With a new solo album out, former Heartbreaker Benmont Tench plays City Winery Thursday
Petty died less than three months after that
'Reality changed,' says Tench, 71, reflecting on
'Three months later, my daughter was born. Thank God for Catherine. One teacher goes, another appears,' Tench tells me in a phone interview from his LA home where he lives with his wife, Alice Carbone Tench, and their daughter.
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While Tench had songs in his pocket in '17, between death, life, and battling cancer, 'a few things got in the way' of releasing his sophomore
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More than a decade after his 2014 solo debut, rock's most in-demand session keyboardist — described as a 'genius' by Heartbreaker Mike Campbell in his recent
arrived
as a singer-songwriter with
Now on a solo tour in support of the album, the '71 Phillips Exeter alum returns to Boston to play
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In conversation, the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer is warm and down-to-earth. We talked Exeter days, Boston nights, Petty, the power of human connection, the Heartbreaker renaissance, and more.
Q.
The Heartbreakers have always had a special connection with Boston.
A.
The two cities in America that first responded to us were Boston and San Francisco. We've always been thankful to Massachusetts fans in general, but Boston fans in particular are among the best fans we ever had. Loyal and
loud.
Q.
That's us. So how are you feeling? You said you were first diagnosed with tongue cancer around 2010.
A.
Between 2011 and 2019, I had five surgeries. In 2023 I had my jaw [partially] replaced. So we decided to hold the record until I recovered enough to play gigs and talk to people. But I love how it came out.
Q.
What inspired these songs?
A.
They're usually about something on my mind, but often I find, as I play them, they might be about something else. When it comes [out], it's like, 'Oh, that's a biblical metaphor. That's interesting.' Or 'That's a riff on a John Prine rhythm.'
Tench's new album, his second as a solo artist, is "The Melancholy Season."
Summer Moon
Q.
You grew up in Gainesville, Fla., playing classical piano from age 7, and loving rock 'n' roll. Your time in Exeter had a profound effect on you.
A.
What happened at Exeter, there was an explosion of Chicago blues getting its due with white kids. Now I came from the South. North Florida, until I was 10, was Jim Crow. So I come up to New England and [hear music] that
inspired
the Beatles and Stones. The second I heard an
this
?' So I got a
huge
musical education, not formal, but cultural, up there.
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Q.
A.
I raved about that concert when I met him, because it was very fresh in my mind, so that stuck with him, I know.
One of my closest friends at Exeter got me into the MC5. I went because MC5 was opening, Led Zeppelin was headlining. Johnny Winter was in the middle. It was glorious.
Q.
After
A.
My friend from Exeter was an assistant engineer at a studio. He called me: 'Look, the studio is giving me free time and tape so I can work on my skills as a recording engineer. Get over here.' He had to bug me a few times because I'm lazy and my self-esteem was low.
I'd called Tom to come down and just listen. I got a call two days later from Tom's first wife, Jane: 'Tommy wants a band. And he wants the band you and Stan have.' I went, 'I'm in.' Tom wants to get back together? Hell yeah.
Q.
I grew up going to epic concerts at the old Great Woods, where the whole crowd and band sang together, every song, every word. You must've had some magical moments.
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A.
Too many to name. The first times we played anywhere where we felt like people
got
it. When we played Paul's Mall in Boston [opening for Al Kooper] there were more people on stage than in the audience. But playing to however many or few people, if you feel like 'I'm trying to do something here, and they
get
it' — it's so rewarding.
It's a thrill to headline some festival — but it's also a thrill to play the smallest gig in the world and feel people connect with you. That's the thing for me: connection. You want to
connect.
Because this world is such a mess, and everybody is so off their own head. There are many functions of art, but one function is for finding common ground. That's why any attempt to censor or control the arts — you can't. It's food for the soul. It's crucial.
Q.
Are you still close with
A.
Yeah, I talked to him about two weeks ago. I love him.
Q.
I'm a huge Dylan fan. I have to ask about the Heartbreakers
A.
Q.
Mike is touring with
,
Stan has a new band,
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A.
It kind of is. None of us ever stopped making music, but it's all coming out in the
BENMONT TENCH
At City Winery Boston, June 26, 7:30 p.m.
Lauren Daley can be reached at
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