The Tom Petty Project

Latest Episodes:

Like a Diamond Nov 19, 2025

Show notes

I’ve always really liked this song as part of the album but never really listened to it closely until sitting down to write this episode. And that has happened a lot over the course of the last four and a bit years of recording this show. Songs you don’t necessarily expect to reveal hidden depths do so with startling regularity. Does this song have a line the equal of “Most things I worry about never happen anyway”? No, probably not. Does it have a dramatic weight to it in the vein of It’s Good to be King”? I wouldn’t necessarily say so. But does it hold it’s own as an imperiously patient, superbly constructed gem hidden in the middle of an album that most people forgot about? Absolutely it does!

NOTE: There is one instance of profanity in this episode as part of a direct quote.

Song and links mentioned in the episode:

Song : https://youtu.be/PtcKlCnC6WM

Judge Timbers : https://youtu.be/l5IzFDVskL4

Jon Scott - Tom Petty and Me : https://tompettyandme.com

School of Hip : https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61579698875642

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.

Tom Petty Weekend 2025 with Pete Nester Nov 16, 2025

Show notes

I'm joined today by good pal Pete Nester. We're officially ACTUAL friends now, not just Facebook friends, because we've hung out, broken bread together, stood in a crowd and sung our hearts out, and hugged! I thought it would be fun to recap the weekend with Pete to get his thoughts as well as mine. Also included in the episode are chats I had with Maggie Clifford and Jeff Slate. I did chat to Shine and to Jake also, but due to technical difficulties, I couldn't use those recordings! But, I'm lining up a plethora of conversations for the coming weeks with artists who performed at the Tom Petty Weekend!

I already miss Gainesville and can't wait to come back next year!

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.

Tom Petty Weekend 2025 - Day Three Nov 10, 2025

Show notes

Day Three of the Tom Petty Weekend in Gainesville was a perfect way to end a perfect weekend. I can't begin to tell you how much fun I had with the most amazing bunch of people you'll ever be lucky enough to meet. The energy at the Heartwood was electric again and was added to by the arrival of Keith Eveland. We also had some top tier musical performances and I'll go through the ones I saw in this final recap before I do a look back properly at the even later.

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.

Tom Petty Weekend 2025 - Day Two Nov 09, 2025

Show notes

Day Two of the Tom Petty Weekend in Gainesville was an absolutely sensational day of music, laughter, friendship, food, surprises, and warm, warm, warm temperatures!!! I hung out with Maggie Clifford, Shine, Jake Thistle, Jeff Slate, Pete Nester, Brad Gould, and a broad, brilliant cast of characters that are making this weekend so much fun. On and the music.................... holy hell Gainesville, you know how to PARTY!!!!

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.

Tom Petty Weekend 2025 - Day One Nov 08, 2025

Show notes

Day One of the Tom Petty Weekend in Gainesville is in the books and man, it was a scorcher! Jake and Jeff, Shine, Nolia Joy and the Ramblers and so many other fantastic musical acts and I met a ton of super friendly, enthusiastic people who were a blast to hang out with and talk to. Being on stage in Gainesville still feels surreal but I enjoyed every single second of it!

Oh - and this is the 250th episode!!!!!!

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.

Six Degrees of Tom Petty - Chapter One Nov 05, 2025

Show notes

Inspired by the wonderful Brian Colburn from the My Weekly Mixtape podcast, I decided to take a hard left turn this week, as I prepare to fly down to Gainesville, and do something a little different! We're going to take listener suggestions for artists to use as a starting point from which we'll attempt to link our way back to Tom Petty within six degrees of separation! This was a lot of fun and I'm definitely going to do it again!

Check out Brian's full Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon episode of My Weekly Mixtape here: https://myweeklymixtape.com/2025/11/03/the-ultimate-six-degrees-of-kevin-bacon-the-music-edition-playlist/

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.

When a Kid Goes Bad Oct 29, 2025

Show notes

In 2013, the Heartbreakers played a five night mini-residency at the Beacon Theatre in New York city. Among the tracks from the archives that the band pulled out during that run was today’s song, When a Kid Goes Bad. In an interview with Relix magazine, Tom says “I will make a point of playing that song because they didn’t listen to me the first time, I didn’t feel like they understood it and I think it speaks for itself. Playing it in the shows is almost chilling - kids are going bad, bad things happen to kids. I’m not going to sit silently by as that goes on; it’s the duty of every artist to comment on things like that. So sometimes, you find something you wrote that becomes even more relevant.”

Check out the song here : https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=TbLIhtGv2pE

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.

Dan Spiess - Tom Petty Weekend 2025 Oct 21, 2025

Show notes

The incomparable Dan Spiess is back to talk about the upcoming Tom Petty Weekend in Gainesville, from November 7-9! We talk about the lineup for this year's shows including the two brilliant headline acts for Saturday and Sunday. We chat about how organizing for this year has been different from previous years, especially the complications the festival faced last year in the aftermath of two hurricanes! And Dan fills me in on all the bands and artists I don't know about that I'll be enjoying in person (finally!) this year.

You can find more information on the Tom Petty Weekend here, including schedules and ticket information!

https://sites.google.com/heartwoodsoundstage.com/tom-petty-weekend/schedule

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.

Joe Oct 15, 2025

Show notes

This is top tier songwriting for me. When you have a platform and you can take a risk by punching up at people who have power, I think it’s good to do it now and again. If you can take that polemic and wrap it in a powerful, simple, stomping track like Joe, then I’m all in. There’s a theatrical element to the song that you could easily imagine fitting a full broadway production. You could see the lights strobe out on those relentless kicks, while Joe, with crooked yellowing teeth and a Fagin-esque grotesqueness, is lit from beneath in red as he slobbers and snarls his way through his commercial wet dream. Joe isn’t just a great track, it’s one of the songs that glues this entire album together. With no villains, there can be no heroes - and we will get a hero late in the piece - so Joe is the essential leviathan lurking in the shadows of the story.

Check out the song here : https://youtu.be/KBqPLw_6XD8

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.

Dreamville Oct 08, 2025

Show notes

Tom is hugely proud of this song. In Conversations with Tom Petty, he tells author Paul Zollo, “Dreamville” is one of the best songs I ever wrote. That was about innocence.” And it’s this innocence that contrasts so starkly and so effectively with the corporate interference in The Last DJ, or the commodification of Johnny’s art in Money Becomes King. Without this contrast the more belligerent songs the album could easily take on a petulant tone but in Dreamville, Tom gives us that fleeting Utopian vision to measure cultural decline against. It gives us a baseline and a starting point in one melodic flashback scene, before we’re dragged back forward in time to devastating effect in track four.

Check out the song here : https://youtu.be/ViczcWEHgaY

And you can watch the live performance from the Olympic here : https://youtu.be/-JDlIKuDtvU

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.

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