PHOTO OP:

If you asked Tom Petty to select the musician who has influenced him the most--and then gave him the chance to pose with his hero--whom do you think he’d pick? And what would happen if you asked Randy Travis and Public Enemy to do the same thing?

That was the idea behind a photo spread titled “Sweet Inspiration” in the Sept. 19 issue of Rolling Stone magazine, due on newsstands Sept. 5.

Petty selected Byrds founder Roger McGuinn, while Travis picked country crooner George Jones and Public Enemy chose funk hero George Clinton.

If all of those pairings make obvious sense, other choices were unexpected. Country upstart k.d. lang selected pop/jazz veteran Peggy Lee, rock sensation Terence Trent D’Arby chose Who founder Pete Townshend, and mellow popster Bruce Hornsby picked funky piano man Leon Russell.

But the most unusual photo of the bunch was pulled from the spread at the last minute. It depicted Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry at the Seattle grave site of his hero, Jimi Hendrix.