After last year’s An American Treasure box set and the two-disc The Best of Everything — which has two previously unreleased songs — out this weekend, Tom Petty fans are already wondering what might come next from the vaults.
Benmont Tench of The Heartbreakers tells Billboard “there’s a bunch of really great stuff” in the vaults, including early Mudcrutch recordings and “a whole other version” of 2014’s Hypnotic Eye album. Tench says it’s “not the same songs, just more stuff from the same period.” There’s also all of Petty’s demos for 2002’s The Last DJ. “It’s good, and it keeps it alive when you hear Tom’s voice on the tapes.”
Whatever comes next, Tench says The Heartbreakers won’t get together to complete any unfinished tracks. “I don’t want to get into exploiting or finding some half-ass jam and finishing it. I’m really leery of anything that isn’t really high quality, and whatever we would put out in the future we would take extreme care with it.”
