Mudcrutch: the failed band that gave the world Tom Petty
Not every band is meant to go the distance. You may have that kind of band-of-brothers mentality when you start out, but there’s only so far to take a dream before you realise that you might be wasting your time. Mudcrutch was never meant to change the world overnight, but Tom Petty did not give up on rock and roll no matter what got in his way.
When they first started playing together, Petty was far from the frontman we know today. Sticking to bass, Petty wasn’t even the lead singer, leaving vocal duties to Jim Lenahan before the singer switched to being their lighting director. Though the group were making waves in their native Gainsville, it was only a matter of time before they realised that no one was going down to Florida in the hopes of signing a band.
They needed to go to where the people were, and Petty took a road trip to Los Angeles to find a record label to work with. After getting a few bites, Petty came home to tell the outfit about the good news before producer Denny Cordell took them under his wing. Everything seemed to be perfect, but that magic single just wasn’t there when it came time to release the record.
After going nowhere on the charts, Petty was given a choice that no artist wants: go solo and give up on the band or fade into obscurity. Drummer Randall Marsh remembered the day that Petty had to tell him about everything, recalling in Runnin’ Down a Dream, “He said, ‘The record company told me that. Basically, they want me and aren’t as interested in the band.’”
While Petty insisted on keeping guitarist Mike Campbell on hand, he would have to get used to couch-surfing the next few months when looking for jobs. Since working as a songwriter that doesn’t have any hits never pays the bills, Petty knew that he found his calling when hearing his Mudcrutch buddy Benmont Tench working on a new band with Stan Lynch and Rob Blair.
Given that Petty already had a record deal, it probably wasn’t that hard a decision for the group to say yes when he asked them to be his backing band. Then again, the Heartbreakers were never meant to be just an outfit of hired guns centred around Petty.
Looking at the way they interacted with Petty onstage and in the studio, The Heartbreakers served the same role that the E Street Band did with Bruce Springsteen or Crazy Horse did with Neil Young. They may have been a side act in name, but the kind of textures that Tench created with his piano and Campbell played on guitar was as important as any lyric Petty ever spit out.
Then again, no one forgets their first love, and Mudcrutch actually got back together for a few records shortly before Petty’s death. Considering they hadn’t played together in years, it’s easier to see what the band were going for in hindsight.
Somewhere between the Eagles and the Allman Brothers, the group had that signature blend of country and rock and roll that Petty flirted with but never fully mastered. Across their two albums, hearing them incorporating bluegrass songs and extending into jams makes them feel like the offspring of what Lynyrd Skynyrd had only hinted at. And if you look at the state of modern outlaw country today, there’s a good chance that Mudcrutch could have been the progenitors of artists like Chris Stapleton had they had the opportunity to get bigger.
