TABITHA BOOKS
Tom Petty.
BY-------Graham Sclater
Tom Petty was born in Gainesville Florida in 1950 and at the age of ten he met
Elvis Presley who was filming Follow That Dream. Eleven years later he saw the
Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show and he made his decision to one day play in a
band.
It wasn’t until the mid-seventies that he finally formed a band named the Epics,
which soon evolved into Mudcrutch. The band included future Heartbreakers,
Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench. They recorded and released their only single
Depot Street in 1975 on Shelter Records which failed to achieve much airplay
and the band split.
Petty went out as a solo performer while Tench formed his own group. With no
success, Petty and Campbell collaborated with Tench, Ron Blair and Stan Lynch
which was the first line-up of what was to become the Heartbreakers. Any
recognition in the USA was minimal, but in the UK after they toured as support for
Nils Lofgren in 1977, they had success with two singles, American Girl, and Breakdown, both peaking at Number 40. This was followed by the release of their album on Shelter Records.
Their second album, You’re Gonna Get It became their first Top 40 album and spawned the singles I Need to Know and Listen to Her Heart. But it was the release of their third album, Damn the Torpedoes, that put them on the world stage and exposed them to a much wider audience and as a result they album sold more than two million copies. It contained the breakthrough singles, Don’t Do me Like That, Here Comes My Girl, Even the Losers and the smash hit, Refugee.
Their fourth album, Hard Promises was released in 1981 and was instantly a top-ten hit, again, going platinum. It featured Insider, a duet with a little-known female singer, Stevie Nicks.
Ron Blair left the band in 1982 and was replaced with bass player Howie Epstein who played on their fifth album Long After Dark which again included the hit, You Got Lucky with the line-up remaining constant until 1994.
In 1985 they appeared on Band Aid, which opened them up to an even wider audience which was followed by yet another tour and dates with Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead in 1986 and1987. During that time Petty wrote Jammin’ Me with Bob Dylan and I believe that is where their friendship and future collaboration began.
In 1988 Petty and Dylan worked together again when they formed the Travelling Wilburys with George Harrison, Roy Orbison, and Jeff Lynne. They had some difficulty in convincing their individual record companies in agreeing to the release of the music but thankfully an arrangement was made. It resulted in two highly acclaimed full-length albums showcasing their individual and collaborative talent.
As a solo artist or with the Heartbreakers, Petty had hit albums from the 1970s until his untimely death in 2017. He sold more than 80 million records and is named as one of the best-selling music artists of all time.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002 and he also appeared in - voice only - as Elroy Lucky Kleinschmidt in the animated extended comedy series, King of the Hill.
During his career, he was not one to face record companies over musical differences and direction and during his career he took them on and beat them, something few artists ever consider doing.
Sadly, Petty died of an accidental drug overdose at the age of 66, one week after the end of the Heartbreakers' 40th Anniversary Tour in 2017. However, his music lives on and will continue to do so for generations to come.
Whilst driving sunny day I regularly play what is my favourite album Into the Great Wide Open.
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