“The Lawsuit Tour”: The tour Tom Petty played to spite his record company
Tom Petty was never one to be trifled with when he started out. He may have made music that both dads and kids could enjoy, but underneath that mane of blonde hair was a punk with a fire in his belly who was never going to take crap from anyone. So, when Petty slapped his label with a lawsuit after they decided to seize the rights to his songs, he was ready to take the rest of the Heartbreakers on the road purely out of spite.
When working on Damn the Torpedoes, Petty was already starting to feel the pressure of fame. His last two records had modest success on the charts, but this would be the album that would either cement him as a songwriter or keep him underground for the rest of his days. Production guru Jimmy Iovine may have helped him reach the top, but not before MCA Records took the copyright of his songs away.
Although Petty had no idea what his contract entailed when he originally signed it, he remembered being pissed off when he realised that he wasn’t getting paid for what he wrote, telling Runnin’ Down a Dream, “I thought publishing was for songbooks, I swear to God. I thought that just meant that you could put it in a songbook. I had no idea that you owned the copyright to my songs, and I would never see a dime for it.”
Most artists tend to sign deals like this, but Petty was ready to fight to get his songs back. Since all contracts were voided if Petty was bankrupt, he filed for bankruptcy and did everything he could to go to war against his record company. Given that the next album was going to have hits like ‘Refugee’ and ‘Here Comes My Girl’ on it, there was no way he was going to let them get away.
Petty wasn’t willing to budge on his stance, but musicians still have to eat, and to make some money on the side, he took the Heartbreakers out on the road, saying, “We went on tour, and we called it ‘The Lawsuit Tour’. And we made T-shirts that said ‘Why MCA?’ on it.” Although most musicians would be terrified to see their paychecks stop rolling in, the rest of the Heartbreakers didn’t flinch for a second.
When talking about the ordeal in Classic Albums, keyboardist Benmont Tench said that he had complete faith in what Petty was doing, saying, “I was a bit worried when they said that they had the right to come in and seize the tapes. But Tom’s a tough nut, and [I knew] that that wasn’t going to happen.” For as much of a David vs. Goliath story as it seemed, Petty did land the final blow just before the record came out, getting his publishing back and then dominating the late 1970s with tracks like ‘Don’t Do Me Like That’.
That wasn’t even the last time that he decided to prod at the big business side of the music industry. Once the label thought they could raise the prices of his album because he was popular, Petty went to war all over again on the next album to make sure his fans didn’t have to pay some outrageous price for his music.
Most executives during that time probably saw Petty as one massive headache, but he wasn’t looking to sell himself out to big business. He was a rock and roller to his core, and that meant looking out for the little guy.
