There’s a weight to the arrangement of this song, accentuated by that heavy kick pattern that Steve Ferrone opts for, along with Tom’s deliberate persistence in landing on the root note at the end of his phrases that makes this one compelling. It’s also noteworthy in not really having a defined chorus. We do have…

Welcome to a special episode of the Tom Petty Project where I’m going to take a break from our usual scheduling to pay tribute to one of the most influential performers of all time. I am your host and today’s episode is dedicated to the life and work of Ozzy Osbourne. NOTE: There is some…

It’s often been remarked that Mike sometimes sounds like Tom when he sings. If you listen to the Dirty Knobs albums you do hear some of those inflections peeking out from time to time, as you’d expect. But this goes both ways and I think Tom actually sounds a lot like Mike on About to…

“Pharmacists aren’t here to save rock and roll. They don’t have the budget, or the jackets. But they are *trying*, in a landscape where most bands are too busy refreshing their socials to finish a bridge. Rock music doesn’t die – it just downsizes. And Pharmacists are out here propping it up with their own…

It’s an affirmation that after thinking about this problem, there’s a conviction to follow an ideal, if not a known direction yet. Whatever the direction we end up taking, it has to be something that we have certainty of authenticity. We’re not going to take a chance on something that feels half-dressed or unfinished, or…

I think this is a perfectly neat, tidy, compact, fun little bounce piece of music, with a nicely constructed, easy to remember lyric. The problem is, this one has always felt to me like Tom could crank out something like this on the way to the grocery store in about 5 minutes, on any given…

It’s interesting that Mike has never dusted this one off with the Dirty Knobs and I think this goes back to him talking about how difficult a period this was and given the circumstances around its conception you can see why it might be ground he wouldn’t want to revisit. The song was a mainstay…

OK, let’s get into the song! In Conversations with Tom Petty, Tom tells author Paul Zollo “I wrote that on the drive to the studio in Bugs’ truck. My trusty roadie Bugs was driving me to work—and I got this idea for this song, “Billy The Kid.” I pulled out a pad as we were…

Today’s episode is a very focused conversation I had with my pal and previous guest Nic Apostoleries. When we chatted way back in 2022, Nic told me that when I reached Echo, that he’d love to come onto the show and talk about it. We dive specifically into the lyrics on this season’s album and…

I’d said in the closing to last week’s episode that I get a strong connection between this song and the Jeff Lynne era of Tom’s work. So, close your eyes, listen to the first four bars, and imagine coming out of Too Good to Be True and into this song. It feels as natural a…