Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers will embark on their 2006 North American "Highway Companions Tour" on June 9 in Charlotte, N.C., and will be joined along the way by an exciting list of friends and guests that will include a series of very special shows with Pearl Jam. Other guest hitting the road for certain shows with Petty and the Heartbreakers include Trey Anastasio and the Allman Brothers Band.
Petty is also putting the finishing touches on his third solo album, 'Highway Companion' - which is produced by Jeff Lynne with Tom Petty and Mike Campbell, and is scheduled to be released on July 25th on the Warner Bros. Records label.
As part of their summer tour, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers - Petty/vocals, guitars, Mike Campbell/guitars, Benmont Tench/keyboards, Ron Blair/bass, Scott Thurston/guitars, harmonica, backing vocals, and Steve Ferrone/drums – headlinedlast weekend’s Bonnaroo Festival on Friday, June 16, and are expected at the Austin City Limits Festival on Sunday, September 17.
In addition to the upcoming solo album and the summer tour, Academy Award-winning director/screenwriter Peter Bogdanovich ("The Last Picture Show," "Paper Moon," "Mask") has started working on a comprehensive feature film/documentary about the band's three-decades-long history. Given unparalleled access to the band, Bogdanovich will intertwine vintage interviews, videos and live performances with special footage that he began shooting late last year.
"We shot New Year's Eve at Mike Campbell's house," said Bogdanovich about the film which has no title or release date yet. "We've gone into the studio with Tom while he did voice-overs for his 'King of The Hill' role, recorded his XM Satellite radio show, we'll be there when he headlines Bonnaroo, and we've already started to conduct new interviews with Tom, the band, with long-time associates, journalists, and other people who have played a role during the past thirty years.”
Last summer's Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers' tour proved to be one of the band's most successful in their long career. Without a new CD to promote, they played to sell-out crowds totaling more than 750,000 fans.
Over the past thirty years, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers have sold more than 50-million records and been nominated for 16 Grammy Awards.
The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002, the first year they were eligible, and this past December, Green Day's Billy Joe Armstrong presented Petty with the Billboard Century Award at the Billboard Music Awards saying. In this 2006 season, Petty reprises his ongoing role as "Lucky" on the long-running Fox animated TV series "King of the Hill," and he is in the middle of the second season of his critically acclaimed XM Satellite Radio Show, "Tom Petty's Buried Treasure."
‘Highway Companion’ is now available at Amazon . Visit the music database for more information and a complete track listing.
"Highway Companions Tour" dates include:
JULY
AUGUST
USA
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