Listen To Tom Petty’s Just-Released Original Demo For “You Don’t Know How It Feels”

The long-rumored expanded edition of Tom Petty’s classic 1994 release Wildflowers will finally see a release date, as the Petty family unveiled the original demo version of the album’s single “You Don’t Know How It Feels” today.

The previously unheard 8-track demo, available on Spotify, YouTube and Apple Music, is a much more intimate recording. Petty’s original goal with the album was to have a conversation with the listener, and this demo, recorded in his home studio, reveals how focused he was on achieving that goal from the start of the project. The essence of the song is all there, including his direct, somber vocal tone, crisp acoustic guitars, hummable harmonica line and understated, effective electric guitar parts. Most noticeable for its absence are Benmont Tench’s keyboard part and Steve Ferrone’s rock solid drum groove, though the classic turn the beat around ending on the chorus is present in this demo.

Petty sings slightly different lyrics in the chorus and a second verse that was discarded, including a line that wound up in another Wildflowers track, “Crawling Back To You.”

“I’m so tired of being tired, sure as night will follow day/Most things that I worry ‘bout never happen anyway.”

An animated video created and directed by Ben “Blaze” Brooks and Aaron Hymes premiered today on TomPetty.com and YouTube. The video features a wolf heading down the road and cue cards interspersed with the song’s lyrics, ending with a finger pointing to the right and the tease ‘come find all the rest.’

“The family and the band are in a joyful process of discovering the Wildflowers sessions and demos and wanted to share a tiny bit of that with the fans today,” Adria Petty said on behalf of the Petty Family. The 8 track demo, the statement reads, “will be part of a forthcoming Wildflowers project on Warner Records.”

An official release date for the expanded edition has not been announced.