Tom Petty Estate Celebrates 30 Years of ‘Wildflowers’ with Limited Reissue, Archival Footage and More

Today, the Tom Petty Estate has opened the vaults again to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Wildflowers with a new limited edition repress, a wealth of archival materials and the physical media release of Tom Petty, Somewhere You Feel Free: The Making of Wildflowers. This announcement is the latest landmark in a long series of tributes to the dearly departed troubadour and his legendary 1994 sophomore album.

In partnership with Because Sound Matters, Wildflowers will see release as a special two-LP pressing, set to vinyl from the original analog master tapes through the company’s meticulous One-Step process. The result is the definitive audiophile version of the legendary album, capturing Petty’s masterpiece with unprecedented depth and clarity. Limited to 6000 numbered copies, the pressing was a labor of love from engineer Chris Bellman, with oversight from Petty’s longtime audio engineer Ryan Ulyat, packaged in an archival-grade gatefold sleeve and set to release on Oct. 10 via Warner Records.

Alongside the new vinyl pressing, the Tom Petty Estate has endeavored to contextualize the artist’s timeless classic by sharing never-before-seen footage from the Wildflowers tour and tour rehearsals. The new videos are available through Petty’s free fan club site, Tom Petty Nation, and were previewed by a recording of “Crawling Back to You,” captured live on the 1995 Dogs With Wings tour. These treasured performance tapes are complemented by the long-awaited Blu-ray release of 2021’s acclaimed documentary, Tom Petty, Somewhere You Feel Free: The Making of Wildflowers, arriving on Sept. 12 with new bonus content, including a 30-minute intimate interview with Petty and outtakes from the film. 

Today’s Wildflowers commemorative projects follow the May announcement of Tom Petty: Wildflowers, a book examining the creation of Petty’s unforgettable album. Printed by Genesis Publications, Tom Petty: Wildflowers collects a wealth of archival treasures to present the story of that pivotal chapter in the artist’s solo career in unprecedented detail. Among the relics assembled are unseen personal and publicity photographs, handwritten lyric sheets and powerful reflections from his Heartbreakers bandmates, other close collaborators and Petty himself, who was known to refer to the album as his favourite in his expansive discography. Pre-orders for the hand-finished volume are available now at WildflowersBook.com.

In a feature for Relix earlier this year, Heartbreakers keyboardist Benmont Tench spoke to his memories of Mudcrutch, the Southern rock ensemble that launched Petty to the limelight in the early ‘70s and supported his late-career experimentation in the aughts. “I had such a wonderful time with Mudcrutch. I really regret that that can never happen again. I regret all of it,” Tench said. “It [Petty’s death] was a terribly, genuinely tragic thing. [My time with the Heartbreakers] means everything to me; it’s my whole life. I learned my sense of humor from those guys. I got a lot of really good character traits from those guys—and some not so good character traits from those guys. Tom could walk into a room with a guitar and nothing going on in his head and, in front of you, write something beautiful. I watched him become a songwriter.”

Read Tench’s full “Reflections” interview here.

The Wildflowers 30th anniversary repress is available to pre-order now. Learn more about Petty’s legacy and the many projects keeping his music alive at tompetty.com.