Tom Petty, Mudcrutch Enlist A-Listers For Video

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We’ve been reporting on the terrific second album from Tom Petty’s original band, Mudcrutch, since it was first announced in March. (It was released on May 20 to coincide with the band’s brief tour of mostly smaller venues.)

The band have just released a video for “I Forgive It All” directed by Sean Penn and Samuel Bayer and starring Anthony Hopkins. The song is written and sung by Petty.

The black-and-white clip begins with depression-era film footage with a child’s voice saying “I’m still hungry, mom.” The video then shifts to present day as Hopkins is seen driving a vintage car in Los Angeles, initially through well-to-do neighborhoods and then through some of the area’s poorer sections. Mudcrutch enlisted some pretty topnotch talent for the clip: both Penn and Hopkins are Academy Award winners.

And if Bayer’s name doesn’t sound familiar, it will now: as a 26-year-old, he directed Nirvana‘s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” Others on his resume include Green Day’s “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” Lenny Kravitz’s “Dig In” and clips for David Bowie, John Mellencamp and Sheryl Crow, among many others.

Mudcrutch is Mike Campbell (guitar/vocals), Tom Leadon (guitar/vocals), Randall Marsh (drums/vocals), Petty (bass/vocals) and Benmont Tench (keyboards/vocals).

The album’s first release was “Trailer.” If it sounds familiar to you, it’s because it was originally recorded during the sessions for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ 1985 Southern Accents album and included on the excellent “Playback” box set.