Check the Tom Petty tag on Uproxx and you’ll see that in the days since the legendary rocker’s passing, his songs have been covered a ton by a lot of your popular favorites. That may have something to do with what Taylor Swift called the “complex simplicity” of his songwriting: On the surface, the songs are simple and accessible, but there’s a depth to them that allows anybody covering them to really explore and put their own spin on it.
The latest group to give this a go is The War On Drugs, whose unmistakably classic rock-inspired sounds lends itself perfectly to their cover of Petty’s “Time To Move On” — from his 1994 album Wildflowers — which they performed last night during their tour stop at The Greek in Los Angeles.
They actually opened their set with the Petty tribute before playing their own songs, a sign that Adam Granduciel have a lot of admiration and respect for Petty and his work. Also, according to one Instagram user, opener Phoebe Bridgers performed a cover of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ “It’ll All Work Out,” from their 1987 record Let Me Up (I’ve Had Enough).
Watch The War On Drugs cover “Time To Move On” above, and revisit our conversation with Granduciel here, and check out our review of the first show of their current tour here.
