True Confessions Revisited to rock The Memo one last time

Jeff Jenkins as Bob Dylan and Tom Petty

By Jed Lanyon

After touring Australia-wide, Jeff Jenkins will be bringing True Confessions Revisited back to where it all began in Healesville on Saturday 7 September.

The Healesville resident invites locals to come celebrate the last True Confessions Revisited show where he plays Bob Dylan and Tom Petty.

“It’s going to be huge. We’re going full circle… Our first big show was here at the Memo, we were received really well and people loved it.”

The show is based on the legendary 1986 True Confessions show at Kooyong of Bob Dylan featuring Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and a surprise special guest in Stevie Nicks.

“What you’re going to get is the music of three of the best artists the world has ever seen, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and Stevie Nicks.

“The story goes that Bob had this Australia tour booked, but he hadn’t organised a backing band.

“The promoter rings Tom Petty and Tom says ‘There’s only one person that we would open for and to be the support band… and that’s Bob Dylan’.

“And at this point, Tom Petty was going out with Stevie Nicks. So she comes along just to hang out but of course she ends up on stage.”

Mr Jenkins recalls how he came to play both music icons in the one show, following the success of his previous show The Bob Dylan Story.

“It was time to start thinking about what’s next…We started auditioning some people to be Tom Petty and a lot of people couldn’t sing that high or they had other commitments.

“And we were rehearsing the Tom Petty songs and I was singing them… And I kind of just went ‘you know what? I could do this. I can be Tom in the first half and Bob in the second half.

“I know it’s a bit crazy and all that, but I’m egotistical enough to try and think that I can get away with that.

Mr Jenkins said he is trying to get his old band Dukes of Despair back together for the first time in five years to create original music and appear at the Healesville Music Festival.

“I haven’t written for a while, I’ve been so busy being other people that my personal voice kind of got lost.

For more information about the True Confessions Revisited tour, visit: https://dylanesque.com.au/about-dylanesque/

To book tickets to the Healesville show, visit: http://ach.yarraranges.vic.gov.au