In the years since Tom Petty released his landmark Wildflowers album, much has been said about the Rick Rubin-helmed sessions and how much unreleased material was left behind as the album evolved.  Petty originally had enough songs to release Wildflowers as a double-album – reportedly with at least 26 songs – but was persuaded against it.  In 2015, he released a preview track, “Somewhere Under Heaven,” for the release provisionally entitled Wildflowers: All The Rest.  But the collection was shelved after his death.

Today, the Tom Petty Estate released a new digital single: the original 8-track demo of “You Don’t Know How It Feels,” which features Petty on guitar, bass, harmonica, and vocals and includes some alternate lyrics.  The intimate home recording is one of many that the Tom Petty Estate and Petty’s former bandmates have unearthed for an upcoming release that will most likely come out during “box set season” in the fourth quarter of this year.

“The family and all our engineers and the Heartbreakers have been circling around this project and making it as delightful and completist as possible,” Petty’s daughter Adria told Rolling Stone.  “We’re really pleased to be able to share the second half of the Wildflowers double album.  But there are also completist versions of how the sessions evolved.  My dad was prolific at that time and there was so much recording done.  Coming off the ‘Last Dance with Mary Jane’ session, it was a complete evolution of how dad recorded and how he made space for his own feelings.  Wildflowers was very personal for him.  He wasn’t hiding behind anything.”

As always, we’ll keep you updated about any further archival releases.  In the meantime, enjoy the home recording of “You Don’t Know How It Feels” below!

Tom Petty, You Don’t Know How It Feels (Home Recording) (Tom Petty Legacy/Reprise/Warner Records, 2020) (Amazon Music / Apple Music / Spotify / YouTube / Tidal / Qobuz / HDTracks TBD)

1. You Don’t Know How It Feels (Home Recording)