Advertise on podcast: The Tom Petty Project

Today’s episode is being released on what would have been Tom’s 76th birthday. It was the date very specifically chosen by my guest, Robin Vincent for the release of her latest Robin Shakedown album, "I Don’t Know Lady, I Just Work Here". Robin was on the show back in December after I saw her blow the roof off in Gainesville at last year’s Tom Petty Weekend. Since then, I’ve become a huge fan of both her songwriting and her advocacy, both of which she pours all of herself into. As usual during these artist conversation series episodes, we dig deep into the background of this album and walk through the songs on it to find out where they come from. We talk intros, I tell Robin my one word synopsis for each song, and we discuss the common preoccupations that underpin this record.! We also disagree on the necessity of the Oxford comma, and I discover that the percussion on this record isn’t what it appears! Sit back, relax, and enjoy another fabulous conversation that I had with the immeasurably real and endlessly kinetic Robin Shakedown! Note: There is some conversational profanity in this episode. You can buy the new album over on Bandcamp at https://robinshakedown.bandcamp.com/album/i-dont-know-lady-i-just-work-here You can also follow Robin on social media over on Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/robin.shakedown Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61557317184142 Threads : https://www.threads.com/@robin.shakedown 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.

This week's episode is the fifth 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 latest #Petty8ight guest is the wonderful radio host, a top notch podcaster, seasoned musician, and gigantic Queen fan, Paul Bradbury. I met Paul over on my Queen podcast, Seaside Pod Review and over the last few years, we’ve chatted online a few times so I thought, who better to introduce to Tom's music! As a drummer, I wanted to change up the Petty Eight to focus more on drum tracks I hoped Paul might find interesting and/or unusual. We talk all about those eight tracks but first we get into Paul’s musical upbringing, his recent forays into publishing his own original collaborations, and his highly successful Queen podcast, Radio Pod Pod. Go check out all the cool things Paul is doing at the following links: Radio Pod Pod : https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61561062531521 Tell me what Mojo means to you! https://tompettyproject.com/mojo.php American English : https://soundcloud.com/american-english Real Human Beings (Paul's cover band) : https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61585442585326 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 track comes out firing on all cylinders with those aggressively swept ascending notes. Yet again, we’re being treated to something that’s a million miles from anything we’ve heard before. Mike and Scott Thurston are in complete harmonic lockstep here and Tom tells Mike Mettler, “There are a lot of dual guitars on it, so Scott and Mike worked a long time on the double harmony parts. They rehearsed that a lot.” and you can hear it in the performance. It would probably have been much easier to do if Mike added his part first, with Scott adding in his guitar afterwards so he would have had time to get it right, but the fact that this was done live makes it all the more impressive. Tom actually says “We rehearsed that one on the studio floor for a long time before we even rolled and were finally able to say, "Okay, we're ready to do a take." What we wound up keeping was the second pass. This group tends to play most passionately early in a session. They can surprise me sometimes, but usually it's early. So that's the one we kept.” Song : https://youtube.com/watch?v=QfEwYYSq1sI Tell me what Mojo means to you! https://tompettyproject.com/mojo.php 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.

Here's the second of this special two parter episode. As a reminder, on the day this episode drops, Jake Thistle’s full length label debut album, A Stranger by Design, is now available on all streaming platforms. Part one of this chat saw us catch up since we last chatted and this part of the conversation sees is dig deep into the set of songs that make up the new record. We go through all thirteen songs and Jake gives me background and insights into their writing and recording; this is a great nerd out for Jake and music fans alike. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the second part of my conversation with the always wonderful, Jake Thistle! You can find "A Stranger by Design" here. Apple Music : https://music.apple.com/ca/album/a-stranger-by-design/6808386067 Spotify : https://open.spotify.com/album/489tOsGTqiKq8NjLnRuPZL YouTube Music : https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kPBZCWvH9d7En-EGyLQ9NYUhSZhHhS7jc 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.

As this episode drops, our pal Jake Thistle has released his full length label debut album, A Stranger by Design. As always, Jake very graciously gave me an overgenerous amount of his time to chat about the album but also about all the things he’s been up to since we last saw talked. This first part of the episode covers the 2025 Tom Petty Weekend in Gainesville, his experience during his time on American Idol, and how the new album came together. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the first part of my conversation with Jake Thistle! You can find "A Stranger by Design" here. Apple Music : https://music.apple.com/ca/album/a-stranger-by-design/6808386067 Spotify : https://open.spotify.com/album/489tOsGTqiKq8NjLnRuPZL YouTube Music : https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kPBZCWvH9d7En-EGyLQ9NYUhSZhHhS7jc 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 the album finally dropped, people who hadn’t heard this song must have been slightly surprised to be assaulted with a howling harmonica part straight out of the traps. Almost every Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers album opens with a volley of guitar. THe guitar is still there, but after Steve Ferrone’s double shot on the snare, it’s Scott Thurston’s blues harp that draws there ear - with Mike’s Les Paul doubling that line. In an interview with Sound and Vision shortly after the album came out, Tom tells Mike Mettler, “I kept handing Scott these assignments: 'Okay, I want you to play harp on this song.' It's not all that easy. So he'd gimme stuff back, and I'd say, 'Wow, I didn't know you played the harmonica that well.'” Now we know! Song (Official Video) : https://youtu.be/5LAA6lF6uFI  Parade of Loons : https://youtu.be/o074UPAjFxc 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.

For Episode 300, I figured we should do something a little special. So I called up my pal John Paulsen to combine the two things he does best; fantasty drafts and playlists! We each had fifteen picks from the Tom Petty deep cuts catalogue. It's a big volume of songs! How did we decide what a "deep cut" is? Well, first of all, the song couldn't have charted on the Billboard 200 chart. Then, we limited it to any song that has fewer than 7,000,000 streams on Spotify (at time of recording). That still left us with a bucketload of songs to choose from! We included Mudcrutch and the Traveling Wilburys as well as Tom's solo and Heartbreakers output. At the end of the episode we each had a fifteen song playlist and a broader thirty songs that we could present to a casual fan to entice them into exploring Tom's work futher. This was an incredibly difficult process of whitling and regret! As the NFL season is upon us - all your fantasy draft folks should really be following John and taking advantage of all sorts of offers for subscriptions to 4for4.com. You can find John online on: Twitter: https://x.com/4for4_John and Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/4for4-john.bsky.social 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.

Season Fifteen begins. The first song I remember hearing from this album was I Should Have Known It. But I didn’t hear it on the radio. A good friend of mine, Kris Klyne, who is also an immensely talented songwriter and musician, was over at my place as we were sharing a couple of rather delicious craft beers. He asked me if I’d ever heard this song. I clearly hadn’t reached Mojo in my Petty deep dive but as soon as I heard it I knew I had to prioritize listening to the rest of the record. I have a few guests lined up this season and we have a fantastic collection of songs to work our way through in the next four to five months! This record is stacked with phenomenal deep cuts and I can’t wait to dig into it fully on this season of the podcast. To leave me a message, go here : https://tompettyproject.com/mojo 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.

We were due to start Season Fifteen today and start thinking about Mojo, but the day of recording, well the legend that was Dolly Parton passed away and I decided to write an episode in her honour. I’ll come completely clean - I could never call myself more than a greatest hits fan of Dolly’s music because I haven’t listened to a lot of it, but every song I’ve ever heard her sing I’ve enjoyed, particularly vocally. So I thought what I’d do is research her life and give you a more biographical episode with some interview clips from the lady herself. That way, I learn about an artist I didn’t know that much about and maybe some of you will too. If you want to donate to the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, you can find their website here: https://imaginationlibrary.com 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.

Obviously, Tom is the primary focus of most of this project, but as I said last week, one of the joys of the last five years has been discovering how astonishingly good a band Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were. One of the ten questions I always ask my guests is “Who is your favourite band member other than Tom”  Here are the answers. See how many voices you remember! Thanks to all my guests who answered this one! In order, they are: Dallas Heliker, Jake Thistle, Gwen Jones, Nic Apostoleris, Jeff Slate, Megan Volpert, Corey Morrissette, Katie Moulton, Dan Spiess, Michael Washburn, Ivan Anderson, Tommy Edwin, Dan Durkin, Django Bayliss, Matt Jaffe, Russell Mark, Will Porteous, Doc Wiley and Chris Gillette, Mark Lindsey, Peter Nester, Mary Beth Donnelly, Tim Bulman, Nora Hayward Olsen, Eric Senich, Shawn Murphy, Greg Wolfe, Rich Gibson, Shine, Sam Krishnan, Matt Burke, Steve Ursell, and Robin Vincent. Don't forget to leave me a voice note telling me what "Mojo" means to you! https://tompettyproject.com/mojo.php. You can also email me at [email protected] with your thoughts. 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.

Something I’ve been thinking about a fair bit this week is how my relationship with Tom’s music has changed over the years that I’ve been doing the show now. The very short answer to this is I’ve come to regard him as one of the truly great songwriters in history. Over time, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers has rocketed up my list of, not just favourite bands, but bands I would put head to head against any of the best rock n roll bands of all time. The day this episode comes out, will be one day after the fifth anniversary of the show so I wanted to do a little retrospective and put out a shorter episode where I can reflect on the journey so far. 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.

Included on one of the discs in the Running Down a Dream documentary by Peter Bogdanovic, the release has been widely circulated in many bootleg forms and I think we’re long overdue a re-release! Wouldn’t it be great to have this upscaled to 4K and remastered. Heck, I’d even love a double vinyl release of this one for my collection. It’s a band at the top of their game, with absolutely nothing to lose, playing to a packed house of fans, friends, and family, that was captured for posterity, without overdubs, and stands up as one of the great Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers performances. I remember when I watched the Running Down a Dream documentary for the first time not realizing that this concert footage was included and being blown away by just how tight this band was. I go back to it often, as I’m sure many of you do, and just enjoy watching Tom being so relaxed and confident, backed by his friends, who happen to be one of the best bands of all time.   This concert is a very easy 10/10 for 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.

“I was doing fine on my own, selling from my own website privately, and right at the same time Tom Petty contacted me and told me he’d been secretly collecting my work, and wanted me to design an album cover for him. He and his wife have 6 paintings or so.” Robert Deyber never became a household name in the manner of Dalí or Warhol, but within contemporary gallery circles he developed an exceptionally loyal following who appreciated that his paintings were technically accomplished, immediately understandable, and humorous without being superficial. Thousands of private collectors acquired his paintings and limited editions, including other notable figures from the entertainment industry. Links and sources from this episode In the Studio : https://youtu.be/gnvkPiQ7fYY  Bellevue Reporter interview : https://www.bellevuereporter.com/2009/02/08/artist-robert-deyber-plays-on-words/  Unlocking Connecticut interview : https://unlockingconnecticut.com/2016/09/artist-robert-deyber/  Artsy interview : https://www.artsy.net/article/martin-lawrence-galleries-robert-deyber  Profile on the Martin Lawrence Galleries website : https://martinlawrence.com/collections/robert-deyber 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.

Leading into the last verse, there’s some back masked, slightly distorted guitar, again over that suspended fourth chord before the arrangement drops back to let Bridgers’ voice really punch home the line “Now the wind is high and the rain is heavy and the water’s rising in the levee”. I talk lots on the show about “moments” in songs and THIS is the moment in this song for me. The slight tremolo added to the vocal on the words water’s rising and how she pushes her vocal forward more and gives it more oxygen, really punctuate this sense of being completely overwhelmed by emotion that is being metaphorically expressed. The series, talking about other people’s interpretations of Tom’s songs will be limited to a specific criteria. I want to listen to and comment on covers that take the songs into different areas. So I’m not going to touch on very straight, very faithful covers like Chris Stapleton’s I Should Have Known It. These episodes will be limited to artists who change, adapt, or inhabit Tom’s music and make it their own in some way. I’ll also be putting a call out to all you listeners to recommend covers that fit the criteria! Song : https://youtu.be/CDOaIcgUVEc  Live from Toronto in 2018 : https://youtu.be/UuVJFVszo-4  Original : https://youtu.be/mVEXkLht6hQ 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.

Today's episode is a wide ranging conversation that I had with my friend Josh Caldwell. Josh and I met through a mutual love of Van Halen and the superb And the Podcast Will Rock, cohosted by my good pals Corey Morrissette and Mark Camire. We get into the weeds about guitars and guitarists and talk about what makes Mike special and why he was an indispensible part of the Heartbreakers formula! If you want to find Josh's excellent podcast, The Engine Room, you can check it out here: https://pod.link/1859462144 And if you want to check out And the Podcast Will Rock, you'll find that one here: https://pod.link/1595995181 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.