FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 25, 2025
Contact: kelly@epitaph.com

TOM WAITS PERFORMS + READS POETRY IN NEW DOCUMENTARY ABOUT HOMELESSNESS IN THE AMERICAN SOUTH

“THE LAST RIDE”, AN EPISODE OF ITALIAN DOCUMENTARY SERIES ‘THE HUMAN FACTOR’, DEBUTS WORLDWIDE TOMORROW – WATCH IT HERE

Photo Credit: Luigi Montebello and Davide Rinaldi

Created by the Italian public television channel RAI3, ‘The Human Factor’ is a series of eight 46-minute investigative journalism episodes that reveal how human rights are violated by authoritarian regimes, autocracies or even within democratic nations, where the most vulnerable and the minorities often face oppression. 
 
Ultima Fermata - “The Last Ride” - is the final episode in the eight-part series and an immersive journey among the "last" on earth: U.S. citizens that experience homelessness who are victims of a system without safety nets and forced to live in extremely marginalized conditions. In “The Last Ride”, their stories are accompanied by the unmistakable voice of Tom Waits. With performances on acoustic guitar and piano as well as reading from his poem Seeds On Hard Ground, Waits provides a throughline to the landscape of faces and stories portrayed in the documentary. Airing today in Italy, “The Last Ride” was written and directed by Angelo Loy, Martino Mazzonis and Luigi Montebello for Il Fattore Umano - RAI Radiotelevisione Italiana and will be available worldwide tomorrow at the link below. 
 
Watch “The Last Ride” Tomorrow, February 26 HERE 
 
“The Last Ride” is a journey into the heart of American poverty, through four southern states of the U.S.—Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana—on public buses, the only means of transport accessible to the most disadvantaged. It is a path through forgotten communities, exposing a crisis of unimaginable proportions, but also to testify to the dignity and solidarity of those who resist, despite police violence, social stigma and the institutional neglect that seeks to relegate them to invisibility. 
 
“I am an individual who is deeply concerned with the inequities as we all are, but ill equipped to solve any of them,” Waits admits. “I tell the world in the only way I know how: through my music. I don’t deal with politics or laws, and I don’t have answers to the big questions that concern us all. All I can do is try - through songs and poems - to inspire someone. I'm here to open up the window and open up our eyes. I guess a little bit, if I can.”

Photo Credit: Angelo Loy

Below are three charity groups mentioned in the documentary and links to their websites with more info on how to support them. 
 
### 
 
The Beat: A Warming Shelter Based in Madison, TN 
https://www.thebeattn.org/  
 
Shepherds of the Gulf: Homeless Camper Assistance in Biloxi, MS 
https://shepherdofthegulf.org/  

Shower to the People: Shower and Laundry Services for the Homeless in Nashville, TN 
https://www.showerthepeople.net/  

### 

http://www.tomwaits.com/  
Facebook | Twitter 
 
For More Info on Tom Waits, Contact: 
Kelly Kettering | ANTI- Records Publicity | kelly@epitaph.com