George Strait to Tribute Tom Petty in Guest DJ Spot

The somewhat curious, but super cool obsession that the current King of Country Music George Strait has for rock legend Tom Petty continues. It has been announced that Strait will host a tribute to Tom Petty on Petty’s dedicated SiriusXM channel (Ch. 31), first airing at 8 a.m. Eastern on Monday, July 20th, and then available on demand through the SiriusXM app.

During George Strait Guest DJ, listeners will hear Strait spin the “best of everything” from the Petty catalog, reflect on seeing Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in concert, talk about the time he performed at Petty’s 2017 MusiCares Person of the Year Gala, and more. And if you can’t be right in front of your satellite radio at the time, it will be available via the app afterwards. Some of the segments have also been made available early.

Listening to Strait talk about Petty, it become patently clear how much of a fanboy he George Strait really is.

“The only time I ever met Tom is when I went out to his tribute to MusicCares,” Strait recalls. “I was invited to sing ‘You Wreck Me.’ I was as nervous as a cat. I mean, I was kind of a fish out of water I guess you’d say. But, I was excited about it, nervous because I was singing ‘You Wreck Me’ in front of Tom Petty, and the Heartbreakers were all there too. I thought it went great. Later I got to meet Tom and his wife, and that was awesome. He couldn’t have been nicer to me. That was just a very special night for me.”

As folks who follow George Strait can attest, he can hardly contain his appreciation for Tom Petty. Strait started covering Petty’s “You Wreck Me” from Petty’s 1994 record Wildflowers in 2014 during his farewell Cowboy Rides Away tour. Now “You Wreck Me” almost always makes it into the George Strait set list, as does some Petty praise.

“Now I’m not one to just pick up and travel to go see somebody,” Strait says in another of the guest DJ segments. “But I wanted to see Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers live, so I was able to finagle some tickets one time to the Fonda Theater. It’s a small venue so tickets were hard to come by. But I got lucky. So me and some friends of mine just packed up here from San Antonio, flew out to L.A., and went to the show that night. It was amazing. I’m so happy that I did that. I remember it like it was yesterday … most of it (laughing). Tom and the band were great of course. And the crowd, wow. They were lit up, so to speak.”

The SiriusXM app is available on mobile phones, tablets, and computers, as well as on connected devices including smart TVs, devices with Amazon Alexa or the Google Assistant, Apple TV, PlayStation, Roku, Sonos speakers, and more.

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