‘Conversations With Tom Petty’ Book Gets Expanded Edition

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Conversations With Tom Petty, the first authorized book to focus solely on the life and work of the artist responsible for some of the most memorable rock anthems of our generation, has received an expanded second volume. The new edition of the book from author Paul Zollo, first published in 2005, arrived August 6, 2024, via Omnibus Press. It’s available in the U.S. here and in the U.K. here.

From the publisher’s announcement: Zollo, who first became famous among songwriters and lovers of songwriters for writing what is considered “the songwriter’s bible,” Songwriters On Songwriting (now used as textbook in colleges around the world, including USC, UCLA and Berklee School of Music), included an interview with Petty. That interview, the author’s first with his notable subject, was their first, and ultimately led to the initial Conversations With Tom Petty book.

Zollo conducted a series of in-depth discussions with Petty about his career, with keen focus on the greatness of his songwriting. It was Zollo’s interview with Bob Dylan that led him to choose the author as his collaborator.

The conversations are reprinted here in Petty’s own words. The book includes over 100 rare photos chosen by Petty and his wife Dana, as well as one photo added after Tom’s death, of his final show ever, at the Hollywood Bowl in 2017, taken by Zollo.

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2002. Petty was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2016.

Zollo is also the author of several other books, including an oral history of Hollywood, Hollywood Remembered, and a still unpublished novel, Sunset & Cahuenga. He ghost-wrote Dave Stewart’s auto-biography, Sweet Dreams Are Made of This, A Life in Music, and is presently working on Conversations with Paul Simon, which consists of Simon-Zollo conversations dating back to 1992.