Country singer and The Voice judge Blake Shelton has collaborated with Eagles' Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit, alongside former Guns N' Roses member Matt Sorum, for a cover of Tom Petty's defiant 1989 song I Won't Back Down.
While Shelton takes charge of vocals, Walsh and Shmit cover guitar and bass duties with Sorum on the drums. For the cover, the vocalist deals up a wholesome serving of Southern country twang supported by light and airy guitar tones from Walsh.
The star-studded collaboration was orchestrated in aid of The Miraculous Love Kids, a non-profit charity whose focus is "to teach the guitar to war-torn, poverty-stricken children, in particular young girls who have little to no rights and are often forced into marriage and face the most extreme forms of violence."
Speaking of the track, Miraculous Love Kids founder Lanny Cordola says in a statement: “In I Won’t Back Down, Tom Petty so powerfully wrote, ‘You can stand me up at the gates of hell, but I won’t back down.’ The girls and I are honoured to have Blake, Joe, Timothy and Matt join us in spreading this message far and wide".
The new cover of I Won’t Back Down is available to hear at goodnoise.io, a music and arts platform/label founded by Matt Sorum, that works on connecting artists with "impact-related causes that are relevant to the world today".
Tom Petty's I Won’t Back Down served as the lead single from his 1989 solo album Full Moon Fever, and reached the 12th spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
