The one Heartbreaker Tom Petty didn’t want to talk to again: “He knows it’s coming”
Tom Petty wasn’t the kind to suffer fools whenever he made one of his records.
He was going to do whatever he could to make the kind of record that he could be proud of, and even if the rest of the Heartbreakers wasn’t onboard with everything he did, they were willing to give every song everything they had until it sounded perfect. They were all brothers in a sense, but Petty knew that some members of that brotherhood weren’t meant to last as long as others when they first hit the big time.
Then again, The Heartbreakers weren’t a band full of expandable people, either. Every single member of the band was integral to their sound, and when Ron Blair left the band, it was a real dilemma trying to figure out who could replace him. Blair’s bass tone was one of the most melodic pieces of the band, and while Howie Epstein fit like a glove, what really won Petty over about the new guy was his ability to sing those trademark high harmonies on every single one of their records.
The most important thing about the band was nailing that special chemistry that all of them had, and Petty already knew that he clicked with Benmont Tench and Mike Campbell immediately. They had been playing together since they were kids in Gainesville, and while Stan Lynch was late to join when the band already made it to California, he was the signature heartbeat throughout most of their albums. Then again, his days in the band weren’t always sunshine and roses, either.
You weren’t going to find a better champion for the Heartbreakers than Lynch, but that also became a problem when he tried to showboat a little too much. He was more than a little bit hurt when Jimmy Iovine didn’t like the way that he played on Damn the Torpedoes, and while Petty stood by Lynch then, the 1990s weren’t any fun at all for him. Full Moon Fever was already being made without him, and by the time of Wildflowers, Lynch seemed to overstep his bounds by auditioning for other bands behind Petty’s back.
The rest of the Heartbreakers were having a great time making Wildflowers, but since Lynch wasn’t in love with what they were playing anymore, he started to resent every single day that he was in the band. Even though he had agreed to play the grand opening of The Viper Room with the band, it didn’t take Petty long to call it and say that Lynch was becoming more of a liability to the group.
He still loved Lynch, but after one too many bad sessions, Petty’s manager Tony Dimitriades said that Petty couldn’t even bring himself to call Lynch to tell him it was over, saying, “He said, ‘Call Stan up. He knows it’s coming.’ So I called him and the first words out of his mouth were, ‘Am I fired?’ and I said, ‘Yes you are, Stan.’” It was more than a little bit cold, but it’s not like Lynch faded into obscurity or anything.
The drummer has had a great career producing people like Don Henley, and Petty managed to get one of the best drummers he could find in Steve Ferrone. Lynch wasn’t a poor drummer by any means, but when looking at the final lineup of the band, Petty had finally reached a point where he didn’t really have to worry about what the drums sounded like after years of being anxious about the band speeding up.
So in a sense, Lynch leaving the Heartbreakers was one of the few band firings where everything seemed to work out for the best. The drummer was able to express himself in a different way, and Petty was able to carry on making the kind of music that suited where he was at that point in his life.
