Don’t Back Down will celebrate the music of Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers during an appearance Aug. 24 on the West End Fair’s Main Stage in Gilbert.

The tribute act, set for shows at 7 and 9 p.m., will play material from Petty’s 41-year career. The singer-songwriter’s catalog includes 13 studio albums with The Heartbreakers, three solo albums, and two albums each with Mudcrutch and The Traveling Wilburys.

Mark O’Dell, Don’t Back Down guitarist and lead vocalist, hopes fans sing along, as “hearing people sing makes the show for me.”

Formed in 2017 and based out of Baltimore, Maryland, Don’t Back Down also features: Chris Huntington, lead guitar; Jeremy Robinson, bass and vocals; Tom Sabia, drums; and Evan Cooper, keyboards and vocals. The band’s influences come from various genres.

“Most, if not all, of us came from musical families,” O’Dell said. “We grew up seeing performances, hanging alongside rehearsals, traveling to venues, and were given our first instruments by our parents early on.”

O’Dell and Huntington were playing together in another band in 2017, covering a handful of Petty songs. “As they always turned out to be some of our best and most well-received covers,” O’Dell noted, “I would jokingly say to him we should start a tribute band.”

Shortly after Petty’s passing in October 2017, “We were asked to perform a few songs at a memorial show at a venue in Annapolis, Maryland,” O’Dell said. During the show, the band felt the love for Petty‘s music.

“Maybe it was a heady mix of nostalgia, sadness and excitement all at the same time,” O’Dell said. “We were hooked and decided to give it a go.”

With most Petty tribute bands “fronted by a guy with long hair wearing some top hat or something,” O’Dell and company wanted to differentiate itself from the crowd. Rather, the band focused less on a look-a-like experience and chose a name to reflect a call to action.

“We wanted to remind people to celebrate the things they love,“ O’Dell said. “To stand up for things they believe in, as Tom Petty did. Not to listen when someone tells you that you can’t do something, to take a stand when you feel you must. You know, Don’t Back Down.”

The band, whose name references Petty’s 1989 hit “I Won’t Back Down,” has recorded 30-plus Petty songs, five live performance sessions and 14 tribute videos. The act will debut an original song, “Winding Roads,” next month at a charity event in Maryland.

“This song is influenced by the Byrds and longtime friend of Tom Petty, Roger McGuinn,” O’Dell said.

When considering Don’t Back Down’s career highlights thus far, O’Dell recalls one fondly.

“Performing in front of the U.S. Capitol Building for a crowd of over 17,000 people at the finish line of the D.C. Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon this past spring. That was pretty rad. Cold and windy, but rad.”

As for the band’s goals, “If we can continue to, in some small way, keep the music of Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers alive in the hearts of fans and budding rock musicians alike, that would be just fine with us.”