10 Perfect 90s Albums That Changed Rock And Roll Music

Once the age of alternative really kicked into high gear, most songwriters on the same level as Tom Petty had started to fall by the wayside. Some of the heavy hitters of the classic rock community were already going through some rough patches in their career, and the only grunge-approved icon seemed to be Neil Young, quickly being adopted as their godfather once Pearl Jam talked about how much they liked him. All while his friends may have been looking for the hip new sound, Tom made his way to the top of the charts just by being authentically Tom Petty.

Though Wildflowers is billed as a Petty solo album, most of it was done with the Heartbreakers in mind, bringing in most of the band and letting go of drummer Stan Lynch in the process. As opposed to the straight up rock and roll that you would have gotten in the era of Damn the Torpedoes, there's a much more folksy feel to what happens on this record, as Tom combs through events that would eventually lead to his divorce a few years later such as the title track and To Find a Friend.

For all of the major production values that were going up back in the '90s, there's a certain organic quality about Wildflowers that gives it a world of its own, even scaring Petty when he started to question why the songs sounded so good going into record them. In an age when all of the fashions revolved around the slacker generation, Tom was one of the few who knew to follow his muse and never forget the importance of a good song.