Don’t Back Down presents a tribute to Tom Petty’s, “Insider”

Helllooooo Petty fans. We hope everyone is staying healthy and relatively sane today. Like you, we can’t wait until it’s time to get together and sing out loud again (more on that later) but first we wanted to share a little something special with you.

As we mentioned earlier this year, Don’t Back Down was working on an exciting collaboration with the super-talented vocalist and player, Lo Marie, from Madison, WI. (Lo was introduced to the band by DBD’s guitar player, Chris Huntington. Chris and Lo are bandmates in another amazing tribute band, The Furious Bongos Frank Zappa tribute. Check’m out.)

Our ultimate goal with this collaboration was to have DBD cut some tracks with Mark O’Dell and Lo doing some Petty / Stevie Nicks duets. Then we planned on producing some videos with the whole band in some sexy smoke-filled set (80’s style), basically just having a blast making some great music with new friends… but then… BOOM: PANDEMIC & SHUTDOWN… Our plans for this and pretty much everything else were put on hold. BUT… we still wanted to put something out.

So… with a decent demo take of a Petty / Nicks duet from 1981’s Hard Promises album titled, INSIDER — which seemed slightly appropriate for the current times — Mark and Lo produced a quick video in their respective home studios and after some tricky split-screens editing, voila! (Aside from Mark dressing down in a crappy T-shirt, we think it came out pretty good.)

Hard times or not, DBD is stoked to have had the opportunity to get to know Lo Marie and we look forward to more great music in the future.

AND… even though things seem a bit down and out now, as of today anyway Don’t Back Down’s summer 2020 schedule is still on. So we’ll keep you posted and hopefully we won’t have to be INSIDERS for much longer!

Originally written and recorded by: Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
Originally released on: Hard Promises, 1981
Tribute performed, recorded and produced by: Mark O’Dell, Lo Marie & Don’t Back Down, 2020
Footage by: Mark O’Dell and Lo Marie

Don’t Back Down is: Mark O’Dell: Vocals, Guitars, Harmonica Chris Huntington: Guitars John Nichols: Bass Michael Ward: Keys Tom Sabia: Drums