Tom Petty sat down with Warren Zanes on October 23, 2008 and spoke at length about about a number of topics including Mudcrutch, The Heartbreakers' recent Summer Tour, and Runnin’ Down A Dream.
Tom Petty Interview—October 23rd, 2008- By Warren Zanes
I saw Tom Petty in Los Angeles a few weeks back. In the course of casual conversation he mentioned that he’d like to do an interview for his website, something for those who might want to know the latest—being among the curious, I was quick to say yes to this chance. In the wake of the Heartbreakers’ most successful tour to date and the reopening of the Mudcrutch case, there is a sense that a lot of things are in motion for Petty. Palpably aware of his connection with the Heartbreaker fan base, he expressed his desire to get some word out to them in the absence of formal media interviews. He was able to set aside some time a week later
to speak on a range of topics.
If you take the long view of Tom Petty’s career, it has been a thing of one peak following the next. But, somehow, each of the peaks seems to sneak up on everyone, from the band and the fans to Petty himself. The latest peak may have been the subtlest in some ways, only because it couldn’t be explained with recourse to hit singles and platinum records. It was the movie, the Mudcrutch record, the Super Bowl appearance, the summer tour—all of that. But perhaps the most striking aspect of this
latest peak is that the Heartbreakers are standing there, amidst it all, looking very much like a band that could have some of their best work ahead of them. In that respect, they’re holding steady as the exception to the rule.
Over the summer, we saw it again, various younger bands weighing in on their lasting affection for the Heartbreakers, from Ben Harper to Vampire Weekend to Death Cab for Cutie, John Mayer and more. It was a diverse bunch, all of whom hold the Heartbreakers up as a model of what can go right in music. Petty’s version of the long career is obviously something that speaks to artists who, first, love songs and real rock and roll bands, and, second, would like that same shape for their own careers. But, as the reuniting of Mudcrutch suggests, what has given Petty’s career its remarkable shape and character—at least in part—is his willingness to leap off a few cliffs, take some chances, make some weird moves that don’t end up looking weird at all. Petty stays loose in his thinking. And it works, again and again. Here he is:
WZ: At roughly a dozen dates the Mudcrutch tour wasn’t as long as many hoped it would be, but it really registered with the people who caught the shows. What do you think made it work so well?
TP: Friendship more than anything. We were very, very excited about playing together again and had a ridiculous amount of fun. It wasn’t like we had to do a lot of rehearsal or sweat the process. It came easily, naturally. For me it was kind of a busman’s holiday. I love playing the bass. And I like stepping into a slightly different role in the band. I think that the people who saw the shows picked up on all of this and responded to the spirit in which it was done. But, going into it, I had no idea how the audience would take it. Here we were, doing a show that was ninety-five per cent new material with a few covers thrown in there. But no one ever
called out for one of the Heartbreakers’ hits. Everyone in the audience seemed to know that this was a different thing and went right with it. We took a lot of chances, and I really felt like they got it. We’re coming out with a live record next month [Extended Play Live--see below], and that will certainly act as a kind of evidence of what was going on. But, really, the idea of reforming a band that hadn’t worked in more than thirty years—an all but unknown band-- was such a shaky, halfbaked idea. (laughs) I can’t figure out exactly why it went as well as it did. But it worked. So I hope we can do more shows next year.
WZ: Did it feel good to be in the smaller rooms?
TP: Well, obviously there’s a greater degree of intimacy there. And I think you can also travel all around with your material, taking it to different places and improvising quite a bit, in ways that might prove harder in a big place. In the smaller clubs and theaters we never felt shy about a little exploration, letting things build, putting another solo in, or what have you. We could follow ideas that revealed themselves in the moment. And that is the right thing for Mudcrutch, for the way we’ve been working. But I also think it did something to Mike. He was so lyrical, so fluid in the way he was playing. Part of that, I think, came from tying him to the one guitar, the Telecaster with a B-bender. For people who don’t know
what the B-bender is, it’s a device that, when you exert pressure on the neck, it triggers a lever that bends the B-string. Typically it allows the player to emulate some pedal steel sounds—but Mike got very inventive with the possibilities, taking it outside of its conventional uses. He was bringing so much out of that one guitar.
Overall, I just had great fun hanging out with those guys, even had Randall [Marsh] and Tom [Leadon] living at my house for that month. It was really a ball around the clock. Everyone should be so lucky as to circuit through their past in the way we did and have it mean something in the present.
WZ: I sensed that Mike really responded to Tom Leadon’s playing. In the Heartbreakers, you’re always performing several duties at once, whereas Tom Leadon had time to be just a guitar player and get into it with Mike.
TP: Yeah. And when they’d go into those doubled parts, the harmony lines, or when they’d just start facing each other down, there was a lot of inspiration flying back and forth in their playing. For me it was fantastic because I could almost sit back and watch it. I had a better perspective to see it, to relax and really hear it. And Randall is just such a natural drummer. To get to play bass with him is something special to me. We all felt good continuing the musical dialogue we’d started so many years earlier.
WZ: Do you think the Campbell-Leadon interaction was something new, something that didn’t show up as conspicuously in the early Mudcrutch?
TP: I think it was in evidence in the old days. They spent a lot of time playing together. This recent tour wasn’t unlike old Mudcrutch shows where Mike had his style and Tom had his style but they’d get out there and meet. They always played together a lot, going out to bluegrass parties, rehearsing together—all of which they still do. Mike and Tom picked right up where they left off. When Tom showed up in Atlanta to see the Heartbreakers this summer, he and Mike spent the whole afternoon playing together, just the two of them in a hotel room. It’s a natural thing between them.
WZ: It was hard not to get a contact high when you saw Tom Leadon up there. He seemed to be the happiest man in the world—could that be the case?
TP: He may well have been. (laughs) He’s just great, a morale builder for all of us who are around him, so positive about everything. He’d get off the stage every night saying, “That was just the greatest time I ever had!”
WZ: Can you give me the fly-on-the-wall perspective of the after-show scene at your house?
TP: Fortunately, the shows were on the West Coast, which meant that most were in driving distance of home each night. So, we’d get home, and then Tom would cook. He’s a very healthy, very careful eater. So he’d go make some meal for himself that seemed to take forever to cook. And we’d all wind up sitting in the kitchen talking about the shows, old times, and so forth. Tom has a memory like a steel trap. He really can remember everything that ever happened to him. Sometimes he’d just take us back down memory lane—he could dive back into the sixties like it was yesterday. Randall and I were in awe. It would be like, “I forgot that guy completely.” And Tom would say, “Oh no, let me tell you . . .” It was endless fun having someone around with a memory like that. Randall and I were missing some big chunks of time that Tom gave back to us. (laughs)
WZ: It sounds to me like the early days of any band, when you’re hanging out, doing everything together.
TP: It was like that in a way. We’re grown up now, but it was very much the same as it was back then: a bunch of friends. And that’s the atmosphere that allows you to make good, real music-- I think it’s some of the best we’ve recorded in a long time. I would do more shows in a second. I’m already thinking about doing just that in the early part of next year. Haven’t talked to them about it, but I think everybody’s up for it.
WZ: Tell me about Extended Play Live, the Mudcrutch release that’s coming out. Was it initially the case that you were recording shows for archival purposes but not necessarily planning to put anything out?
TP: Yes, very much. I didn’t want to do a live album because I thought it would be too much of a mirror image of what we had done in the studio. But when I heard things like the 15-minute version of “Crystal River” from the Troubadour, my mind was changed. There was also material like our cover of Jerry Lee Lewis’s “High School Confidential” that caught the spirit of the live show and went to places somewhat different from the album. Ryan Ulyate came out on the Heartbreakers’ tour and played me some of this live stuff, and I thought, “Wow, wouldn’t this make a really cool EP, a four-song, low-priced record?” In my mind it would be a nice public
document of what happens live with that band.
WZ: From what I was told, the EP will be released in full dynamic range. It raises an issue that, increasingly so, seems to be on people’s minds as recordings are being mastered louder and louder, often resulting in some harsh sounding CDs.
TP: It is an issue. If you want to get the full dynamic range, with the highest highs, the lowest lows, and the sweetest sounding mids, you can’t master a recording as loud as is commonly done these days. You have to do your mastering at a nice even level and then instruct the listener to turn up their stereo to make the difference. Now, it’s not done very much because, of course, everyone likes to hear their records sounding really loud when they come on—including me. But the sound suffers because of the sheer aggression of the mastering volume. With the Mudcrutch release, we compromised a bit with the level. We found that when we mastered it really loud a lot of the nice tones went away, and it became hard. In that case, we arrived at a happy medium, though we simultaneously released a strict high-fidelity version with the instructions that you’d need to turn it up louder. The hi-fi version was something we included with the vinyl pressing of the Mudcrutch album. I liked that
package idea, so the EP will come out with a vinyl record and a hi-fi CD. This means you get a better sounding recording but have to play it a little louder.
WZ: When the Heartbreakers came through this summer, you looked like a happy, loose bunch. Did the Mudcrutch experience act as a cleansing operation?
TP: I think it did. I really do. I know Mike believes that’s the case. We only took one weekend off after the Mudcrutch shows before we starting rehearsing for the Heartbreakers’ summer tour. And while it became apparent that they’re very different things, I think the Mudcrutch experience brought a certain camaraderie back in some way. The Heartbreakers are pretty tight as friends right now, more, I think, than they have been in years. There’s a pride in this band. They’re never going to step out on stage and do less than they can do. This year the consistency from show to show was particularly incredible, which was something I really felt proud of. I don’t think there are many bands that could have done it.
WZ: Rolling Stone reported that the Heartbreakers’ tour was the summer’s no. 1 grossing tour in the U.S. Are you surprised after all these years?
TP: It’s something we’re very proud of. And it certainly makes us appreciate the audience that comes out and supports us the way they do. I’ve always felt we have the best fans anywhere because those shows are just a huge release of energy coming from out there. Sometimes I’d just stand, amazed. The sheer volume they produced most nights. And to see them all show up in those kind of numbers was humbling. It’s so many years down the line, and they’re still coming in to see us and having such
a great time, and in a moment when life is hard for a lot of people and the dollar is precious. I was moved, really.
There is SOOO much more to this interview, the rest can be read HERE!!
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