Tom Petty’s timeless 1994 masterpiece Wildflowers continues to bloom three decades after its release, with the 30th anniversary celebration expanding into film, vinyl and print in 2025.
The acclaimed documentary Tom Petty, Somewhere You Feel Free: The Making of Wildflowers is now streaming on Peacock, giving fans a raw and intimate look into Petty’s creative world between 1993 and 1995. Directed by Mary Wharton, whose credits include Sam Cooke: Legend and Elvis Lives! The Beatles Revolution, the film pieces together previously unseen 16mm footage discovered in Petty’s archive in 2020.
Wharton’s documentary, which The Hollywood Reporter called “a love letter to Petty”, shows the singer at his most human and inspired. Viewers are invited into the studio to witness the recording of tracks like Time To Move On, Crawling Back To You and You Don’t Know How It Feels. Interviews with producer Rick Rubin, Heartbreakers Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench, and Petty’s daughter Adria, round out a moving portrait of an artist redefining himself both musically and personally.
The film originally premiered at SXSW 2021 where it won the Audience Award and went on to receive Best Documentary Film at the Boulder Film Festival, the PGA Award for Outstanding Producer of a Streamed Motion Picture, and official selection status at AFI Docs.
To coincide with the streaming release, the Petty estate has also unveiled a never-before-seen video of You Wreck Me from 1995 Dogs With Wings tour rehearsals. It follows the recent archival release of Crawling Back To You, offering fans a glimpse into the hours of rehearsal and performance footage that still reside in Petty’s vault. More of this footage will be released over coming months exclusively through Petty’s fan club, Tom Petty Nation.
Petty’s landmark album is back on wax in a new two-LP One-Step edition via Because Sound Matters and Warner Records. The ultra-high fidelity pressing, limited to 6000 numbered copies, was cut directly from the original master tapes by engineer Chris Bellman and overseen by Petty’s long-time studio collaborator Ryan Ulyate.
The all-analogue presentation joins other prestige One-Step releases including Joni Mitchell’s Blue and the Eagles’ Hotel California. Each copy comes housed in a deluxe, numbered slipcase with a double-pocket tip-on gatefold jacket, ensuring Wildflowers gets the treatment it always deserved. Audiophile site Tracking Angle has already called it “ridiculously better sounding” than any previous edition.
Later this year, Genesis Publications will release Wildflowers, a limited-edition book produced in collaboration with the Petty Estate. Limited to just 1,500 numbered copies worldwide, the book is signed by Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench and features uncut interviews, handwritten lyrics, unseen photos, and personal ephemera from the original sessions. The release arrives fittingly in what would have been Petty’s 75th birthday year.
When Wildflowers was released in November 1994, it marked a new beginning for Tom Petty. It was his first album after signing with Warner Bros. and the first of three collaborations with Rick Rubin. Petty dropped the “Heartbreakers” name for this one, telling Rubin he wanted “more freedom than to be strapped into five guys”, yet most of the Heartbreakers played on it anyway-except for drummer Stan Lynch, who was replaced by Steve Ferrone just before the record’s release.
Originally conceived as a double album of 25 tracks, Wildflowers was trimmed to 15 songs at the insistence of Warner Bros. boss Lenny Waronker. Among the outtakes, Leave Virginia Alone became a hit for Rod Stewart a year later, while others surfaced on the 1996 soundtrack Songs And Music From She’s The One. All were finally restored for 2020’s Wildflowers & All The Rest.
The album went triple platinum within nine months of release and landed at No.8 on the Billboard 200. In 2020, Rolling Stone placed it at No.214 on its updated list of the “500 Greatest Albums of All Time”.
Petty’s influence, both with the Heartbreakers and as a solo artist, continues to resonate. Over a 40-year career, he released 16 studio albums (including his solo work), sold over 85 million records, and performed to more than 140 million fans worldwide. He was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2002 and honoured as MusiCares Person of the Year in 2017, just months before his passing.
Wildflowers – Because Sound Matters One-Step
A1: Wildflowers
A2: You Don’t Know How It Feels
A3: Time To Move On
A4: You Wreck Me
B1: It’s Good To Be King
B2: Only A Broken Heart
B3: Honey Bee
B4: Don’t Fade On Me
C1: Hard On Me
C2: Cabin Down Below
C3: To Find A Friend
C4: A Higher Place
D1: House In The Woods
D2: Crawling Back To You
D3: Wake Up Time
Noise11 Heartbreaks interviews:
Stan Lynch
Mike Campbell
Benmont Tench
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