Former Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers drummer Stan Lynch‘s new band, The Speaker Wars, is set to drop their self-titled debut album on Friday, and Lynch tells ABC Audio the project started when he was set up on a “blind date” in Nashville with singer/songwriter John Christopher Davis.
“It starts innocently enough, like most projects for me, everything in my life is pretty much friend- and joy-related,” he says. He notes that when he met Davis, “I just kind of fell for the guy.”
Lynch says their musical connection was there from the very beginning and it was Davis’ idea to make a record together.
“We walked in the room and he just had a lot of energy,” Lynch says. He explains that during the COVID-19 pandemic he kept thinking, “What am I going to do with my life?” And Davis suggested meeting up to make a record, although he didn’t realize he’d be playing drums on it.
Lynch, who has had a long career as a music producer, says, “I thought I was making his record. And then he kept saying, you know, get behind the kit. He is the burr in the saddle that made this happen, which is great.”
And while Lynch knows there’s no guarantee a record will be a hit, he tries to not get too worried about it.
“I’m always skeptical because I’ve gotten older. … The more I know, the more I know what can go wrong,” he says. “Either it will be a tremendous success or it won’t be. But it will always feel like a success to me if I’m having fun.”
The Speaker Wars’ self-titled debut album is available for preorder now.
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