Sean Penn, Anthony Hopkins Partner With Mudcrutch for Moving New Video
Tom Petty and Mudcrutch have teamed with Sean Penn and Anthony Hopkins for a stark new video for “I Forgive It All” that contemplates poverty, wealth, aging and absolution.
Penn and Samuel Bayer co-directed the clip, which opens with archival footage from the Great Depression and audio of hungry children clamoring for food. When the video jumps to the present, Mudcrutch’s aching acoustic ballad kicks in as Hopkins drives a sleek, classic car around the wealthiest parts of Los Angeles.
Overcome by memories of his difficult childhood, Hopkins’ character drives to a downtrodden part of town where he abandons the car with the keys in the door. He walks around a homeless encampment and eventually makes his way to a seedy hotel where, in a sparse studio room, he begs for forgiveness as Petty does the same in the song’s closing moments.
“I Forgive It All” appears on Mudcrutch’s new album, 2, which saw release in May. Despite forming in Gainesville, Florida in 1970 and signing a deal with Shelter Records in 1974, Mudcrutch only released one single, “Depot Street,” before breaking up in 1975. The band finally released their self-titled debut in 2008 after Petty and fellow Heartbreakers Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench reformed the southern rock outfit with guitarist Tom Leadon and drummer Randall Marsh.