(Credits: Far Out / Tom Petty)
For many Americans, the 1950s was a time of joy. World War II had ended, and the United States had asserted itself as a superpower to be reckoned with. While the Cold War might have been in its earliest stages, at home, life for white middle-class denizens was mostly comfortable, as economic and technological advancements allowed them to live freer than ever. The age of the individual had arrived, and the proliferation of automobiles, television, diners and drive-in cinemas ensured that existence was satisfactory. One thing that also emerged due to these great leaps was rock ‘n’ roll, which would drag the nascent popular culture to the fore and change the lives of many, including Tom Petty.
As a child born in Gainesville, Florida, in 1950, Petty lived the quintessential life of the decade. The first of two sons was born to a travelling salesman father and a local tax office mother, and this distinctly middle-class existence was serene for him. He played little league baseball and basketball and trudged on unimpeded like every other child his age. However, at the relatively green age of ten, Petty’s mind would expand, and the path before him would change direction.
The most prominent musician of the era was ‘The King of Rock and Roll’ Elvis Presley, and Petty could not escape the reach of his swaggering fusion of blues and rock. In a remarkable sign of things to come for the future Mudcrutch leader, in the summer of 1961, he was invited by his uncle, who was working on the set of Presley’s film Follow That Dream in a nearby town to watch the filming, and it would cement his love of the Missippian artist. Petty would later say that the larger-than-life Presley was so alluring during this meeting that he simply “glowed”.
Only a few years later, Petty’s commitment to a career in music was solidified at 8pm on February 9th, 1964, when The Beatles played for the first time on The Ed Sullivan Show. This confirmed that this was the path he wanted to take, as it was fun and the way out of a tedious life doing jobs such as his parents. He identified with the four shaggy-haired lads from Liverpool, and it wouldn’t be long before he saw firsthand their effect, with his groups springing up in garages throughout his locale. He later revealed that the quartet inspired his classic track ‘Breakdown’.
The influence of Presley, The Beatles, and, later, The Rolling Stones would be enough for him to commit enough time to his craft and form the band the Epics, which later evolved into Mudcrutch in 1970. After the group split in 1975, he would pursue a solo career, opening him up to searing artistic and critical heights.
As Petty’s prominence grew, he worked with many other iconic musicians, such as Bob Dylan. These unbelievable personal triumphs would lead him to pinch himself and frequently reflect on those nostalgic times in the 1960s when anything seemed possible. Presenting his Sirius XM show Tom Petty’s Buried Treasure in 2011 to a small crowd in Hollywood, he recounted an array of tales from his storied career.
Taking place at EastWest Studios, where Petty and the Heartbreakers recorded 2002’s The Last DJ and many others had brought notable works to life, this familiar creative haven was the perfect place for Petty to take fans on a trip down memory lane and delve into the influences that made him the rock legend he was. Outside of The Beatles, he said that pioneering guitar bands such as The Kinks and The Ventures left a mark on him as a teenager, eagerly listening to the new sound sounds rumbling out of the AM radio.
“I didn’t have a budget to buy a lot of albums,” he explained before revealing he recycled bottles to raise funds to buy a new record every week, including by The Animals, The Kinks and The Ventures. “I play a lot of that stuff because I’m so emotionally attached to it,’ he continued. “It was a great time for music, and I’m lucky I was born when I was born, I guess.”
After outlining the most important influences on him, Petty revealed that he wasn’t cut out to do anything else but music. Asked if he had any other careers before committing, he said he tried a couple of jobs, including being a gravedigger, which he somewhat perplexingly failed at. “Not successfully. I tried a couple of jobs,” he concluded. “I took a grave-digging job because you didn’t have to look too sharp. I got my foot caught in the lawnmower on my first day.”
