Tom Petty’s peers and admirers will celebrate what would’ve been the late rock icon’s 70th birthday with a star-studded virtual festival on Friday.
Set to stream on Petty’s website and on Amazon Music’s Twitch channel, “Tom Petty’s 70th Birthday Bash” will feature performances and appearances by Stevie Nicks, Beck, Adam Sandler, Brandi Carlile, Chris Stapleton, Eddie Vedder, the Foo Fighters, Jackson Browne, Margo Price and Post Malone, among many others. Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench, both of Petty’s long-running band the Heartbreakers, are set to perform as well.
The show, which organizers said will also include previously unseen live footage from Petty and the Heartbreakers, is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. Pacific on Friday. Earlier that day, SiriusXM will air a Petty tribute with performances by acts including the Killers, Jason Isbell, the Raconteurs and Kurt Vile.
“Tom Petty’s 70th Birthday Bash” comes three years after Petty’s death from an accidental overdose in Los Angeles in 2017. That year, fans held a birthday celebration in the musician’s hometown of Gainesville, Fla., that became an annual tradition; this year’s installment will take place online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, though the Petty estate said in a statement that it intends to use the show to raise awareness and proceeds for Save Our Stages, which seeks to aid independent concert venues imperiled by the COVID shutdown.
Last week, the estate released a lavish reissue of Petty’s 1994 solo album “Wildflowers,” which the singer’s producer Rick Rubin recently told The Times was Petty’s favorite of his many projects.
Mikael Wood / Los Angeles Times / Tuesday, October 20, 2020
