Cover band keeping Tom Petty tunes alive
Petty Theft, a group of Tom Petty devotees from Marin, has been kicking around the Bay Area cover band circuit since 2003. But now that their musical guru has passed on, they seem to have a more crucial mission in keeping Petty’s radio staples like “American Girl,” “I Won’t Back Down” and “Free Fallin’ ” alive on the stage.
“We strike a balance between playing the songs the way people want to hear them and putting enough of ourselves into (the music) to have a real stake in it,” says Monroe Grisman, guitarist and backing vocalist. “We go off book in the jams and solos, but that’s nothing the real Heartbreakers wouldn’t do.”
Petty Theft performs at Club Fox in Redwood City on Friday, Oct. 13.