The singer Tom Petty called “a role model for my generation”
By rock and roll standards, Tom Petty was born at the perfect time in many respects.
Although he may have faced a lot of hardship growing up, getting the chance to see a lot of rock and roll history up close and hang out with many of his favourite artists would have been like the musical version of a kid in a candy store for anyone else around his age. But in terms of rock and roll legends, Petty was always aware when someone’s influence went well beyond the music that they made.
Then again, it’s not like Petty was trying to make intellectual music or anything. He always maintained the fact that his records were cheap stuff, and even if that pissed some people off, he stood by it. He was merely the conduit for those great songs coming into existence, and while that was a gift from the musical heavens in many respects, he never considered himself in the same conversation as his heroes.
He wasn’t about to say that his music was as important as the likes of Carl Perkins or Elvis Presley, but in many ways, it was. When looking through a lot of his best work, every song was about him trying to paint a picture of what America was supposed to look like, and when he eventually hit upon songs like ‘Southern Accents’, he had begun making the kind of melodies that are as ingrained into American culture as any other patriotic tune.
But that doesn’t happen overnight. That can only come from following in the footsteps of the rock and roll greats, and it’s not like Petty didn’t do his fair bit of research beforehand. Presley was merely the beginning of thinking outside the box, and while Bob Dylan opened up everyone’s mind when he first started making his earth-shaking anthems, Petty felt that few who compared to what John Lennon could do.
Even in the context of The Beatles, Lennon was the perfect package for what a rock star was meant to be. Every girl may have fallen in love the minute that Paul McCartney flashed those doe eyes their way, but there was something about Lennon that was always searching for the next thing. But even if he didn’t make anything past the early 1970s, Petty felt that his legacy was all but secure.
Compared to every other artist, Petty thought that no other singer managed to teach his generation more than Lennon did, saying, “To me, Lennon’s legacy is honesty. When I was young and seeing the Beatles performing on TV, they were the first ones who weren’t just saying pat, showbiz banter. They’d actually say something. He was a great role model for my whole generation, because you knew when John suffered and you knew when John was happy, but it all somehow came out OK.”
And it’s not like Lennon’s back pages were sunshine and roses, either. His suffering was far more graphic that anyone could have imagined, and while it did lead to some truly inexcusable behaviour from him as a young man, the fact that he was able to be that open and vulnerable around his audience is the reason why so many musicians were able to dig up their skeletons, whether that was Dylan getting candid on Blood on the Tracks or even Petty airing out his own dirty laundry throughout most of Echo.
While there’s no way that Lennon’s legend is ever going to be eclipsed, Petty knew that it was never about that. The former Beatle was there to show everyone what could be done under the rock and roll format, and while Petty was one of many disciples, that kind of kinship with an artist can only come from a musician that’s thinking about the bigger picture every time they sing.
