Close your eyes and you won’t know the difference. Open them and you
still might be fooled. The Insiders present the premier Tom Petty and the
Heartbreakers experience. With 6 veteran musicians and decades of combined
stage and touring experience, The Insiders are genuinely running down the
dream.
It all starts with frontman Max Lockwood. “I grew up listening to Tom
Petty. My mom would play the Greatest Hits record while she worked out. I’d sit
at the top of the stairs and listen to those songs—it was my most requested CD
as a young kid.” In high school, Lockwood’s band Big Dudee Roo started covering
Petty songs at their frequent shows in West Michigan. “Tom Petty was part
of the great American landscape to me—a legend by the time I was musically
conscious. We got a great crowd reaction with Petty tunes, and people
frequently commented that I sounded a lot like him.”
Nothing has changed with time. After the passing of Tom Petty in October
of 2017, Lockwood organized the band by pulling together some of his favorite
musicians for a benefit concert. After a sold-out show that raised thousands
for a local domestic violence shelter, The Insiders decided they wouldn’t back
down. “We try to honor what Mr. Petty and the Heartbreakers have done for rock
and roll each night. We’re fans of the music first and foremost. These songs
are woven into the fabric of the American identity.” They’ve found no shortage
of demand, selling out shows everywhere they go. Local Spins’ John Sinkevics
had this to say: “The Insiders set the bar at a new level for Tom Petty
tributes.”