“Deep depression”: The era Tom Petty called the darkest of his career
All great musicians normally have ebbs and flows to their careers. No one can expect to have everyone single one of their records debut at the top of the charts and sell millions around the world, but when fans break down their favourite artist’s body of work, the more interesting moments come when they aren’t necessarily making their blockbuster records. In those instances, every musician shows you who they really are, but Tom Petty proved that those lesser albums in his catalogue weren’t always the easiest for him to go through behind the scenes.
Then again, Petty never seemed to be someone who sweated anything he worked on. He was always looking forward to making the next great record in his mind, and he couldn’t have cared less whether it resonated with a few people or millions. Even when the label sent Full Moon Fever back to him saying they didn’t hear a single, Petty never seemed deterred for a second when sending the same thing back again.
And why should he have been by that point? He was already a member of Traveling Wilburys, notched up hit after hit, and would later make some of the most critically acclaimed records of his career, both on his own and with legends like Johnny Cash. He didn’t have to worry about pleasing anybody other than himself, but when the cycle for Wildflowers, he slowly realised that there was one important person who had had enough of him.
While the hints of Petty getting a divorce were already happening on Wildflowers, the end of the 1990s were bound to be a nightmare for him. Outside of separating from his family, Echo also marks the moment where the band started distancing themselves from bassist Howie Epstein, who was in a heated battle with heroin addiction that would eventually take his life one album later.
It’s not like Petty was at the peak of health. He already had heartache to worry about when he moved out of his house, but when looking at those few months working on the record, he had started working in a chicken shack, with some people hypothesising that he was dabbling with heroin as well. But whether or not he was abusing drugs or not hardly matters when looking at his state of mind.
“I think there are points in everyone’s life where they’re tested, and that was certainly one of mine. I had deep depression. I just had to find my way out of it.”
Tom Petty
According to Petty, this was one of his lowest points emotionally, saying, “I think there are points in everyone’s life where they’re tested, and that was certainly one of mine. I had deep depression. I just had to find my way out of it. I had some good friends, and I had the music, and if I didn’t get myself together, I wasn’t going to be able to make it. I knew I had to make more music. I wasn’t ready to give up.”
While Petty did manage to pull himself out of the darkness, he ended up channelling a lot of it into his material. Echo is far from a downer all the way through, but the standout tracks from the record are the tearjerkers, whether that’s him singing about needing someone to love him on ‘Room at the Top’ or letting the entire separation play out over the course of six minutes on the title track.
Echo is still a great insight into what Petty’s mind was like then, but it isn’t always the most pleasant listen, knowing what he was going through. He was happy to make it to the other side after the fact, but the person who shows up on the record sounds like a broken man who was never sure if he would ever love again.
