Pianist Benmont Tench rebounds from Tom Petty’s death, cancer surgery to resume his solo career

Tom Petty’s sudden death in October 2017 was just the first dramatic change in the life of his longtime keyboardist, Benmont Tench. Three months later, Tench’s first child was born. Not long thereafter, his mouth cancer recurred, and he had to have surgery to rebuild his jaw.

So excuse the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer if it took him more than a minute to release his overdue second solo album, “The Melancholy Season,” 11 years after his debut and eight years after Petty’s death.

The record was ready a couple of years ago, but he had major surgery in the fall of 2023.

“They took out half of my jaw and replaced it with bone and muscle from my leg,” said Tench, who performs Sunday at the Dakota in Minneapolis. “I had the record to put out, but we couldn’t promote it. So, we held it up until now.”

Aptly named, “The Melancholy Season” is an intimate Dylanesque album, with minimal instrumentation as he embraces haunting ballads, a taste of catchy pop, a moody blues, a twangy story song and even a boogie rocker. Hence, Tench is on tour as a one-man band to promote the project.

“I’m getting a lot of joy,” he said. “I never thought I would enjoy singing songs I’d written, because I never thought I could pull it off. I think I do a pretty good job of getting the point of the songs across. [I’m] not singing in pure, beatific tones.”

Tench figured that music lovers might expect that a rock ‘n’ roll keyboardist going solo would make a jazz album.

“I’m not playing instrumentals,” Tench said. “I love jazz. But I’m playing more of a singer/songwriter kind of thing. I’m not really a singer. And I do play some Chuck Berry.”

Tench will include tunes from Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, some covers and possibly something from Bob Dylan, though he’s hesitant because it’s the bard’s home state.

“I always found it almost condescending that bands would play in Kansas City and inevitably play the song ‘Kansas City.’ Oh, come on. Everybody’s heard it [there] a million times.

“I don’t know if people come to Minnesota and play a lot of Dylan songs. I might pick something. I was messing around at soundcheck with ‘Idiot Wind,’ which is fantastic but it seems very personal to him and I don’t know if I can pull it off. Also, it’s like 17 verses long.”

Not only has Tench recorded and toured with Dylan, but he worked with Minnesota’s notorious band, the Replacements, on their 1990 album “All Shook Down” and even sat in on a few gigs. He loved joining the unpredictable Minneapolis rockers onstage.

“They would say: ‘We’re going to play ‘Nightclub Jitters.’ I thought great. I’d be all set for ‘Nightclub Jitters’ and I might even play an intro for it. And they would break into ‘Bastards of Young.’ I loved it. Really fun and funny. They were a great rock ‘n’ roll band. If you could look across the stage and see [guitarist] Slim Dunlap, it was a wonderful, wonderful feeling.”

The multiple surgeries Tench has had since being diagnosed with tongue cancer in 2011 have affected his voice.

“The main effect it’s had on my singing is my enunciation. This time they had to take more [of the tongue] out. I have a lisp, which is fine. I’ve learned if I do a long soundcheck, like an hour and a half, and play and sing constantly, my diction gets infinitely better and clearer. I can do all the exercises I want but there’s something about singing that loosens it up.”

Tench explained that he’s naturally soft-spoken but trying to sing more forcefully. Yet, he’s quick to admit: “I’m not really a singer.”

But he did record a vocal version of “Wobbles,” a tune that was an instrumental on his 2014 solo debut, “You Should Be So Lucky.” He wrote the lyrics on the way home from the studio after recording the instrumental. However, producer Glyn Johns was adamant that it was an instrumental. So, Tench updated “Wobbles” for his second album.

“Wobbles” sounds like a perfect title for a 71-year-old man with a 7-year-old daughter. He never thought he’d have — or wanted to have — a child. That changed after his second marriage in 2015.

He has found fatherhood to be “fantastic, miraculous, intellectual, difficult, maddening, absolutely rewarding, infinitely rewarding.

“We did our best to have her when I was home [from touring]. Because before the last Heartbreakers tour, Tom said: ‘Let’s take the next two years off.’” Petty tragically died days after the tour.

Tench, an experienced studio session musician, has been so busy that he hasn’t done many recording gigs. His résumé includes playing on records by Johnny Cash, Stevie Nicks and Ringo Starr, among many others. His keyboards can be heard on Alanis Morissette’s “You Oughta Know” and Elvis Costello’s “Veronica.”

His most recent work was the Stones’ “Hackney Diamonds.” Tench also performed a few live shows with Phil Lesh & Friends, backed Dylan at Farm Aid, gigged in a Last Waltz tribute band with Mike Campbell of the Heartbreakers and played in house bands for concerts honoring Willie Nelson and Patti Smith as well as an autism benefit organized by Stephen Stills.

Tench is hitting the road in fits and starts so he’s not away from home for more than two or three weeks at a time.

Even though he’s alone onstage, he’s still wearing a can-you-spot-me hat onstage, just as he did during his Heartbreaker days so concertgoers could notice him behind his grand piano and Hammond organ.

“I read Ringo Starr saying he had his drum kit — which was a small kick drum and the cymbals were [set] low — ‘cause he said, ‘You go see a band play, you couldn’t see the drummer’s face.’”

Tench has an array of hats. They include two baseball caps he wears when picking up his daughter at school and a fedora for the stage that he bought in New York two decades ago.

“I have a ton of different hats in my closet,” he said. “There’s an entire shelf of hats I never wear. I need to make a trip to the Goodwill.”

When: 7 p.m. Sun.

Where: The Dakota, 1010 Nicollet Mall, Mpls.

Tickets: $40-$45, dakotacooks.com