Tom Petty Estate Announces In-Depth Reflection on Petty’s Solo Breakthrough with ‘Tom Petty: Wildflowers’

Today, the Tom Petty Estate has opened the vaults again to preview another tribute to the dearly departed troubadour. In partnership with Genesis Publications, the estate has announced Tom Petty: Wildflowers, a new limited-edition book examining Petty’s legendary 1994 sophomore album.

Tom Petty: Wildflowers collects a wealth of archival treasures to present the story of that pivotal chapter in the artist’s solo career in unprecedented detail. Among the relics assembled are unseen personal and publicity photographs, handwritten lyric sheets and powerful reflections from his Heartbreakers bandmates, other close collaborators and Petty himself, who was known to refer to the album as his favourite in his expansive discography. Pre-orders for the hand-finished volume will be available soon, and eager fans can register for updates at WildflowersBook.com.

This perspective on Petty’s crucial and unforgettable offering is one of several gems from the Tom Petty Estate in recent years; it’s preceded by last year’s deluxe edition reissue of 1982’s Long After Dark and the long-awaited public release of Cameron Crowe’s mythical 1983 film Tom Petty: Heartbreakers Beach Party. Petty’s life and legacy was also documented on the page last year in Mike Campbell’s Heartbreaker: A Memoir, which reviewed the guitarist’s memories of that massively influential outfit and the star at its center.

In the latest issue of Relix, Heartbreakers keyboardist and esteemed soloist in his own right Benmont Tench spoke to his memories of Mudcrutch, the Southern rock ensemble that launched Petty to the limelight in the early ‘70s and supported his late-career experimentation in the aughts. “I had such a wonderful time with Mudcrutch. I really regret that that can never happen again. I regret all of it,” Tench said. “It [Petty’s death] was a terribly, genuinely tragic thing. [My time with the Heartbreakers] means everything to me; it’s my whole life. I learned my sense of humor from those guys. I got a lot of really good character traits from those guys—and some not so good character traits from those guys. Tom could walk into a room with a guitar and nothing going on in his head and, in front of you, write something beautiful. I watched him become a songwriter.”

Read Tench’s full “Reflections” interview here.