A living legend of country music paying tribute to the late great Tom Petty.
Show me someone that says they don’t like Petty and I’ll show you a liar. Not everyone is a die hard member of Tom Petty nation, but I’d be willing to bet that each and everyone one of us has gotten our toes tapping once or twice before to some of his hit songs like “American Girl,” “Mary Jane’s Last Dance,” or the incomparable “Free Fallin’.”
When the rock and roll artist passed away back in 2017, the music world mourned the great loss. And one of the ways that many artists have been able to work through the passing of Petty is by honoring the rock star by covering his music. There is even a country cover tribute album to Tom Petty, Petty Country: A Country Music Celebration of Tom Petty, in the works, set for release on June 21st.
Country artists banded together to put forth a star-studded project, with the likes of Dierks Bentley, Chris Stapleton, Willie Nelson, and Dolly Parton all pitching in with their own Tom Petty cover. There’s a lot of other names featured on the album, but one that I’ll focus in on is the country music icon George Strait.
A live version of Strait’s cover of “You Wreck Me” is included on the album, as it is clearly one of country artist’s favorite songs to perform live. Strait has cued up “You Wreck Me” time and time again, and a couple of years ago did so with Chris Stapleton at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri. The 72-year-old country star clearly has a connection with the track.
That’s proven to be true by how comfortable and confident Strait sings the song that isn’t his. That being said, the country star recently performed “You Wreck Me” at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey over the weekend, and felt that it was only right to bring out someone to help him with the performance. Strait called on the services of guitarist and vocalist Mike Campbell, a former member of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, to assist him in playing the Petty hit.
Let’s just say Tom Petty would have been proud of this jam-out session:
George Strait rocking a Tom Petty tune with Mike Campbell pic.twitter.com/CdJR4iF0YN
— Darrell Craig Harris Pro Bassist (@DarrellCBassist) June 10, 2024
