The musician Tom Petty called “the greatest writer who ever lived”
From day one, Tom Petty never saw his songwriting as a cheap way to make money. While other artists might find the art of writing songs a chore, Petty respected the art form immensely, writing songs that seemed to appear out of the air every time he walked into the studio. Although Petty would make immense strides as a songwriter with and without The Heartbreakers, he got a formal education from the one he considers a songwriting genius.
Throughout the band’s early years, though, Petty often got lumped into the new wave movement around the late 1970s. Although there may have been a few commonalities between Petty and artists like Elvis Costello, he was more concerned with the glory days of rock and roll, initially being inspired by Elvis Presley.
Although Petty would later get the opportunity to work alongside the greatest artists of his generation in The Traveling Wilburys, he got to serve as Bob Dylan’s backing band a few years prior. Off the back of the tour for Southern Accents, Petty first got talked into the idea when his manager was working on putting together a new Dylan tour.
After putting on a handful of shows, Dylan had the idea of taking The Heartbreakers out on the road across Europe, playing everywhere they could showcasing both Petty and Dylan’s material. When discussing working against Dylan, Petty talked about being intimidated, telling Paul Zollo, “[It was] scary. You know, because you’re there with the greatest writer who ever lived. But you try to just not think about that…It really intimidated me at first, but once you’ve done the show a few times, you get used to it”.
Despite the comfort of playing together, though, the rest of the Heartbreakers said that they were thrown for a loop every time Dylan would step up to the microphone. Never one to rehearse into the ground, Dylan would often react to the song based on how he felt at the moment, leading to many songs taking a drastic turn live.
When talking about his experience, keyboardist Benmont Tench talked about how it felt like musical anarchy onstage, telling Runnin’ Down a Dream, “It’s hard because sometimes he’ll say that he wants to play it in a different key or a different time signature. Not all the time, but every now and again, a song would start, and it would be different”.
Even though Petty became friendly with Dylan throughout the tour, his greatest musical education was right around the corner. After completing work on the album Let Me Up (I’ve Had Enough), Petty would begin his work with The Traveling Wilburys, featuring a round-robin approach to songwriting.
With the lineup filled out by Dylan, Petty, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, and Roy Orbison, Petty would cherish his time working off his bandmates, recalling, “I think the thing that I learned was the luxury of seeing every one of my favourite writers write”. Once Petty settled down for his proper solo outing, Full Moon Fever, though, he was no longer the new kid on the block. Having turned in time amongst rock legends, Petty had graduated to the elder statesman phase of rock and roll.
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