Although the Wallflowers are headlining most of their spring shows, they agreed to switch gears and take on the role as the opening act--for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (in May 2001) and for John Mellencamp (in August and September 2001). While seeing the Wallflowers perform as openers is a bit of a letdown (after all, they only perform for 45 minutes--as opposed to 90 minutes when they're headliners), the pairing of the Wallflowers with Petty and Mellencamp seems like a good idea. Why? Since sales of "Breach" continue to slag, the Wallflowers, regrettably, aren't filling arenas as they used to. So being on the bill with more established artists like Petty and Mellencamp not only gives them extra exposure in the media but also enables the band to play in front of mostly packed houses.
As an added bonus, Petty is a vocal supporter of the Wallflowers--he recently referred to them as "the best rock and roll band out there." He also told the All Music Guide a few years ago: "I'm really proud of [Jakob] because I think he's really good and I'm glad that he got to do this without Bob's legend resting on his back. He did it pretty cool. He got through that, and his dad doesn't seem to be an issue, and people tend to leave him alone. I got that record ["Bringing Down the Horse"] really early on before it came out, and I thought it was damn good. I played it over and over and over again. I love that song `Invisible City' that they never put out as a single. But I was going to do that song. I'm really proud that things went so well for him" (the full interview is available at "http://www.the-wallflowers.net/article_p...").
The Wallflowers' touring relationship with the Heartbreakers spans several years. On January 10th and 11th, 1997, the Wallflowers opened for the Heartbreakers at the Fillmore in San Francisco. Web reports at that time mentioned that the Heartbreaker's guitarist Mike Campbell joined the Wallflowers onstage to reprise his powerful slide guitar part on "Sixth Avenue Heartache."
For Jakob, the touring relationship with Petty goes back even further. As Petty mentioned to the All Music Guide: "I remember Jakob sitting behind the amps when we were working for his dad back in 1986. He was just a little boy then. You don't think about what's going into their impressionable minds. We had two years playing with Bob. We pretty much circled the globe. I remember Jakob being around." Actually, Jakob was 16 years old during that tour, and he used to watch from the side of the stage as Petty performed.
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