Nearly a year after Gainesville lost a music icon, he will live on among patrons at Swamp Head Brewery.
The brewery is releasing a new beer Oct. 16 called “Among the Wildflowers,” after Gainesville native Tom Petty’s 1994 hit “Wildflowers.” The beer is an American Kölsch, which is light and crisp, said Brandon Nappy, the 37-year-old marketing director of Swamp Head.
The company chose the hit because everyone enjoys the beauty of wildflowers, just like Petty’s music, Nappy said.
“It was a beer that really brings people of all walks of life together, like his music or a field of wildflowers,” Nappy said.
Part of the reason the brewery wanted to create the beer was because of the exclusive Friday pre-release of “An American Treasure.” It is a four-disk album, each dedicated to a decade of Petty’s career, comprised of 60 tracks, many of which were never released.
Thirty locations across the U.S., including Swamp Head, played the album simultaneously. The brewery is only one of the two Florida locations that participated in the pre-release.
Donna Quinn, a member of Tom Petty Nation, a worldwide Petty fan club, kept the record from Reprise Records under lock and key until the songs went live at 6 p.m. Tuesday. Quinn delivered the songs and hosted the event.
“It was wonderful,” Quinn said after the event. “There was a lot of emotion and love and the whole crowd, people of all ages, enjoyed it. It was amazing.”
The new album was auctioned off at the end of the party, Quinn said.
As a lifelong Petty fan, Nappy is excited and honored to be chosen as one of the few locations to participate in the pre-release event. He thinks that it was chosen because Swamp Head is emblematic of Gainesville, like Petty.
“Tom Petty is a legend internationally, but in Gainesville he’s on a whole other level,” Nappy said.
The can for the new Tom Petty-inspired beer.
