What do Muddy Wilbury, Charlie T. Wilbury, Jr. and Thomas Earl Petty have in common? Well, that is actually a trick question--because they are all the same person! Ultimately, the American songwriter and musician decided to drop his pseudonyms--and he continues to enjoy a successful career under his real name: Tom Petty. With a story that follows the American dream (from modest upbringings to international fame) and music that often celebrates our national culture, Tom Petty is a true icon of American rock music. He continues to inspire listeners of all ages, including many of our HillTop Records songwriters.Born in 1950 in the city of Gainesville, Florida, Petty was just an ordinary kid--until one fateful day. When he was 10, young Tom was invited to visit the film set where his uncle was working at the time. There, on the set of Follow That Dream, he met Elvis Presley and immediately became an aspiring rock star. Once he saw The Beatles perform on The Ed Sullivan Show, he not only knew that he wanted to be a musician but that he also wanted to be part of a band. Of course, this is not an unusual aspiration for a young boy. Petty, however, had something that other kids his age did not: The innate sensitivity and natural talent of an artist. He began taking lessons in several instruments. One of his first guitar teachers was fellow Gainesville resident Don Felder, who would later go on to join The Eagles.
Petty formed his first band, The Epics, early on. The name was eventually changed to Mudcrutch, and the band (which also included Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench) enjoyed some success in the Gainesville area before splitting up. Immediately following the split, Petty pursued a solo career--but reluctantly, as he much preferred to work with a band. Tench, meanwhile, formed his own group and created with them a sound that Petty was attracted to. Petty, Tench and Campbell eventually reunited and were joined by Ron Blair and Stan Lynch. Together, they formed the first line-up of the now-famous band, The Heartbreakers--and even released an album. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers was only mildly successful in the United States. However, when the single "Breakdown" was re-released in 1977, it managed to reach the #40 spot on the charts.
The Heartbreakers' second album, You're Gonna Get It!, fared better. It included the singles "I Need to Know" and "Listen To Her Heart", and it became the band's first Top 40 album. Damn the Torpedoes came next, and it immediately confirmed Top Petty and the Heartbreakers' newfound success. The band's third album went platinum, quickly selling nearly two million copies. It featured the breakthrough singles "Don't Do Me Like That", "Here Comes My Girl" and "Refugee".
Tom Petty's first duet, "Insider" with Stevie Nicks, made its appearance on 1981's platinum-selling album Hard Promises (which also featured the hit single "The Waiting".) This album was followed by Long After Dark in 1982, and then Southern Accents in '85. That particular album included the hit single "Don't Come Around Here No More" (made famous by a controversial music video inspired by the book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland) and prompted an exciting invitation from Bob Dylan: Tom Petty & the Beartbreakers were asked to join Dylan on his True Confessions tour; they did, and also played some dates with the Grateful Dead in 1986-'87. While on tour together, Petty and Dylan wrote "Jammin' Me" together; the single was released as part of 1987's Let Me Up (I've Had Enough).
Petty and Dylan's working relationship did not stop at that song. On the contrary, the two went on to team up with George Harrison, Roy Orbison and Jeff Lynne to form the Traveling Wilburys. This "dream team" of a band originally wrote their first song, "Handle With Care", to be the B-side of one of Harrison's singles. However, upon its completion, the song was deemed to good for that purpose--and the Traveling Wilburys decided to record a full album together. That album, Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1, was not followed by a second (incongruously titled Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3, in response to a series of bootlegged studio sessions that were being sold as Traveling Wilburys Vol. 2) until 1990, after the untimely death of Orbison. In recent years, Petty has been incorporating Traveling Wilburys songs--most notably "Handle With Care" and "End of the Line"--into his live performances.
Tom Petty released his first solo album, Full Moon Fever, in 1989. It featured "I Won't Back Down", "Free Fallin'" and "Runnin' Down a Dream" as well as appearances by an array of well-known musicians. Despite the fact that Petty has proven to be successful as a solo artist, however, he continues to prefer the collaborative environment of a group. In 1991, The Heartbreakers reunited to release Into the Great Wide Open--an album with a hit single of the same name, and "Learning To Fly". Of the time he spends as frontman for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, the songwriter has said: "We enjoy playing with each other, which I think is a pretty important part of this. If we didn't, we'd have given it up a long time ago. The idea when we started was to take five people and keep 'em together no matter what and see what we could get out of it, and we've pretty much stuck to that plan.”
Before leaving MCA Records for Warner Bros., the Heartbreakers got together to record two new songs for their Greatest Hits package: "Mary Jane's Last Dance" and Thunderclap Newman's "Something in the Air". With Warner Bros., Petty released his second solo album: Wildflowers (1994.) The album, which included the hit singles "You Don't Know How It Feels" and "You Wreck Me", sold over three million copies in the U.S. A couple years later, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers released a soundtrack to the 1996 movie She's the One; this marked their first foray into the world of film. Another departure from the norm came in 2002, when the band released The Last DJ. This album featured several attacks on the music industry, critizing it for succumbing to the pressures of corporate greed and watering down the music to turn a quick profit. Despite the fact that the album caused an uneasy stir among music execs--or perhaps because of it?--it was popular on the charts; it reached Number 9 in the U.S. In response to questions about the album's message, Tom has responded that he does not see it as negative or bitter; in fact, he maintains that the songs carry with them a great deal of hope--you just have to look for it.
This positive outlook is typical of Tom Petty, who tends to be gentle with the industry and fellow musicians. Following claims that the Red Hot Chili Peppers' single "Dani California" borrowed too much from "Mary Jane's Last Dance", Petty tolled Rolling Stone Magazine:
"I seriously doubt that there is any negative intent there. And a lot of rock 'n' roll songs sound alike. Ask Chuck Berry. The Strokes took 'American Girl' [for their song 'Last Nite'], and I saw an interview with them where they actually admitted it. That made me laugh out loud. I was like, 'OK, good for you' ... If someone took my song note for note and stole it maliciously, then maybe [I'd sue]. But I don't believe in lawsuits much. I think there are enough frivolous lawsuits in this country without people fighting over pop songs."
Of his own songwriting abilities, Petty tends to be modest--even self-deprecating. “I'm barely prolific and incredibly lazy," he has said. However, we at HillTop Records strongly disagree--as do Petty's peers. In 1994, bands like Everclear and Silkworm got together to release the Tom Petty tribute album, You Got Lucky. In '96, the songwriter received UCLA's George and Ira Gershwin Award for Lifetime Musical Achievement the same month he won the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers' Golden Note Award. In 1999, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers received a star on the world-famous Hollywood Walk of Fame. Then, in 2002, they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Of that particular achievement, Petty said: “It's very easy to be cynical about the hall of fame. But on the other hand, it's really a beautiful thing for someone like me. I dedicated my entire life to this music.”
You can learn more about this life of Petty's by reading Conversations with Tom Petty (an oral history/biography composed of interviews conducted in 2004 and 2005 with Petty by music journalist Paul Zollo) or watching Peter Bogdanovich's documentary film Runnin' Down A Dream, which premiered at the New York Film Festival in 2007. Or you can simply listen to the "barely prolific" songwriter's music: "Don't Do Me Like That", "American Girl", "I Won't Back Down", "Free Fallin'", "Runnin' Down a Dream"--these and others have withstood the test of time, and even become representative of American music as a whole. Throughout his career, Tom Petty has sold over 60 million albums. He continues to tour and write--and he does not seem to be slowing down anytime soon.
