Benmont Tench of The Heartbreakers to Continue on with Solo Show

While mourning the loss of bandmate Tom Petty’s death, The Heartbreakers’ keyboardist Benmont Tench has announced that he’s still set to play his upcoming solo show at Largo in Los Angeles.

In a recent Instagram post, Tench thanked fans for the love and support he’s received recently. He then explained that after putting much thought into whether he should play the Largo show, he eventually decided that you just don’t stop playing music.

Hey y’all. First off, I want to thank everybody for the beautiful messages of love and support. Everybody has been so kind. It means a lot. I guess we can & should all just lean on each other through this. Weeks ago, before the Hollywood Bowl shows, I had planned a solo show of my own for October 28th at Largo. After what’s happened, I thought hard about whether to go ahead with it, was it right, is it too soon, am I even in a frame of mind to do it. Well, I’m going ahead. You don’t stop playing music on any account, for any reason, and especially when faced with such enormous loss. You play more, louder, quieter, faster, slower, sad, joyous, angry, celebratory, lovingly. So I’m gonna get my Steinway down to Largo on October 28th and play a bunch of my songs, just me & that piano. This is not going to be any kind of a tribute to Tom — that tribute is taking place in my heart, for now; it’s too private, it’s between me & Tom & the great whatever-there-is. But pretty much anything I’ve played since I was 17 or 18 years old has some kinda Tom to it, so maybe it’s all a kind of tribute, in a way. Hope to see you there, and wherever you are... well, you know the rest. With love & thanks, Benmont link to ticket info in bio. poster artwork: @sherlyholmes

A post shared by Benmont Tench III (@benmonttench) on Oct 13, 2017 at 1:16pm PDT

While he doesn’t plan on making this show an official tribute to Petty, he does admit that just about everything he’s played since he was a teen has a tinge of Petty’s influence.

The show goes on Saturday, October 28 at Largo in Los Angeles.

Let the music play, Benmont.