Chris Stapleton Fronting The Heartbreakers For The First Time Since Tom Petty Died Was Absolute Perfection

Rolling Stone- The Heartbreakers have never formally reunited in full since Tom Petty’s death in 2017. That changed Wednesday night in Nashville during the Americana Honors & Awards show when the band — Mike Campbell, Benmont Tench, Stan Lynch, and Ron Blair — backed up Chris Stapleton for a performance of classic Petty songs.

First, Stapleton tackled both “Breakdown” and “American Girl” with Stan Lynch on drums, the Heartbreakers original drummer, behind the kit. By the time the performance had ended, the entire Ryman Auditorium was on their feet for the emotional reunion. 

After that, Lynch exited and Stapleton sang a rousing rendition of “You Wreck Me” with

Campbell alongside Heartbreakers drummer Steve Ferrone and guitarist Scott Thurston to a rousing ovation.

“It’s really emotional and sweet to be here,” Campbell said during his acceptance speech. “Tom, I’m gonna miss rocking around with you.”

I mean, come on.

Chris Stapleton fronting The Heartbreakers for “Breakdown,” “American Girl,” and “You Wreck Me” at the Ryman?

That is just an absolute fucking home run.

The Heartbreakers have never formally reunited in full since Tom Petty died in 2017, and Wednesday night in Nashville they finally did it- with Chris Stapleton standing at center stage.

And honestly, if you’re going to do something like this, I’m not sure there’s a better guy on Earth for the job.

Nobody is replacing Tom Petty, but that’s not even the point. Mike Campbell has said that for years- you don’t replace a guy like Petty. You don’t try to cosplay him, you don’t grab some singer and pretend everything is back to normal.

But Stapleton?

That works.

He has the voice, obviously. He has the respect from everybody in music, and the credibility. And most importantly, he has the reverence for Petty and the songs.

Stapleton has called Petty one of his biggest influences. He opened for him. He’s written with Mike Campbell before. And he’s covered Petty plenty of times before. 

This wasn’t some random awards-show pairing cooked up by a producer in a conference room.

It actually meant something.

There are certain artists whose catalogs should probably just be left alone because nobody can touch them. Petty is one of them. But Stapleton is one of the very few guys alive who can walk into that situation and somehow make it feel respectful instead of sacrilegious.

He never tries to be bigger than the song.

That’s what makes him so fucking good.

The guy could sing the fucking phone book and make it sound important, but there’s something different when he gets ahold of songs like these. He understands the assignment. Big voice, zero bullshit.

Check out the full video here-