Tom Petty Looks Back
With the release of his career-spanning "Live Anthology," Petty talks about the Heartbreakers' early days, plus Jagger, Harrison and Dylan
DAVID FRICKEPosted Nov 25, 2009 9:52 AM
To mark the release of The Live Anthology, a multi-CD boxed set covering 30 years of road work with his band the Heartbreakers, Tom Petty spoke to Rolling Stone for nearly six hours over two days — including his 59th birthday, October 20th — about his rock & roll life. Those conversations, at the Heartbreakers' rehearsal space in a warehouse in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley and at Petty's home in Malibu overlooking the Pacific Ocean, ran the length of rock itself, including the day in 1961 that the young Gainesville, Florida native met Elvis Presley (Petty forgot to bring a record for the King to sign); Petty's trials and adventures as a long-haired garage-band kid in redneck territory; his rough late-Seventies tours with the Heartbreakers; the musically rich encounters, on stage and in the studio, with Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Carl Perkins and Elvis Costello, among many others; and a sneak preview of Petty's next record with the Heartbreakers.
Looking like a Confederate general with his pointed sandy-blond beard, Petty reflected on his 40 years in music with a laconic wit, deep Southern drawl and constant amazement. "It has been a great journey," he said at the very end of the second interview. Here, in these outtakes from the published story from the December 10, 2009 issue, are a few more reasons why.
How has the time you spent working on Live Anthology affected the new record you're making with the Heartbreakers?
It may have had some influence. We're trying to catch it all live, just use the five or six instruments at most. And I've gotten the guitars up front. I've gotten the best out of Mike [Campbell] that I've ever gotten out of him.
It's blues-based. Some of the tunes are longer, more jam-y kind of music. A couple of tracks really sound like the Allman Brothers — not the songs but the atmosphere of the band.
The muscularity?
Yeah. I don't know where it came from. I recently played with the Allman Brothers at the Greek Theater [in Los Angeles]. They had come on our 30th anniversary tour. They did five or six shows with us. They had no idea how bowled over I was to be out there with them [laughs]. So they invited me back — me and Mike and Benmont [Tench]. We went down to their gig and played a few songs with them. Maybe that's got something to do with that influence creeping in. But I'm trying to make a record that is more like a band-playing kind of record, rather than a produced record, where you play the studio. This is catching a performance.
Who were your early models as a band leader? I was watching the 1979 concert DVD included with the deluxe edition of the box set, and there was this weird combination in your stage presence — very cocky control but with a genuine band camaraderie, like a mix of Mick Jagger and John Lennon. It's almost like the band you wanted was not quite as loose as the Rolling Stones but not as rigid as the Beatles.
That's a pretty good assessment, very much on the money. I always admired — and felt for — Mick Jagger. I've been to the Stones' rehearsals. You gotta run that band — and he does, maybe to a fault. I wanted something that fell between the Beatles and the Stones, more of an organic music than the Beatles. But I thought Jagger was a great band leader, because the Stones always had a good show, and the material was well picked.
You also wanted the integration of a band — you didn't want to just be out front.
I never felt comfortable having to take all the light. I was always in bands. So from the get-go, I was determined that this not be a backing-band kind of thing. I'm in the band. I'm a member of the band. And I don't want it any other way. Just before the Heartbreakers, I did a couple of sessions. I had really good musicians.
Those were the solo recordings you did with Al Kooper.
Al Kooper, Jim Keltner — great players. But I felt weird, like "This ain't what I wanna do. This could be anything. I want to be in a band." With the Heartbreakers, the idea was, "We're going to keep it to five people, and whatever they can do, we'll make something out of it." I didn't want eighteen people up there. I wanted a small group. And that\s the way we did it. I dont know any other way now.
In your opening-act days, who were the headliners that taught you stage presence?
The ones I studied were Ray Davies of the Kinks and Peter Wolf of the J. Geils Band. Ray was a brilliant entertainer. Every night, I would go out and watch him. He knew how to pace the show — when to speak, when to let the music talk. He knew how to work the set so when he was going to do his big ballad, it was going to count, and there wasn't going to be a dry eye in the place. And he used to do this amazing thing with "Lola" — he'd keep teasing the audience with the [opening] lick. He'd start the intro and then go, "Ah, you're not ready yet." So finally when you got, "Da, da, da-da-da-da . . ." [hums the guitar intro], it was like "Hallelujah!"
Peter Wolf was a master at working the crowd. He knew how to get the place really rockin'. I learned a great deal watching him — but not many others [laughs]. I was also on shows with a lot of people that I thought weren't too good: "I don't get this."
One singer-songwriter who came up at the same time as you was Elvis Costello. You both had similar roots — American R&B, the Sixties canon — but made very different music with them.
I remember seeing him on our first trip to England, in a pub called the Nashville Rooms. I don't think he had a record yet. He played alone — just him and his electric guitar. But he had good songs.
We're very different musically. But that is the magic. Everyone hears music a little differently, then turns it into their own thing. [Smiles] I just flashed on him, being at my house one night. It was my 40th birthday. We were having this big party, and there were a lot of players there. Elvis wasn't there yet. It had coalesced into this jam in my living room. Roger McGuinn [of the Byrds], Jeff Lynne and Bruce Springsteen were playing. I know I'm leaving some people out. But the joke was, McGuinn went into "Mr. Tambourine Man" right as Costello comes walking in. He said, "If I ever had to dream up walking into Tom Petty's house, it would be the Byrds playing 'Mr. Tambourine Man.' "
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Mike Campbell once said that the offer to tour as Bob Dylan's backing band came at a good time for the Heartbreakers, because you were kind of drifting, a bit rudder-less.
I read that too [laughs]. I think he was kind of bored at that point.
This was the time of [1985's] Southern Accents
We were a little disorganized. It was weird, because we took time off from the road, which we had never really done. I don't think it was that good for us, because we weren't playing regularly. So when Bob came along, it invigorated us. He made us gel as a band. I don't think he intentionally meant to [smiles]. And it was an eye-opener for me, because I got to step back into the band.
You were not the leader. Dylan was.
I wasn't the leader of the whole band [laughs]. I was kind of musical director. But watching how he ran his show was a learning experience.
A lot of people say he just throws his songs to the wind. I didn't get that feeling. A song might come up that we hadn't rehearsed. But he had confidence in us that we would catch on quick. That was so liberating: "Wow, we just played something we'd never even practiced. That's in the show now." We started to try that when we went back to our shows. And Bob used to do these great things with Benmont, where he'd say, "OK, it's just piano on this one," and he'd go into a Hoagy Carmichael song. And Ben would know it. Ben knew how to play with him.
You never got to tour with George Harrison. Did you offer the Heartbreakers as a backing band?
Sure. He loved the Heartbreakers, especially Mike. He told me once that Ry Cooder and Mike were the best slide players: "They're my heroes with slide guitar." And he was certainly no slouch either. I told Mike that. I don't know if he believed me [laughs].
Given those two years you did with Dylan on the road, you were ready-made for Harrison.
He knew that. But I said, "You have to play lead guitar. People would be very disappointed if you didn't."
It just never happened. Thinking back on it, it should have. But I don't think any of us really tried to make it happen. When we did that tribute concert to him at the Royal Albert Hall [in 2002], I remember having a distinct feeling, near the end, that he was there. But it wasn't meant to be. It didn't go that way.
When you did the first Traveling Wilburys album with Harrison, Dylan, Jeff Lynne and Roy Orbison, did you feel momentum there — that this could be more than just friends with pseudonyms around a kitchen table?
Yeah. It could be our permanent gig. We certainly felt like we were a band, especially after we had a big hit. We were a band. I used to tell 'em all: "Just flash the Big W." Like the Bat Sign. "If you flash the big W in the sky, we'll all come."
But then you had to make the second Wilburys album without the late Roy Orbison. Was it hard to recreate something that had originally come so naturally?
That album is not as commercial as the first one. But when I hear it now, it's pretty good. There's a great song Bob did called "If You Belonged to Me." And I was out in the yard the other day — we have music playing outside, sometimes just on shuffle — and "She's My Baby" came on. I thought, "This is great!" [Laughs] We weren't trying to recreate the first album. The second one had more edge to it. Bob was more involved. He was pushing it, more upfront in it.
We were glad we did it. But losing Roy [Orbison died in 1988] — we just tried to press on. We never considered bringing someone else in.
There were rumors — Del Shannon and Roger McGuinn got mentioned.
Del Shannon was around, but as a friend. Jeff and I had both done records with him in the Seventies, and he was starting to get active again. One night, I remember Jeff said, "Del's in town, he's at the studio." Jeff, George and I surprised him, just dropped in. We sang some backgrounds for him that night. That's probably where the rumors come from.
But it wasn't about finding another famous musician. We were friends. Those were great days. There was a lot of music going on. And I was really having a good time.
Спасибо за клипец! Мне понравился со всех аспектов. И отрыжка в конце такая..... аристократическая..... 
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