After teasing lost recordings from his 1994 album Wildflowers, Tom Petty’s estate has announced the release of a reissue, due in October.
Here’s something we have all been looking forward to for quite a while. Tom Petty’s estate has finally announced the release of a reissue of Wildflowers, Petty’s 1994 solo album. Titled Wildflowers & All The Rest, the album arrives Friday, October 16th, through Warner Records.
To commemorate the announcement, Petty’s estate has also released a solo demo version of ‘Wildflowers (Home Recording)’, along with a video featuring previously unseen footage of Petty in his home while recording the same.
A press release on Petty’s official website states that the “resurrection of Wildflowers has been a long time coming.” Widely regarded as Petty’s “most acutely confessional album”, Wildflowers was originally intended as a double album, with more than 25 songs.
On the label’s advice, however, Petty, Rick Rubin, and Mike Campbell (both of whom were co-producers) took off 10 songs.
While some of those songs found their way to Petty’s future releases, he had been seriously considering revisiting the tracks that never were.
In as early as 2014, he told Rolling Stone: “I broke through to something else. My personal life came crashing down, and it derailed me for a while. But I was at the top of my game during that record.” According to the press release, he had always intended to release the other 10 tracks under the title All The Rest, along with five unreleased songs.
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Wildflowers & All The Rest has been curated by Petty’s daughters, Adria and Annakim, and his wife Dana. The Heartbreakers members Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench were also involved, with production credits to Ryan Ulyate.
The album will be released in multiple formats. The Deluxe Edition will have 15 solo demos made by Petty while working on the album. The Super Deluxe Edition contains a special introduction by Rick Rubin, an essay by David Fricke, lyrics to all 25 tracks, as well as a track-by-track analysis of the album by Jaan Uhelszki, featuring Rubin, Ulyate, engineer Jim Scott, Heartbreakers members Mike Campbell, Benmont Tench, and Steve Ferrone, and live mixing engineer Robert Scovill.
Check out ‘Wildflowers (Home Recording)’ by Tom Petty:
