The one artist Tom Petty would have died for: “Just blows my mind”
Tom Petty would have gladly put his life on the line in the name of rock and roll.
He knew that what he was doing was the purest rock and roll that anyone could ever make, and if he felt that someone else was trying to get in the way of him becoming one of the biggest stars in the world, he was willing to fight dirty if it meant him coming out on top. He was willing to get nasty when someone crossed him, but that also meant that when he loved someone, he put his entire soul into working with them.
You have to remember that Petty spent most of his life being a fan of rock and roll, and from the first moment he saw Elvis Presley in person, he knew that he wanted to make his living playing music. The Beatles made him think that kind of dream was finally possible, but when listening to his music, it’s hard to think of too many times when you heard any overt influences from British music half the time.
The Fab Four may have been a guide towards bigger and better things half the time, but all of the greatest rock and roll comes out of the heartland, and it didn’t take Petty long to catch up to the greatest names in American music. The Byrds were a massive influence, and The Beach Boys made the California dream a reality for a lot of people, but there was always the slightest hint of country music coming back into the picture whenever he broke out the acoustic guitar on record.
If you listen to tunes like ‘Louisiana Rain’, Petty could clearly make a great country tune whenever the time called for it, but he would have never dreamed that he’d be working with his legends when starting out. He was only out there to have a good time, but since working with George Harrison in the Traveling Wilburys was possible, it was a gift from heaven when he got the call from Rick Rubin to work on Johnny Cash’s record.
That might not seem like the best fit on paper, but Petty actually had a lot more in common with ‘The Man in Black’ than most people think. Neither of them suffered fools gladly; they played by their own rules, and their brutal honesty whenever they performed their songs was half the reason why people were in love with them. You were getting their takes on life whenever they sang, and Petty felt that nothing could compare to working on Cash’s album Unchained.
Beyond being a great musician, Petty said that any member of the Heartbreakers was willing to do everything they could to push the record over the line, saying, “That album, Unchained, just blows my mind. I think it’s some of the best playing the Heartbreakers ever did… it would be on somebody else’s record. But we really gave him everything we could give him. We would have died for him. I’m real proud of that record, even when I hear it in the commercials.”
Cash may have had the final say, but Petty could also work as a musical translator in a lot of ways. The country superstar would be forgiven for not knowing the massive influence of a band like Soundgarden, but listening to their Southern Gothic take on a song like ‘Rusty Cage’ is perfectly suited to that outlaw style, thanks to Petty playing bass and Mike Campbell throwing in that signature travelling beat.
While both Cash and Petty are on the other side at this point, they never lost respect for each other when they were still among the living. And wherever they are, here’s hoping that both of them found the perfect front porch to sit around and play acoustic guitars until the end of time.
