It’s a little more than a decade since Benmont Tench released his debut solo LP, You Should Be So Lucky, but for the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers keyboardist, it feels like a lifetime ago. There’s been a lot of joy in the intervening years, most notably his 2015 marriage to Alice Carbone Tench, and the birth of their daughter, Katherine. But he also endured the sudden death of Petty just seven days after the conclusion of their 2017 tour, and a recent battle with oral cancer.
Along the way, Tench never stopped writing songs. And the world finally gets to hear them on his new solo album, The Melancholy Season. It’s a darker album than You Should Be So Lucky, and Tench delivers the songs in a deeper voice with sparse accompaniment. But there’s also joyful tunes that reflect the happiness he’s found with his wife and daughter.
Shortly after he wrapped up a run of solo shows at the Café Carlyle in New York City, he hopped on a Zoom with Rolling Stone to discuss the creation of the album, playing gigs on his own after decades in the Heartbreakers, his brief return to Stevie Nicks’ touring band, teaming up with Mike Campbell for a Band tribute tour last year, and why he’s given little thought to a memoir, Heartbreakers biopic, or 50th anniversary tribute concert.
How was the Carlyle run?
I think it was really good. I had not sung in public since October of 2023, and so I was a bit nervous, but it came off really well.
Tell me the lessons you learned from the last record that you took into this one.
Glyn Johns, who produced my first album, was really encouraging. He said, “Just work on getting your voice stronger.” And while my voice was stronger than it would have been, had he not said that, I realized that I needed to work on my voice so that I could get the songs across better.
And so in the intervening time, I played some shows for that record. And also I played at [Los Angeles club] Largo, sitting in with people mostly. That way I could explore different ways to sing.
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What was it like to be the final decider on the first record after years of playing other people’s records?
It took a moment, but that record and this one was made by close friends of mine. That makes the adjustment to being the one whose record it is easy.
I’d never really heard you sing prior to the last record besides background vocals at Heartbreakers shows.
In my whole career, I never sang lead in front of people until I started going to Largo. The people there were really encouraging. I would sit in and play a few songs with Jon Brion or Sean and Sara Watkins.
Over the period of time, they said to me, “You got any songs?” And I sang them and slowly shed a lot of my stage fright. When I made the You Should Be So Lucky record, I had been singing for a while. But I’m a soft-spoken person and I think the soft-spokenness works really well on a lot of You Should Be So Lucky. I found a deeper voice on this record because the gravity of the songs is greater.
Right. Your voice is more expressive when it’s deeper.
I found when I was writing them or when I just just played them at Largo or around the house, that if I sang them in higher keys, they didn’t seem to convey the emotion of the mood of the piece as well. And I had been listening to Leonard Cohen, and I had been paying a lot of attention to the way the Bob Dylan has been singing as he gets older. I also went to see Nick Cave play, and I saw how well that deeper voice conveyed those emotions. All of this made me more confident in my decision to sing a bit low.
When did you realize you were ready to make a record?
I knew I had to write a lot of songs, and I don’t sit down to do that. But as soon as You Should Be So Lucky was done, songs started to show up. The lyrics of the song “Wobbles” on The Melancholy Season showed up on the drive home from recording the instrumental version of the song “You Should Be So Lucky.” And Glyn was like, “I’m so glad that you wrote lyrics, but no, this is an instrumental.”
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I think while I was in New York to promote You Should Be So Lucky, I wrote “The Drivin’ Man” and “Rattle.” “The Melancholy Season” came later. But I wrote all these songs a few years ago. And we made the record, but then Covid hit. Then I had some health issues that delayed me even more. But the songs on You Should Be So Lucky were written over the course of my life. On this one, nearly all the songs were written between 2014 and 2018.
How did Jonathan Wilson get involved as the producer?
At first I thought I was going to make another record with Glyn, because it was such a joyous experience. But we couldn’t work it out logistically between Covid and travels from England. I also had a brand new child. And so I thought about who would be a good producer, and I thought about things that were essential to me on the record: Cut as much live on the floor as possible, record to tape, keep it on tape. I prefer the sound and the limitations of tape. That’s what drew me to Jonathan.
The album kicks off with “The Melancholy Season,” which really sets the tone for the record.
I thought so too. For a while, I was going to try to start with something faster, but why? It does create a mood, but I also really believe in the song. I started it by writing kind of free-verse one day. And I had a melody that I really, really liked and I figured it out. I called my wife in and said, “Hey, listen to this.” And she went, “It’s great, but the lyric is so good. They have such a mood. I think you want to rewrite the music to convey the mood of the lyric better.” I was a little resentful at first, but she was right.
“If She Knew” is a great romantic ballad.
Thanks. I wrote that on a plane because planes are great for writing. You’ve got nothing else to do and nobody’s going to bother you.
“Dallas” is very moving. Can you tell me about that one?
It’s not about the city of Dallas, though it was written during an interminable flight delay at the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport. The first line was maybe related to the city of Dallas. It’s a metaphor.
Tell me about putting your live show together. It mixes in originals with covers like Bob Dylan’s “I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine” and the Velvet Underground’s “Rock and Roll.”
I do the covers for two reasons. One is that it breaks up the tone of just having one writer’s voice. It’s also because the new record doesn’t have a lot of snappy numbers on it. The mood isn’t, “Hey, everybody, let’s dance.” And a song like Lou Reed’s “Rock and Roll” is saying exactly what rock and roll does. It’s a great, fast song. And sometimes I play “Corrina, Corrina” based on Bob Dylan’s version of it since I like to vary the tempos. They’re also just writers I love. When I was in New York, I did “How Deep Is the Ocean?”
You played shows at arenas and stadiums for decades. Is it more intimidating to play a room like the Carlyle where you can see the face of every person?
It’s intimidating because it’s the Carlyle, and that’s a storied venue, and it’s New York City. It was also the first time I sang in public in a year and a half or so. That’s where the intimidation comes from. But a small room like that is where I learned to play live. Not in terms of touring small clubs like Mudcrutch and the Heartbreakers did, but at Largo. The greatest number of people that can fit in Largo is 108, if you sell it out. And sometimes there are 50 people there.
I am very comfortable playing to a small number of people. The nature of my songs comes across well in a venue that isn’t giant. I haven’t tried them in a giant venue. If someone wants to invite me to try, sure. But in making this record, I wanted the words to be heard because I think the words have something to say. And that’s one of the reasons to play solo piano.
You were on the road with Stevie Nicks a couple of years ago. What was it like being back in her touring band after all these years?
I love Stevie so much. And I love so many people in that band I’ve known for a long time, like her longtime background singer, Sharon Celani. But I last toured with her in 1983, so it was wonderful to be playing with people I love, especially if they’re great musicians, which every one of these folks is. And the quality of songs that Stevie has written and the way she’s singing them is just remarkable.
Why did you stop doing it?
A couple of reasons. One, I was substituting for her piano player, who was booked. I wasn’t supposed to rejoin the group. And the tour was going great and it was staying out a bit longer. I made a conscious decisions several years ago that I don’t want to spend very much time away from my child.
How was the Band tribute tour you did with Mike Campbell last fall?
Well, great songs. And it was great to be on stage with Mike again after seven years. I played a couple of things on a couple of records of his. He and I played together on a benefit here and there, one or two songs. But to do a whole tour, to be on the bus with Mike, was joyous.
I was at Farm Aid when you, Mike, and the Dirty Knobs came out with Bob Dylan.
Same deal. And I’m with Mike playing Bob Dylan songs. It was just three songs.
There was no announcement. You guys were just suddenly there.
Yeah. And for us too, we were suddenly just there. It wasn’t like we spent months or even weeks getting ready. When I’m playing stuff from this record, one thing I like doing is that afternoon I practice on the keyboard and go, “Hey, wait a minute. What if I do it this way?” If a great deal of rehearsal is involved, it’s not as much fun. I prefer to work without a net.
Did you read Mike Campbell’s book?
I haven’t read it yet, but I have read excerpts. I just haven’t had time. I’ve been trying to make myself ready to sing these songs.
Do you ever think about writing your own memoir?
No.
Why?
I don’t think my memory’s that good.
Did you see the Bob Dylan biopic?
I haven’t yet. I hear wonderful things, and that people have seen it two or three times. But I haven’t seen it.
Are you able to imagine a Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers biopic?
Hey, who knows? Anything that happen. But it did not cross my mind at all. They’d better get somebody dashing to play me. That’s all I can say.
At the very end of your show, you play “American Girl.” That’s obviously a song you’ve played live many, many times over the years. But how does it feel to revisit it nearly 50 years later and sing it yourself?
It feels right because it’s the last song we played with Tom. It was the encore that night [at the Hollywood Bowl], and it had been the last song with the Heartbreakers for a long time. It’s a wonderful song, and as any great song does, it’s open to lot of different interpretations. I thought it was fitting to close with.
Next year is the 50th anniversary of the Heartbreakers. Is there any scenario where the band members do a tribute show with guest singers? Is that something you want to do?
I guess anything could happen. I’m focused right now on this. But who knows?
