Listen To Tom Petty’s Emotional ‘Confusion Wheel’ From The Upcoming ‘Wildflowers & All The Rest’ Box Set

Talk about whetting your appetite for unreleased Tom Petty music! “Confusion Wheel,” released today in advance of the upcoming box set Wildflowers & All The Rest, finds an emotional Petty at a crossroads in his life.

We’ve all faced the uncertainty of where life is heading, and Tom Petty feels our pain, singing a gut-punching chorus back to us in a memorable, forlorn melody set against a modal-sounding dropped tuning. “Confusion Wheel” is one of the late singer’s most confessional lyrics in an era of his most confessional songs, spurred on by an impending divorce. It’s a deep cut that hardcore Petty fans will return to repeatedly for comfort in times of emotional upheaval.

So much confusion has entered my life
So much confusion has torn me apart
So much confusion has made me afraid
And I don’t know how to love
And I don’t know who to trust
And I don’t know why that is

There’s even a hint of some Johnny Cash in the electric guitar work, with the understated, reverb-laced solo echoing the simple but effective Luther Perkins ‘50s ‘boom-chick’ sound heard on late ‘50s Cash classics. Petty and his band would go on to work with the legendary country artist soon after the Wildlflowers sessions on the 1996 album Unchained.

Wildflowers & All The Rest gathers nearly all the tracks Petty and the band recorded for the Wildflowers record It is available in multiple configurations and will be released on October 16. Pre-orders can be made here.