A new feature-length film documenting the making of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' landmark 1994 LP Wildflowers has been shared on YouTube. 

Titled Tom Petty: Somewhere You Feel Free – The Making of Wildflowers, the doco is cut from a collection of 16mm films recently unearthed just last year from the late icon’s archives. 

Featuring new interviews with Heartbreakers guitarist and album co-producer Mike Campbell, keyboardist Benmont Tench and more, the film documents Petty in the studio writing and recording Wildflowers with legendary producer Rick Rubin. 

‘Tom Petty: Somewhere You Feel Free - The Making of Wildflowers’

Director, Mary Wharton, told Consequence of Sound, “What was really fascinating for me in this project was getting to see him struggle a little bit, getting to see that he wasn’t always sure of himself.”

“I think to see Tom…just being a human, a supremely talented and intelligent and funny and cool dude, but he was also a regular guy who had the same kind of struggles we all do,” she revealed.

The documentary premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in March this year and won the coveted Audience Award; a few months later it earned the prize for Best Documentary Film at the Boulder Film Festival. 

WATCH Tom Petty: Somewhere You Feel Free – The Making of Wildflowers free on Youtube, here. 

Last year, a massively expanded reissue of the 1994 LP Wildflowers & All the Rest arrived, uncovering a treasure trove of alternate arrangements, studio outtakes and demos that didn’t make it onto what was originally intended to be a double album. 

Earlier this year, we were offered an even deeper dive into the sessions with Finding Wildflowers (Alternate Versions) which was part of the deluxe package and is now available on limited-edition gold vinyl and streaming. Check it out here.

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