Country Sunshine: Tom Petty once named “the kings” of California music
There’s a certain aura that comes with musicians from California. Even if not all of them end up sounding the same, there’s normally a particular energy from everyone from The Beach Boys to Red Hot Chili Peppers that makes people think of bright sunshine and cruising down Santa Monica Boulevard. Tom Petty may have started as a transplant in California, but he knew that when he was on the rise, the Eagles were the true rulers of the Sunshine State.
But not many of the Eagles could have claimed to be California natives. There was something that drew someone like Glenn Frey out of the cold city of Detroit, and once he hooked up with JD Souther on one of his first days in the city, he knew that his calling was about singing about the breezy side of life rather than anything serious.
While Don Henley was more entrenched in the country mould thanks to growing up in Texas and even getting a chance of a lifetime from legend Kenny Rogers, bringing both of them together with Linda Ronstadt was the start of what would become a giant. On the other side of the country, Petty was still cutting his teeth in Mudcrutch, all while taking in the sounds of California.
Although the Heartbreakers eventually morphed into a much different beast, they did share some common DNA with the Eagles. One of Bernie Leadon’s brothers was in an early version of Mudcrutch with Petty, and Don Felder had even admitted to giving the heartland rocker guitar lessons when he was first starting out on the instrument.
Despite wanting to go against the grain, Petty couldn’t argue that the Eagles were a group they could aspire to be, telling NME in 1980, “We’re toying with the idea of playing more country songs now. Not Californian country rock which became a bad word. I think [The Eagles] are a good band. They’re the kings of that genre.”
While the Eagles themselves would have probably told the press they weren’t doing anything that acts like Gram Parsons hadn’t been doing years before, it’s easy to see them slowly carving out their own niche as the years went on. They had their country-adjacent side on albums like Desperado, but how do people explain the soul-infused songs like ‘One Of These Nights’ or the hard rock that turns up on ‘Life in the Fast Lane’?
It’s not like Petty didn’t find time to sprinkle in some of that country-leaning style into his own songs. Just look at his later career in the 1990s, where he started favouring acoustic material on Wildflowers and even backed up Johnny Cash when the country legend made his great comeback on the album Unchained. Even in the documentary Runnin’ Down a Dream, Petty could be heard suggesting adding songs to the set like Hank Williams’s classic ‘Lost Highway’.
That was still country, but it was coming at it from a different angle. The Eagles benefited from having a bit of twang in their vocals, but for Petty, this genre was about getting deep into the heart of pure American music.
