
The relationship between the drummer and Petty had been strained for years, but Wildflowers marked a permanent rift between the two of them. Wildflowers may be a solo Petty record, but many members of the Heartbreakers contributed to it, with the sole exception being longtime drummer Lynch. The record marks the official exit of drummer Stan Lynch from the Heartbreakers. I was so depressed - that just made me more depressed.”ģ. Then, with everything being done at such an incredible rate of speed so that the record could come out with the film - with me making my deadline - they held the film back six months. “Some people thought I was following up Wildflowers. “I was doing something that went against my grain,” he told Zanes. The record was marketed as a new Tom Petty record, much to his dismay. But when he was approached by director Ed Burns - hot off the success of his debut film The Brothers McMullen - to create the soundtrack to his follow-up, romantic comedy She’s the One, he handed over many of the discarded songs. Petty didn’t quite know what to do with the Wildflowers outtakes when the record was trimmed down to a single disc. Several of the outtakes were included on the soundtrack to the 1996 film She’s the One. The first CD is longer than two vinyl records.'”Ģ. “And we were like, ‘Oh, man, we wanted it to be a double album.’ And he said, ‘Well, it is a double album. You need to cut it down,'” Petty told writer David Browne in 2013. “When we played it to the record company, Lenny Waronker listened to it with me and Rick Rubin and said, ‘It’s great but I think it’s too long. He felt that the stripped-down tracks were strong enough to merit a double LP, but his label advised against it. Wildflowers took two years to make, the longest Petty ever spent on an album. Petty’s label nixed his original idea to release Wildflowers as a double LP.

In honor of the 25th anniversary of Wildflowers, here are 10 things you might not know about the LP.ġ. But I’m guessing they just weren’t as good.”

I can’t remember what Paul Simon record or what Paul McCartney record came out around that time. “When you think of the great songwriters, they weren’t making great albums at that point. “I think the reason I was surprised has to do with the idea of a grown-up making a good record,” he told Petty biographer Warren Zanes. To producer Rick Rubin, the album’s sturdiness was a shock. and peaking at Number Eight on the Top 200. Wildflowers was enormously successful, selling 3 million copies in the U.S.
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The songs range from reflective ballads - like the title track and “Time to Move On” - to fiery rockers like “You Wreck Me” and “Honey Bee.” But all of them are the work of a mature artist who was deep into a career resurgence that began five years earlier with his first solo record, Full Moon Fever.

“And that one I think I’m most happy with. “That was where I was really at the top of my game as far as craft and inspiration colliding at the same moment,” he told Paul Zollo in 2005.

“I probably haven’t even told the band about this yet,” Petty said in 2016, “but they can read about it in Rolling Stone.” His focus on the LP is easy to understand song-for-song, it is perhaps Petty’s single greatest achievement. In the final years of his life, Tom Petty spoke often about his plan to re-release his 1994 masterpiece Wildflowers as a double album and then play it straight through on a special tour.
