating if you like the show.

Follow: https://linktr.ee/tompettyproject

Listen: https://pod.link/1580769475

All music, including the theme song, provided by my very best friend Randy Woods. Check him out at https://www.randywoodsband.com

A special thanks to Paul Zollo. Without his book, "Conversations with Tom Petty", this podcast wouldn't be nearly as much fun to research.

The Tom Petty Project is not affiliated with the Tom Petty estate in any way.

Producer: Kevin Brown

Executive Producers: Paul Roberts, Steve Ursell

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-tom-petty-project.