Benmont Tench interviewed on Sound Opinions 

He could talk for hours and I could listen to him. Not only is he a true, legendary master musician but an experienced, captivating historian/storyteller.

Benmont has a really radio friendly voice.

From having so many teachers and even band mates always saying "play it like this" it feels good to hear someone say "it's how YOU play it"

He's a legend.

Humble, funny, musical, intelligent, generous to interviewers and musical colleagues. What more can you ask of an artist.

Give this legend some more coffee for god's sake!

I've been around the World......... I'm not sure I've ever heard a better, more entertaining interview.

what I love about Benmont Tench, besides his genius on any kind of keyboard, was something that resonated with me that Tom Petty said about him: there is nothing ambiguous or complicated about Ben. When he says something, he means it. Someone who deserves enormous respect.

Wow, the best interview I've heard in a long time.. It makes sense why he's so tasteful and talented. He has the best influences, and so thoughtful and intelligently expressed... Honest about the 60's renaissance...... Great, knowledgeable interviewers as well, thank you for posting this !

An interview that makes you feel like you are there in the room , with a cup of coffee and your feet up with friends - now THAT'S an interview ! Interviewers that are actually easy to listen to - what a rareity. Kudos guys. Benmont , i just love your voice . Wonderful storyteller , thank you so much. Please narrate your own audio book ! And many loving condolences to Toms family and Heartbreaker brothers . Namaste x

"Benmont Tench" The best name in rock and roll!

legendary pianist.

The Heartbreakers' story is one that I never get sick of hearing, like The Beatles or Nirvana, and I think Benmont tells it best.

Oh my god. This is great stuff. Benmont Tench and Stan Lynch are the founders of the Heartbreaker’s, that is killer information.”American Girl”.🎸.Stevie Nicks, live in concert 1982 Belmont Tench, on the synthesizer. I’ve always known this. Wow, all these famous musicians. It must of been like Christmas for him. Don Henley, Bob Dylan. I’ve seen all these people in concert.i agree about Mick and Keith being great song writers. You don’t hear that enough.”cook a Cutis groove” I ❤️ that. I really like Benmont Tench personality. He is really into it. Great conversationalist.”Hurt” that’s big. Nine Inch Nails. “Lost Without You”. This is a beautiful interview. Loved Stan with Tom Petty And The Heartbreaker ‘s, love Steve Ferroni also. Love your music Benmont Tench. Sorry for your great loss. Thanks guys for sharing.🦆🎹SWEET.

Great interview. This interviewer, whoever he is, is fantastic. Knows his business, knows when not to interrupt and when to change directions. Benmont is like the consummate team player as evidenced by his years with the Heartbreakers

Love this song Bentmont

He's been gone a little over a month and I'm still having a hard time believing that he is gone. I listen to anything from him everyday rather it be on you tube or my own cds I have. I hope your resting in Peace Tom Petty. You deserve to be. 💋❤❤

What an absolute delight to listen to Benmont. I would LOVE to read a book by him, if he ever writes one. Loved his album.

I always like his interviews▪️ Their is something I always learn or hear about him that I had never heard!

Just sublime. Always so worthwhile to check out what Benmont has to say. Truly, one of the great ones. Loved every second. Especially “Wobbles.” A million thanks!

Great interview very insightful loved it Benmont truly is a walking talking music encyclopedia so very Cerebral great story teller Bravo No Benmont Tench no Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

What an incredibly insightful and enjoyable conversation

One of those interviews that should be enshrined somehow. Absolutely brilliant, inspired man, yes, cerebral (I'm an academic) with the required classical musical background, but my Dad was the original Zorba and he and my sister didn't need to learn to read music: they had The Gift. It was Zigo, my dad, who subversively gave me a transistor radio and small flashlight to listen to WARFM in the .60s and it remained, permanently. All of it. Listening to this interview is a transcendent experience. Benmont Tench, don't stop!!!! I know Tom's gone but please carry on!

Damn this is fantastic! So many musicians are so good at explaining what they do. And this is so much a good version of that. And of course his music is the kind of thing one wants to hear about.

Wobbles, I like it. I think dude dropped every name there ever was. What a career.

Great interviewer....great interviewee......riveting conversation. Well done.

Great interview, guys. Really interesting to hear so many intriguing details about who influenced Benmont in his career. He's one of the best rock and roll keyboard players ever, in my opinion. He understands that you don't have to be a showboat to help a great band sound great.

Why are all of the Heartbreakers so freakin' good? How can you even collect that much talent, heart, mindfulness and charisma in one band? Tom. Mike. Now Ben. I am loving all of them. Getting this solo album as fast as I can.

Stunning interview. Thanks!

One of my favorite programs on Sirius XM's Tom Petty Radio channel is The Benmont Tench Show. I love the eclectic music, but best of all I love the stories he tells. He has a fantastic voice that induces an ASMR response--it puts me in a relaxed semi-trance just listening to him talk.

What a Class Act you are Benmont. Condolences to Tom’s immediate family, you & the rest of the amazing Heart Breakers and everyone that knew and loved Tom! Thank you Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers!!! The music world is truly and permanently a better place!!! RIP Tom!!!

Just wonderful. A true artist who cares about his craft...and a fabulous storyteller.

"Holy moly!" Thanks for sharing this wonderful interview!

Everything Benmont touches is a thumbs up...its not even up for discussion! 😊

Ok, this is sooooooooo good! Thank you for posting!!

Benmont you rock!

Benmont is such a good person to interview, very self deprecating

Tom said the first time Benmont played with Mudcrutch, BT out played them all without any rehearsal. Also that BT's musical knowledge far and away was beyond theirs.

I love you Mr. Tench. ❤️

I truly enjoyed listening to this interview...the Heartbreakers are a great band, and this guy was a big part of it 😀

What a FANTASTIC interview! Could listen to this stuff all day.

Great interview, brilliant musical personality..

FASCINATING INTERVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!

Great interview! Thank you from a musician's view! Beautiful piece at the end btw!

Loved this ....you're a legend...I love Scare Easy and all of them...Not a bad tune in the bunch...Great to hear the stories!

thank god for Benmont Tench. The highest praise was ~ Benmont always tells me exactly how he feels. My feeling was that that the Heartbreakers was made to last, with the changes that were inevitable: but there was Tom, Mike Campbell, and Benmont Tench and it was sustained genius.

Absolutely love Benmont, his music rocks my world and touches my soul!

The best punk is as close to the heart as Percy Sledge or Louie Armstrong. When the music gets too far from the heart, punk comes along. Big credit to Benmont Tench (the kid) and Stan Lynch for their inspiration forming the Heartbreakers as we know and love them.

General Shepherd takes refuge from the battlefield to chill.

I'm just loving this, what a find!!!

Amazing song to close it out!

Thank you Benmont, I love how you go deep into the story.

Wow!! Last song was incredible!!

This is fantastic -- so interesting.

i love the part about learning the Doors Light My Fire Intro.....as a guitarist Im very tired of people locally copying rarer niche legends live and then small town locals have no clue its totally ripped off and not creativity....DO YOUR THING ! learn and expand and connect it to your soul for that moment and share that moment musically....it takes many years and high skill to do this well. Some are born to do it their way.

Thank you ALL very very much👌❣️

What a beautiful song B

Great stories!

BT is one really smart guy.

sweet guy extra talented

This is my third time watching this entire interview. It is still one of the best and most interesting and engaging interiews ever! But I still want to holler, "Somebody PLEASE get Benmont some coffee or water!!!!" What a lovely, charming and talented man!

Don't want to waste anyones time but that music was so important .. my dad the mad inventor played gypsy guitar and never had to study it, I was busy turning myself into a (semiotic) french person,loved Roland Barthes; my dad too all about Chopin and my mom The magic flute .. it all comes together in the end. I just maintain B. Tench deserves the sobriquet "the professor who always tells his truth. " Won't post again, but REALLY wanted to say thank you

The interviewer describes Tom Petty as a tall, gangly guy with blonde hair. He obviously never met Petty. I did meet him. He was one of the shortest rockers I ever met. And skinniest. So much talent and confidence packed into such a small package.

This was just ... awesome!

"...those crazy early Todd Rundgren records..."

Amazing stuff. Love The Tech!

The story of the recording session starting at 21minute in is the real story of the genesis of the "Heartbreakers". Seems the story of a lot of the greats of RnR is filled with serendipitous accidents of fate.

Benmont Tench is such a Great Keyboard, Piano, player. One Of The Greatest

I've watched this after your tremendous interview with Robert Plant. And this is a most enjoyable interview too. I am not a Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers fan though think they were a great band and even love some of the early tunes (they sound phenomenal on the newly released 'Live at the Fillmore '97 box set). But this chat with someone who I was always a bit curious about because he has maintained such a low profile gives me a new appreciation. Mr. Tench - who thankfully mentions Todd Rundgren and also the New York Dolls, whose debut album Rundgren produced, as well as the Band, who Rundgren also produced - epitomises musical taste and discretion. His love of Eno's work with Roxy Music is a reminder that even someone more suitable to Dylan can find inpsiration from the most disparate sources. The point about the positioning of the Heartbreakers at the time of their launch in the late 70s was very valid. When they did their debut UK tour as openers for Nils Lofgrin, my girlfriend and I intentionally missed their set as we thought they were a punk band. As was, we caught just a couple tunes...I think 'American Girl' and 'Route 66' as encores. The full-house audience (3,000) LOVED them. Indeed, with due respect to Mr. Lofgren, they dominated the night. Because as great as Nils and his funky keyboard player were, his drummer was - by his own admission in an interview - attempting to outdo rock legend Carmine Appice, and thus the wrong person for the job. But Benmont Tench is definitely the right man for the job. Any job.

A true musician. If there's a musician's philosophy, Benmont just nails it on the head

an astute gent. Great interview and stories from a true talent.

What a legend

Lovely Interview. Happy to hear Fiona Apple mentioned

OMG. What a song! 😍

I was born a Yankee, but I'm knee deep in Southern relations. Whenever I'm around them I'm constantly struck by their consummate sense of story. There's something that you get from living down there that makes raconteurs of even the humblest of people. Maybe it's the water. Who knows? Whatever it is, Benmont Tench has it in spades. While he could doubtless breathe life into even a boring story, with all he's seen and done, he probably doesn't know any.

Still great

fantastic

More evidence how freakin awesome Tom Petty was ... He knew how great Benmont was and had to have him, he sold Benmonts "the judge" dad on the idea of not going to college. Think about that for a minute ... It was fate, is there any question?

Very nice interview. I wish you’d talked about Melinda. Such a great solo.

The best Feel free to play it

Love this interview.

A friend of my re-opened Dubs in the 90s. It has since been demolished :(

This guy is enigmatic...someone who's made other people's music better and special while injecting HIS selfless personality! A true legend IMO❤ EDIT: COOLEST NAME EVER!😏

Fascinating 👍❤️

Really loved this interview, Benmont tench is a walking talking Encyclopedia of music also very kind and humble not full of himself in any way. He's got great stories to tell and a lot of good music knowledge to impart to those of us who are aspiring musicians or someone like me who just wants to know his own personal story and how he started in music. I believe there would be no Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers without Benmont tench and if there were it would never be the same if Benmont wasn't part of this band! I only wish I had his musical genius and could do the amazing things he does with keyboards whether it's organ or piano!

Thank you.

Favsong

Benmont is magical.

Brilliant men making us happy

From the heart music indeed is the only right way

yes totally intertwining of guitar and vocals of tom and mike magical good chemistry from the start. then add benmont of keyboards= and ron blair on bass, stan on drums= chemistry

"Styx was there..." (laughter)

Benmont Tench is my kind of people.

I'm sorry i'm not Benmont Tench but I've been in a studio situation which still happens and my benchmark for excellence is was will be after Tom's death the Heartbreakers. So I need some sleep and I'm listening to the professor - my sis used to know him way back when in LA when she didn't go down John Belushi's path and there is radical cognitive dissonance developing in this conversation which I don't get because I want to go to bed and this guy is talking about the band as if it were a teenage distraction which woke me right up. Tom was still alive. The best Benmont could do was, well may be I'm that kind of guy too and the rest is full swing the professor encyclopedic knowledge inside and out and brilliantly articulate which is what kept me listening the 1st time. Now I'm revisiting this whole thing and the professor is still fundamental but the bio came out and I believe in that structure when possible; people have opinions and experiences and it can get a bit kalaidascopic sp but there are observations, words and actions and what was evident was that Stan Lynch was manhandled by Jimmy Iovine who didn't get his style … only extrovert in a bunch of dedicated introverts, get it, fast forward and Howie Mandel and Benmont Tench click and Tom is still the bad guy. He's doing all the fucking work so you guys can be brilliant and play plus with the brilliant aid of Mike he's writing all the time. Then Howie dies and everything according to BT is somehow Tom's fault again, who himself had a breakdown after the dissolution of marriage one and using Howie's supplier to ...I go to NA meetings even though my drug of choice was alcohol so yes I get it and thank god for Dana. So I don't get Benmont even though he's a genius. What I know about Tom was his longing for a surrogate family which didn't work out and no-one talks about the fact that you froze him out and then blamed him for everything that didn't quite work. Tom has been gone now for some time and it could be a different conversation

I’ve experienced what he talks about with Dylan shows. A mediocre show was highlighted by two spectacular performances: ‘Tangled Up in Blue’ and ‘Cold Iron Bounds’ were incredible. It was a DC area show where the Raconteur’s opened.

what a nice guy

Best BAND keyboard player on the planet. His sound is what glued the Heartbreakers together...

Benmont redefined the space of Hammond/Leslie with the Heartbreakers. Harmonic bar regs with well placed rotors. But he might not put it together that Tom being a Dylan fan and getting Kooper, Tench was a segue for that ethereal organ sound of Like A Rolling Stone with Al's inadvertent organ track who, from the story, Kooper wanted to play guitar but that slot was taken so he slides in on organ and the rest is history. Hammonds are magical instruments and it takes a special ear to know how to combine draw bars and the 9-stack of each key to produce orchestration that fits with the rest of the music track. It's not like playing a piano. It's playing a synthesizer. One hand on the keys the other on the controls. It's not about chops per se it's about knowing a Hammond tonewheel organ and how to make it work. What tones fit where. Benmont has that down and that's what he should be remembered for as regards the Hammond.

That last song

I ghostwrote for Petty 1987,but oddly enough I named the band Television 1970's giving the name to Richard Hell of the Voidoids,telling him he & his friends had to go to NYC to make it in the music biz,so don't waste time here in Delaware.