Had he lived, Tom Petty would have turned 73 last year. On October 20, to be precise. Not uncoincidentally, Israel Nash chose that date in 2023 to release his latest album, Ozarker. A windows-down rock’n’roll album, pumped by surging guitars and ruggedly anthemic choruses, Nash’s collection of songs is a deliberate nod to the kind of heartland rock that Petty and his band the Heartbreakers excelled at.
“I just wanted to do something different on this record,” Nash explains to Classic Rock, at home in his adopted home town of Dripping Springs, Texas. “In recent years I’ve explored the realms of folk-psych and other places, but some of my earlier work was more rock’n’roll and straightforward, punchy stuff. And I was kind of missing Tom Petty, which then got me deeper into records that I’ve always loved.
