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If anyone doubted the ongoing relevance of Patti Smith’s work, that answer arrived at the next-to-last moment at “People Have the Power: A Celebration of Patti Smith,” a boldface-name-heavy tribute concert Wednesday night at Carnegie Hall. Over the course of two-and-a-half hours, a caravan of singers, musician and actors — some associated with her, some not necessarily — sang and read Smith’s words, an ongoing testament to the still hypnotic grip of her songs and poems.

The odds that Smith herself would participate were pretty high; after all, she was...

Patti Smith’s 50-year cross-generational musical impact was on full display Wednesday night, as artists both young and old came out to serenade the legendary artist during a tribute concert at Carnegie Hall. Bruce Springsteen, Michael Stipe, Flea, Sean Penn, Karen O, Scarlett Johansson, Maggie Rogers, Johnny Depp, Susanna Hoffs, Jim Jarmusch, Matt Berninger, Glen Hansard, Sharon Van Etten, Courtney Barnett, Angel Olsen, Alison Mosshart, Michael Shannon, and members of Smith’s backing band were among the many names who turned out for “People Have the Power: A Celebration of Patti Smith.”

The concert doubled as a celebration of the 50th anniversary of Smith’s landmark album, Horses, and a charity benefit for music education for underserved youth. Tony Shanahan, a frequent collaborator of Smith’s, served as the event’s musical director and led a house a band also featuring Flea, Steve Jordan, Charlie Sexton, and Benmont Tench.

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This coming Wednesday, a slew of all-star artists will gather at Carnegie Hall in New York City for People Have the Power: A Celebration of Patti Smith, a tribute to the work of (you guessed it) legendary songwriter Patti Smith. As if the lineup wasn’t stacked enough, The Boss himself, Bruce Springsteen, is now set to join in on the fun.

The tribute concert is the latest installment of City Winery founder and CEO Michael Dorf’s “Music Of” benefit series, with all net proceeds going to music education for underserved youth. Tickets for the event are currently sold out (except for select VIP tiers), though secondary tickets are available via StubHub.

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In addition to Springsteen, the tribute show will feature the likes of R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe, Kim Gordon, The National’s Matt Berninger, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Karen O, Angel Olsen,...

Over 40 years after bringing fans along for the ride in Tom Petty: Heartbreakers Beach Party, Cameron Crowe has unearthed long-lost footage of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

The result is the filmmaker’s remastered documentary, Tom Petty: Heartbreakers Beach Party, now streaming on Paramount+. It features never-before-seen 16mm footage shot during the rock-and-roll band’s Long After Dark era from 1982 to 1983. Per the logline, the music documentary “is a fun, candid, fast-paced, and musically rich ride with America’s greatest rock ‘n’ roll band, a time capsule of the dawn of the MTV era, and a rare and shining glimpse into Tom Petty’s lasting creative genius.”

At a Glance: How to Watch Tom Petty: Heartbreakers Beach Party Online

Premiere date: March 11 Run time: 1 hour, 33 minutes Stream online: Paramount+ Stream 'Heartbreakers Beach Party' on Paramount+

The film originally aired in 1983 on MTV, but was “deemed too experimental and abruptly pulled from the air,...

It’s a little more than a decade since Benmont Tench released his debut solo LP, You Should Be So Lucky, but for the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers keyboardist, it feels like a lifetime ago. There’s been a lot of joy in the intervening years, most notably his 2015 marriage to Alice Carbone Tench, and the birth of their daughter, Catherine. But he also endured the sudden death of Petty just seven days after the conclusion of their 2017 tour, and a recent battle with oral cancer.

Along the way,...

An array of new albums hit the shelves and streaming services this New Music Friday.

It’s an especially great week for pop music, as both Lady Gaga (Mayhem) and Blackpink’s Jennie (Rubie) unveil highly-anticipated albums. Industry veterans Benmont Tench, Bob Mould, and Neil Young have all dropped new LPs as well.

Scroll on to check out our picks for the most exciting new albums to stream today.

Editor’s Note: Enjoy these albums and more on Amazon Music Unlimited, which is currently offering a free 30 day trial. Learn more here.

Benmont Tench — The Melancholy Season

The last time Benmont Tench released a solo album, he was still recording and performing live with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Since the group disbanded in 2017 due to the frontman’s passing, he is now settling into his role as the face of the operation as he returns to publishing music under his own name.

Mike Campbell was always more than just the deeply gifted guitarist for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers — songs from “Refugee” to “You Wreck Me,” not to mention Don Henley’s “Boys of Summer,” began with music he wrote. In his essential, vividly told new autobiography, Heartbreaker: A Memoir, due March 18, Campbell (now the leader of his own band, the Dirty Knobs) offers many new revelations about his relationship with Petty and his musical journey.

In the new episode of Rolling Stone Music Now, Campbell breaks down those untold stories, and...

Benmont Tench, keyboardist for Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, has announced The Melancholy Season, his first new solo album in over a decade. Along with the announcement, he has unveiled the title track and 2025 tour dates.

Produced by Jonathan Wilson, The Melancholy Season will arrive on March 7th via Dark Horse Records. It features 13 songs with contributions from Dawes’ Taylor Goldsmith, Nickel Creek’s Sara Watkins, and singer-songwriter Jenny O. It will be his first full-length release since his 2014 solo debut, You Should Be So Lucky. Pre-orders are ongoing.

Ahead of the arrival of The Melancholy Season, Tench will preview the songs at his upcoming residency in New York at the Café Carlyle slated for February 18th through 22nd. After that, he’ll hit the road for a handful of West Coast tour dates, stopping in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and other cities. Check out the full list of his upcoming shows below,...

More than 15 Grammy Week events sponsored by the Recording Academy and many other Grammy-related parties were canceled this year due to January’s devastating Los Angeles fires, with the actual Grammy ceremony, which will still take place on Sunday, Feb. 2, pivoting to focus on raising funds for wildfire relief. But Friday’s MusiCares Persons of the Year Gala, honoring 2007 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award recipients the Grateful Dead, went on as planned. And the annual charitable event actually felt more celebratory than ever, providing much-needed release and escape on the final night of a particularly rough month.

“Their fans are legendary, and their values — community, resilience, generosity — all align with the MusiCares mission,” Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. said of the beloved psychedelic jam band Friday. “They remind us that music is a force for good. This year, though, honoring them carries extra special community. L.A. is home to an incredible music community,...

When Ray Padgett attended his first Bob Dylan concert at Chicago’s Aragon Ballroom in 2004, he walked out feeling more than a little confused. He was just 18 then and expected a traditional oldies revue much like the Simon and Garfunkel reunion tour stop he’d seen the prior year. “I thought I’d see Dylan sing ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’ while people held up lighters and sang along,” he says. “I don’t need to tell you that it wasn’t like that. I don’t think I loved the concert,...

Mike Campbell, celebrated songwriter and guitarist of Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, has announced Heartbreaker, a new memoir. The book is due for release on March 18th via Grand Central Publishing (pre order here).

Heartbreaker explores both the personal and creative life of Campbell, offering fans an in-depth look at his upbringing, his experience linking up with Petty, and the origins of songs like “Refugee” and “Rinnin’ Down a Dream.” He also touches on collaborating with such artists as Don Henley and Stevie Nicks.

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“This is my book,” Campbell said in a press release. “It’s the story of a poor kid from Jacksonville, Florida, who realized a dream through music. It’s a long journey through hard work, dedication, and luck. Playing guitar and writing songs has been my inspiration and purpose. It’s a story of hope, redemption, and gratitude, a testimonial that...

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell has teamed up with novelist Ari Surdoval to write a memoir, Heartbreaker, which will be released on March 18, 2025.

The book will trace the story of Campbell’s life from his days on the Sixties Florida rock scene through his years in Mudcrutch and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, the sudden death of Petty in 2017, his brief stint in Fleetwood Mac that followed, and his ongoing solo work in Mike Campbell & the Dirty Knobs.

“This is my book,” Campbell says in a statement.

It’s one last waltz for Robbie and Marty.

Variety reports that Martin Scorsese is directing the filming of a tribute concert dedicated to his late friend and collaborator Robbie Robertson for a concert film. The Blackbird Presents (Outlaw Music Festival)-produced concert, called “Life Is a Carnival: A Musical Celebration of Robbie Robertson,” will take place Thursday at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles. Plans for the release of the future film have not been set.

Robertson, the legendary musician and songwriter best known for his work with the legendary roots rock outfit The Band, died in 2023 at age 80. His relationship with Scorsese went back to the 1970s, when Scorsese directed “The Last Waltz,” the 1978 star-studded concert film commemorating The Band’s final performance. Robertson then worked as a composer, music supervisor, or consultant on many of Scorsese’s films, including “Raging Bull,” “The Color of Money,” “Casino,” and “The Irishman.

Martin Scorsese will direct the filming of a Robbie Robertson tribute concert in L.A. Thursday night for a future release, it was announced Tuesday morning.

The filming of “Life Is A Carnival: A Musical Celebration Of Robbie Robertson,” a Blackbird Presents production, may provide a kind of bookend to the the first movie Scorsese did with Robertson, when he directed the concert film “The Last Waltz,” which commemorated the last concert the singer-songwriter-guitarist did with his group the Band in 1976.

Prior to the announcement that he would spend the evening overseeing the filming, Scorsese was already serving as one of the executive producers of the concert, along with Jared Levine, Keith Wortman and Scooter Weintraub.

The lineup of artists performing at the show at the Kia Forum Thursday includes Trey Anastasio, Eric Church, Eric Clapton, Warren Haynes, Bruce Hornsby, Jim James, Daniel Lanois, Taj Mahal, Van Morrison, Margo Price,...

Founding members of The Heartbreakers Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench were joined by Adria Petty, Tom Petty’s daughter and managing partner of Petty Legacy, Ryan Ulyate, Petty’s longtime engineer, and surprise guest Cameron Crowe at the SiriusXM LA Garage for an exclusive hour-long roundtable discussion about Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers’ new Deluxe Edition of “Long After Dark,” hosted by Mark Felsot.

Tom Petty Radio“Long After Dark (Deluxe Edition)” SpecialListen on the App

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‘Long After Dark (Deluxe Edition)’ Special How to Listen

The special premieres on Tom Petty Radio (Ch. 31) on October 17 at 12pm Et.

It will also be available to stream on the SiriusXM app that same day.

Broadcast Schedule Thursday, October 17 12pm Et Friday, October 18 3pm Et Saturday, October 19 1am and 1pm Et Sunday, October 20 6pm Et Monday, October 21 4pm Et Tuesday, October 22 10am Et Wednesday, October 23 10pm Et What You...

A host of all-star musicians are coming together for “Life Is a Carnival: Last Waltz Tour ’24,” a run of shows celebrating The Band’s legendary concert. Making up the roster of participating artists are original Heartbreakers members Benmont Tench and Mike Campbell, in addition to Ryan Bingham, Jamey Johnson, Don Was, John Medeski, Dave Malone, Terence Higgins, Cyril Neville, and Mark Mullins & The Levee Horns.

Inspired by The Band’s iconic 1976 Thanksgiving concert and honoring the legacy of the late Robbie Robertson, “Life Is a Carnival: Last Waltz Tour ’24” is the latest iteration of the annual multi-city event. The 2024 edition officially kicks off with a special, one-night-only concert at Los Angeles’ Kia Forum on October 17th that celebrates the life and work of Robertson, who passed away last year.

Get The Last Waltz '24 Tickets Here

The tour then properly gets underway beginning October 19th in San Francisco. Additional shows...

The all-star tribute to Robbie Robertson coming to Kia Forum in Los Angeles on Oct. 17 won’t be just a one-off event. Two days later, the Life Is a Carnival: Last Waltz Tour ’24 will kick off with a bill that includes Ryan Bingham, Jamey Johnson, Mike Campbell, Benmont Tench, Don Was, John Medeski, Dave Malone, Terence Higgins, Cyril Neville, and Mark Mullins & the Levee Horns. (Lukas Nelson will appear at three shows in Colorado in the place of Johnson.)

The tour begins Oct. 19 at the Warfield in San Francisco, just...

Eddie Vedder has released a cover of Tom Petty’s song “Room at the Top.”

Originally released on Petty’s 1999 album Echo, “Room at the Top” has been in rotation at Vedder’s solo shows for some time. In 2018, he even performed it during the “In Memoriam” tribute to Petty at the Academy Awards. Now, his studio version arrives as part of the soundtrack for the upcoming Apple TV+ show, Bad Monkey, set to premiere on August 14th.

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Beginning with a ballad arrangement led by simple electric guitar strumming, Vedder’s rendition of “Room at the Top” blossoms into a full-fledged rock anthem, with a climatic organ solo to boot. As for Vedder’s vocals, he exhibits his trademark power, but also masterfully delivers the emotional sensitivity the song requires.

Vedder recorded the cover with the backing of Andrew Watt, Chad Smith, Benmont Tench, Glen Hansard,...

A stunning lineup of musical icons — including Bob Weir, Eric Clapton, Van Morrison, Elvis Costello, Lucinda Williams, Trey Anastasio, and Mavis Staples — are coming together Oct. 17, 2024, at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles to honor the life and music of Robbie Robertson. The bill for Life Is a Carnival: A Musical Celebration of Robbie Robertson also includes Ryan Bingham, Mike Campbell, Eric Church, Warren Haynes, Jim James, Jamey Johnson, Noah Kahan, Daniel Lanois, Taj Mahal, Van Morrison, Margo Price, Robert Randolph, Nathaniel Rateliff, Allison Russell, Benmont Tench, and Don Was.

Some of the most illustrious names in rock — and other genres — will pay tribute to Robbie Robertson in a celebratory concert at the L.A.-area Kia Forum on Oct. 17, with the musician’s longtime friend and collaborator Martin Scorsese among the executive producers.

The lineup for “Life Is a Carnival: A Musical Celebration of Robbie Robertson” includes some contemporaries who came up with the Band’s late songwriter-guitarist in the ’60s. These include Bobby Weir, Taj Mahal and three artists who appeared with Robertson in the Scorsese-directed 1986 concert documentary “The Last Waltz”: Eric Clapton, Van Morrison and Mavis Staples.

It also includes some musical figures whose stars have risen in the last 15 years or so, like Eric Church, Allison Russell, Nathaniel Rateliff, Margo Price and — a current mainstay of the Billboard album chart’s top 10 — Noah Kahan.

Mostly, though, the roster is full of veteran stars who...

A month after cancelling all concert dates due to an unspecific illness, Neil Young will be returning to the concert stage as part of Farm Aid at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, New York, on Sept. 21. He’ll be joined by his fellow Farm Aid board members Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, and Dave Matthews along with Mavis Staples, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Lukas Nelson with The Travelin’ McCourys, Charley Crockett, Joy Oladokun, Southern Avenue, Cassandra Lewis, and Jesse Welles.

“We’re energized to be back in New York,...

When Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell heard about plans for country greats like Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, George Strait, Chris Stapleton, and Dierks Bentley to honor the band’s music on the covers collection Petty Country: A Country Music Celebration of Tom Petty, he felt it made perfect sense, even though they were a rock band at their core.

“We all grew up in the South and were seeped in the music of Hank Williams and George Jones that we heard on the radio,” he tells Rs.

Streets of Fire Image: Universal Pictures Fresh from making Eddie Murphy a star in the hit buddy cop comedy 48 Hrs., Walter Hill, a filmmaker known for genre flicks about men doing a lot of manly shit, had the idea to do, according to the opening credits, a “rock and...

Streets of FireImage: Universal Pictures

Fresh from making Eddie Murphy a star in the hit buddy cop comedy 48 Hrs., Walter Hill, a filmmaker known for genre flicks about men doing a lot of manly shit, had the idea to do, according to the opening credits, a “rock and roll fable” set in “another time,...

Mike Campbell and his band The Dirty Knobs have announced their new album, Vagabonds, Virgins & Misfits, out June 14th via BMG. As a preview, they’ve shared the first single, “Dare to Dream,” featuring Graham Nash.

Having now found their way as a rock band, Vagabonds, Virgins & Misfits finds Campbell and The Dirty Knobs in a place where they are solely focused on creating “great songs” with “depth in the lyrics and chords,” the Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers co-founder said in a statement.

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Their third studio album also includes contributions from Lucinda Williams, Chris Stapleton, and fellow Heartbreaker Benmont Tench. See the artwork and full tracklist below. Pre-orders are ongoing.

A straightforward rocker with a sunny disposition, “Dare to Dream” is a song about “longing for hope,” Campbell said. “Lord knows we need more hope in this wicked world these days. Having...

In 1974, Tom Petty, Mike Campbell, and the rest of their band Mudcrutch entered Leon Russell’s the Church Studio in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to record their first demo tape with producer Denny Cordell. It was a crucial moment that led to the formation of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers two years later. In late April of this year, Campbell returned to the studio for the first time in 50 years.

“It was spiritual,” Campbell tells Rolling Stone via Zoom from the “man cave” of his Los Angeles home. “I got a little...

Dolly Parton honored Tom Petty with a gorgeous cover of his 1985 song, “Southern Accents,” which will appear on the upcoming tribute compilation Petty Country: A Country Music Celebration of Tom Petty.

“Southern Accents” is a tender ballad about Southern roots and a down-on-his luck Florida orange-picker. Parton stays faithful to the original, adding her own country twang, and juicing the poignancy further with a music video filled with old archival footage of Petty.

“I was fortunate enough to get to know Tom over the years,” Parton said in a statement.

Beatles drummer Ringo Starr’s “Rewind Forward” will be out on October 13. This is Starr’s fourth extended play release in three years.

Read More: Ringo Starr Turns 83, But Admits That ‘In My Head, I’m 27’

“I’ve loved EPs since they first came out in the ’60s,” he says of the format. “And then I heard the kids are making EPs and thought, ‘That’s good!’”

“I think it means that, you know, you’re sitting still for a while. You rewind and you find out ‘I was a much better person then,’ or ‘this was working for me better then,’ he says. You don’t have to ever live in the past, but just check it occasionally.”

“Of course, I’m making all this up,” he jokes.

The four-song EP was co-written by a number of Starr’s pals, including Steve Lukather of the All Starr Band, Joe Williams of Toto,...

Around 10:20 p.m. on Saturday night, a shadowy group of figures walked onto the Farm Aid stage at the Ruoff Music Center in Noblesville, Indiana. This was supposed to be the moment where Wille Nelson wrapped up the night, but there was no sign of the Red Headed Stranger or his band. Instead, another act was plugging in instruments on the darkened stage. There was no announcement of any kind, and the large screens on both sides of the stage went completely blank for the first time all day.

Tom Leadon, the guitarist who co-founded Mudcrutch with Tom Petty and Mike Campbell and was the brother of Eagles co-founder Bernie Leadon, has died. He was 70. He died March 22, but no other details were available.

Heartbreakers and Mudcrutch guitarist Campbell confirmed the news on social media. “Tom Leadon was my deepest guitar soul brother,” he wrote on Instagram (see the post below). “We spent countless hours playing acoustic guitars and teaching each other things. A kinder soul never walked the earth. I will always miss his spirit and generosity. Sleep peacefully my old friend.”

Related Story Hollywood & Media Deaths In 2023: Photo Gallery & Obituaries Related Story Tom Petty Estate Blasts Kari Lake's "Failed Campaign" For Use Of 'I Won't Back Down' Related Story Tom Petty Doc Lands At YouTube Originals Alongside Unscripted Orders

Born on September 16, 1952, in Rosemount, Mn, Leadon was the fourth of 10 children. His family moved to...

Acoustic trio Nickel Creek have reunited to announce a new album and release their first new music in nine years. Celebrants, the follow-up to Chris Thile, Sean Watkins, and Sara Watkins’ 2014 release A Dotted Line, will arrive March 24.

The album’s first single is “Strangers,” which revolves around a swift finger-style guitar part and lead vocal from Sean Watkins. The lyrics describe the awkwardness of meeting a long-lost friend after some time. “It’s been too long, stranger/Guess even hard times fly/And leave us speechless in the darkness,...

Eddie Vedder’s Ohana Festival took place at Dana Point, California, over the weekend with a bill that included Stevie Nicks, Jack White, Brittany Howard, P!nk, St. Vincent, and the Pearl Jam frontman himself. The final night of the festival happened to be five year anniversary of Tom Petty’s death, and several of the performers took a moment to honor his legacy.

It began on Friday evening when Stevie Nicks and her band — which includes Heartbreakers keyboardist Benmont Tench — took the stage to a recording of Petty’s 1989 classic “Runnin’ Down a Dream.

This July 7, 2022, Ringo Starr and his wife Barbara Starkey will be joined on his birthday by family and friends, including current All Starrs Steve Lukather, Edgar Winter, Colin Hay, Warren Ham and Gregg Bissonette, as well as friends Benmont Tench, Jim Keltner, Richard Marx, Matt Sorum, Ed Begley Jr., Linda Perry, Diane Warren, Roy Jr and Alex Orbison.

Ringo Celebrates His Birthday With His Annual Campaign For Peace And Love

They will gather together in Los Angeles for Ringo’s annual Peace & Love Birthday event, and at Noon give the traditional “Peace and Love” exclamation. This year Artemis Music Space Network, through the International Space Station (Iss) will amplify that message not only to the entire planet but up into Earth’s orbit and to the stars.

At Noon Ringo will signal the Artemis Mission Control Center in Houston, Texas to beam his message & music (Ringo’s 2021 single release “Let...

Chris Stapleton performed his Grammy-winning song “Cold” at the 2022 ceremonies in Las Vegas, earning a standing ovation in the process.

“Why you got to be so cold/Why you got to go and cut me with a knife, put our love on ice?” the country singer bellowed, bathed in blueish light and backed by a string section and his longtime band. Everyone onstage was playing live too: Stapleton refuses to perform to a pre-taped track at awards shows.

Chris Stapleton...

Eddie Vedder has always seemed like a singer inextricably bound to his band. Since the beginnings of Pearl Jam, he has flexed his warm baritone with an intensity or a sensitivity that perfectly matched his fellow musicians’ loose fury and anxious jamming; Vedder’s voice depends on Pearl Jam’s music, and their songs demand his voice. Whenever he has ventured into the wilds of a solo career, he has done so in the least Pearl Jam-y ways possible, whether it was the folkie mandolin musings of “Rise” or the beach-fire serenades of Ukulele Songs.

On Dec. 18, Joe Walsh will head into his basement and jam with with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers keyboardist Benmont Tench, guitarist Waddy Wachtel, bassist Leland Sklar, and drummer Russ Kunkel along with his brother-in-law Ringo Starr for the streaming concert “VetsAid 2021: The Basement Show,” the latest installment of the guitarist’s annual benefit for veterans’ causes. Tickets for the live event are available at vetsaid.veeps.com, and the show will be available to watch through Dec. 26.

“With variable Covid rates throughout the summer and fall, I wasn...

During its 2021 TCA Summer Press Tour panel on September 23, YouTube Originals announced new original content and series coming this fall. The new lineup of YouTube exclusives features something for everyone, including award-winning documentaries, series, and specials, ranging from climate change specials to competition series and children’s programming. The Tom Petty documentary The Making of Wildflowers will debut on the video-sharing site after premiering at SXSW earlier this year. Also announced was the third installment of the MrBeast competition series The Creator Games, the new YouTube Kids program Tab Time, and the global celebration event Dear Earth, among others. Below, check out the newest content coming to YouTube Originals later this year. Tom Petty, Somewhere You Feel Free: The Making of Wildflowers – Later this year Jeff Gentner/Getty Images This feature-length documentary follows Tom Petty’s development and creation of the 1994 album “Wildflowers.” Along with interviews from Rick Rubin, Mike Campbell,...

YouTube Originals acquired “Tom Petty, Somewhere You Feel Free: The Making of Wildflowers,” which will launch on the streamer later this year.

The documentary offers a deep dive into a condensed period of creativity and freedom (between 1993 and 1995) for the legendary, titular rock star and looks at his creation of his “Wildflowers” album. The project includes never-before-seen archival footage of Petty and his band in the recording studio and on tour, equally rare behind-the-scenes moments of Petty at home with his family and interviews with the album’s co-producers Rick Rubin and Heartbreaker Mike Campbell, along with original Heartbreaker Benmont Tench.

“Tom Petty, Somewhere You Feel Free: The Making of Wildflowers” is produced by Peter Afterman and directed by Mary Wharton, with executive producers Dan Braun, Wharton and Adria Petty. It is presented by Inaudible Films, Warner Music Entertainment and Warner Records.

The doc debuted in March at SXSW and...

The 1996 Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers album Songs and Music From the Motion Picture ‘She’s the One’ is such a weird outlier in the band’s catalog that even Tom Petty himself didn’t quite know what to make of it. “It was kind of a confused album for us,” Petty told writer Paul Zollo in his book Conversations With Tom Petty. “It got stocked in the soundtrack section. It didn’t really come out like a Heartbreakers record. So it didn’t feel like we made a record or anything.

After successfully staging a safe and entertaining awards show last year, the Academy of Country Music sticks to what works and returns to Nashville for the 56th ACM Awards. Like in 2020, the ceremony scatters its musical performances over three iconic locations in Music City — the Ryman Auditorium, Bluebird Cafe, and Grand Ole Opry House — handing out trophies along the way.

“We’re excited to be back in Nashville. This is a great city that’s had a really rough year, even more of a rough year than other cities have had.

Tom Petty’s 1994 album “Wildflowers,” the subject of the SXSW documentary “Tom Petty, Somewhere You Feel Free,” was in some ways one of the veteran rocker’s most casual albums. Made with producer Rick Rubin after a pair of bigger-sounding, more meticulously arranged albums with Jeff Lynne, “Wildflowers” has a low-key, ramshackle air to it, with its rough-hewn rocker songs tossed together with loose shuffles and acoustic ballads that actually have more going on than you realize.

There’s an intimacy and a melancholy to it, as befits a group of songs written by a guy whose state in life was summed up in the couplet that opened “To Find a Friend”: “In the middle of his life/He left his wife.”

“Wildflowers” was a subtle album whose impact slowly grew over time; nothing about it insisted that it should be taken as a big statement. But a recent boxed set,...

There are times when it is still hard to fathom that Tom Petty is gone. Turn on his SiriusXM station, and there is a good chance you’ll hear Petty’s inimitable drawl on his “Buried Treasures” program, sounding vivid and cheerful. Recorded work is still being released, including last year’s massive, 25-song version of his classic album Wildflowers. And now comes Tom Petty, Somewhere You Feel Free, a vivid, compelling documentary chronicling the creation of that aforementioned album. As the film’s opening explains, in early 2020 a collection of 16mm film was discovered in the Petty archive, all shot between 1993-95 by filmographer Martyn Atkins. Never before released, the footage offers a unique view inside the process of making a masterpiece.

The Tom Petty in Somewhere You Feel Free is both joyful and devastated, powerful and wounded. This dichotomy exists in many of Petty’s greatest songs, and as Somewhere shows,...

A new video has been released for Tom Petty’s Wildflowers-era rarity, “You Saw Me Comin’,” which will appear on the upcoming release, Finding Wildflowers (Alternate Versions), out April 16th.

The new video was directed by Joel Kazuo Knoernschild and Katie Malia, who pair the simmering rocker with an array of stunning natural scenes. Every now and then, the footage is reversed or flipped, injecting a somewhat surreal element into all that serenity.

In a statement, the Heartbreakers’ Benmont Tench said of “You Saw Me Comin’,” “There’s this kind of longing in the song,...

Country artists Chris Stapleton and Maren Morris topped the ACM Awards nominations today, with each getting six nominations from the Academy of Country Music.

The nominations were announced on CBS This Morning today by CBS, the ACM and dick clark productions. The 56th Academy of Country Music Awards will air live from three iconic country music venues – the Grand Ole Opry House, Nashville’s historic Ryman Auditorium and the Bluebird Cafe – on Sunday, April 18 at 8 p.m. Et/delayed Pt) on CBS and streamed live and on demand on Paramount+.

See the entire list of nominations below.

Among the notable nominations:

Reigning Female Artist of the Year Maren Morris took six nominations, with “The Bones” nominated for both Song of the Year and Single of the Year. Morris received an additional nod for songwriter of “The Bones,” her first time receiving a nomination both as an artist and songwriter for Song of the Year.

One of the best records of the early 2000s is almost impossible to find online. You can purchase a copy of Meaningless — producer Jon Brion’s only solo album, released 20 years ago this month — from CDBaby or find a low-quality rip on YouTube. But unless you’re a die-hard fan, there’s a good chance the album’s gemlike songs of anxiety, unrequited love, and depression passed you by entirely.

“I think he’s a phenomenal musician and has an incredible sense of melody,” Aimee Mann, who co-wrote a song on Meaningless,...

Dave Cobb has a tradition for welcoming artists he’s producing to RCA Studio A. When they first set foot in the Nashville studio, he runs through a litany of the greats who’ve previously recorded there. Dolly Parton threw a wrench in that routine when she arrived to sing “Words” for Barry Gibb’s new album Greenfields.

“One of the things that is always fun to say is, ‘This is where Dolly did ‘Jolene’ and ‘I Will Always Love You,'” Cobb says. “But Dolly is right there in...

Ringo Starr might have just turned 80, but he can’t be accused of taking it easy. The Beatle drummer kept busy making music this year, even though it was the first time in years he couldn’t hit the road with his long-running All-Starr Band. His new single, “Here’s to the Nights,” is a quintessential Ringo ode to peace and love, just in time to sing out the end of a 2020 where everybody had a hard year. He got a little help from his friends for “Here’s to the Nights.

Ringo Starr has released a new song featuring a slew of all-star guests, “Here’s to the Nights,” from his upcoming EP Zoom In, set to arrive March 19th, 2021.

Acclaimed songwriter Diane Warren wrote “Here’s to the Nights,” and the recording boasts backing vocals from Paul McCartney, Joe Walsh, Finneas, Sheryl Crow, Chris Stapleton, Lenny Kravitz, Ben Harper, Dave Grohl, Jenny Lewis Corinne Bailey Rae, Eric Burton, and Yola. All those voices combine on the track’s rousing chorus, “Here’s to the nights we won’t remember/With...

Chris Stapleton was the musical guest on Monday night’s episode of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, where he turned in a gritty rendition of “Devil Always Made Me Think Twice.” The song appears on Stapleton’s recently released album Starting Over.

Penned by Stapleton with Al Anderson, “Devil Always Made Me Think Twice” rumbles with the singer’s low-end blues guitar riffs. The performance takes place in an intimate space and Stapleton is joined by his wife Morgane and producer Dave Cobb to round out his live band.

In the latest episode of Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums, our new podcast on Amazon Music, we go inside the emotional true story of Tom Petty’s Wildflowers, a 1994 solo album that Petty thought was the best work of his career. Long after he released it, Petty never could stop thinking about Wildflowers; in fact, it was on his mind right before he died.

Mike Campbell, Benmont Tench and Steve Ferrone of the Heartbreakers along with Petty’s daughter Adria, wife Dana and Wildflowers Executive Producer George Drakoulias, join host...