George Strait? Yeah, a HUGE Tom Petty Fan
This story has been updated.
It’s not that it’s especially strange for someone to be a fan of Tom Petty. Nearly any music fan, country or otherwise, is probably a Tom Petty fan too. It’s just that when you think of George Strait, you think of the quintessential straight-laced and starched Wranglers good ol’ country guy whose idea of a wild time might be playing some George Jones just a little bit too loud on a Saturday night, not singing along to “Mary Jane’s Last Dance.”
But as folks who’ve been following George Strait for a while now 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. Since then Strait’s tour schedule has been sparse, and mostly centered around a few stadium shows a year and a Las Vegas residency for a few weekends. But “You Wreck Me” almost always makes it into the set list, as does some Petty praise.
“This might surprise a lot of people, but I became a Tom Petty fan here a while back,” George Strait told a crowd in Louisville, KY on March 7th, 2014—the first time he was documented playing Petty on stage, performing “You Wreck Me” as part of his encore set. Interesting to note, Strait’s love for Petty came after the rocker went on record strongly criticizing much of modern country music, calling it “Bad rock with a fiddle,” ruffling the feathers of Florida Georgia Line and others.
Like most everyone else, George Strait was forced to cancel the 2020 live dates he had planned, and instead has been at home rehabbing a knee that he had replaced right before the COVID-19 quarantine came down. He’s also been spending the time jotting some ideas down for some new songs. But George Strait is most excited about sharing a live version of Petty’s “You Wreck Me” on SiriusXM.
“I took one of our live versions of ‘You Wreck Me’ by the late and great Tom Petty and sent it to his channel on Sirius radio to see if they might play it,” Strait told Billboard recently. “I’m very proud to say that they are. My band was amazing on that song. I’m a huge Petty fan.”
George Strait was also one of the big names that honored and performed for Tom Petty in 2017 as part of the MusiCares Person of the Year gala held in his honor on February 10th. Petty died later that year on October 2nd, but not before George Strait got to share his appreciation for Petty personally.
Strait Country 81
May 23, 2020 @ 8:37 am
I’m not shocked he was in a rock band in HS or the Army before deciding on country.
Kevin Broughton
May 23, 2020 @ 9:19 am
“You Wreck Me” is the most Tom Petty song ever. Good for George.
Sam Cody
May 23, 2020 @ 9:34 am
“…ruffling the feathers of Florida Georgia Line and others.”
Skinned chickens don’t have feathers to ruffle.
GuitarTown
May 23, 2020 @ 9:37 am
Always love to hear stories like this. Tom Petty influenced a lot of people. Dwight Yoakam’s said a few times he always had an intention to cover “Listen to Her Heart” and it just never happened.
Daniele
May 23, 2020 @ 10:20 am
The man just has good taste.
Cool Lester Smooth
May 23, 2020 @ 11:32 am
I don’t trust anyone who doesn’t like Tom Petty.
sbach66
May 23, 2020 @ 6:26 pm
Was scrolling down to post a similar comment. Well said.
SwinginDoorsLetMeDown
May 23, 2020 @ 2:27 pm
King George just gets cooler with age! This is funny i recently gave Wildflowers a spin for old times sake. Such a timeless record, id really forgot how good it was.
Chrissi
May 23, 2020 @ 3:32 pm
George playing Petty is pretty cool!
Matsfan/Jatsfan
May 23, 2020 @ 4:38 pm
Any time a band or solo artist at a bar plays a TP song, I throw money in the tip jar. That is a hard and fast rule I will not break.
BO76
May 23, 2020 @ 6:32 pm
Not to correct you, Trigger, but he also covered “You Wreck Me” the day before the March 8, 2014 Chicago show on March 7 in Louisville. It was an amazing show from his final tour. I was surprised when he sang it & he did a great job covering the song.
Trigger
May 23, 2020 @ 10:10 pm
No, please correct me. The reason I said “first documented” time was because that was the first time I could find a record of him performing it, like a video or an archived set list.
BO76
May 24, 2020 @ 6:24 am
Here is a link to the setlist from that night: https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/george-strait/2014/kfc-yum-center-louisville-ky-6bc28e96.html.
Vince Gill opened the show. Best concert I ever saw!
Hey Arnold
May 23, 2020 @ 8:33 pm
Love George but he does quite a few cover songs these days…
Saw him last year at Gillette. Great show but he sang like 5 covers. One of Petty and a few of Merle & others. George also sang random songs like “Arkansas Dave” and “Stars on the Water” which he never released as singles. He has too many hits to sing other artists’ songs
CaptainBellmeyer
May 25, 2020 @ 6:47 am
While you may not like it, I would much rather an artist do a set list like that than do what some of these bands do and just play the Big Hits and that be the end of it. One of the reasons I gave up on The Who was for the past decade their setlists have been nothing but the Big Pete Townshend written Hits from Tommy, Who’s Next and Quadrophenia with a few Big singles sprinkled in. The only non single they regularly play is Cry If You Want, but even then it’s almost always played as a medley with My Generation. I’d much rather they do what George does with his set lists.
Black Boots
May 24, 2020 @ 11:55 am
Tom Petty is the truth.
Conrad Fisher
May 24, 2020 @ 5:48 pm
Man, I love this. What a cool song for him to cover.
Amy
May 29, 2020 @ 10:08 am
I think it is great George is rediscovering himself through his music. Many artists, as they get older stay in a funk of tried and true hits. Great that George is still seeing what that gold voicebox can do.
Woogeroo
May 31, 2020 @ 12:47 am
Great album, Wildflowers… saw the heartbreakers twice on that tour… good times.
Jean-Ann Webster
May 28, 2023 @ 11:53 am
I’m a lifelong Tom Petty fan. My Mom was the George Strait fan. She never got to see him live. Just yesterday, I saw a live George Strait concert and at 71, he was still everything all the hype has been about since the early ’80s. But when he and his band wandered off into You Wreck Me in the encore I was thrilled, gobsmacked, and awe inspired! His lead guitarist, Rick McRae, was awesome too. The whole band was so into it and it was a tribute, but they made it their own. Definitely a top 10, live music moment for me.