Chris Willman Music WriterIt’s easy to think of Tom Petty’s 1994 “solo album,” “Wildflowers,” as a cult record — the underdog in a catalog full of bigger and brasher choices, revered for its willingness to forgo the classic Heartbreakers band sound in favor of more abundantly acoustic textures, and for letting down the good-time veil for more personal glimpses into his not always so happy-go-lucky psyche.
There’s just one problem with this unified theory of “Wildflowers”: It was actually a huge freaking hit. Plus, the Heartbreakers ended up being the studio band, essentially, whether it was planned that way or not, and several of the album’s songs became concert staples up to Petty’s 2017 death.
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