“I didn’t even want to make that”: The album Tom Petty thought sounded terrible
Artists spend their entire careers striving to reach the top. As young hopefuls, they dream of recognition, spending years working tirelessly to get their name out there, their music heard, and their break with the right audience. But for the lucky few who make it, the next step is often the most challenging: deciding what kind of artist they want to be. Do they cater to the masses to maintain commercial success, or take a risk by defying expectations and pursuing experimentation? For Tom Petty, that crossroads came with a moment of regret as he reflected on one of his albums.
Tom Petty is a perfect example of an artist who strived and climbed the ladder. He knew from a young age that music was what he wanted to do and spent his youth and early adulthood dipping between bands, trying to make something stick. After one group, Mudcrutch, split, he was kept under the wing of label executives at Shelter Records, who educated him in music beyond his own scope and built him up as a songwriter as Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers took shape. A few albums later, they were one of the biggest rock acts in America.
In the same class as Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers nailed that kind of all-American classic rock. Tracks like ‘American Girl’ and ‘Breakdown’ boomed them to success, as did his link-ups with Fleetwood Mac icon Stevie Nicks. Soon, Petty was adopted as one of rock’s favourite names, placing high on lineups and raking in album sales.
However, then hit the inevitable issue of what to do next. Once success is in an artist’s hands, its hard to know how to handle it. Looking back, Petty believes he handled it too carefully, potentially becoming boring in the process as he thinks back on Long After Dark, their 1982 fifth album.
“I didn’t even want to make that album,” Petty said, suggesting its creation was a reluctant thing from the start. “I liked a lot of the songs, but we seemed to be doing for the same sound. I was worried that we were beginning to pander to the audience for the first time,” he explained, beginning to feel like the band needed to spread their wings or push their limits.
But, experimentation is a risk. For a band at the top of their game commercially, it would be an incredibly difficult and bold decision to abandon that and try something new, potentially causing them to drop off the top spot if their fans weren’t on board with a switch-up. However, the cost of playing it safe is an album that Petty never felt excited by, stating, I can see now that some of the passion was gone, and I don’t think we really got it back until we went on the road with Bob (Dylan).”
In 1986 and 1987, Dylan invited Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers to join him on his True Confessions Tour. Obviously the band had played live plenty of times before, but there seemed to be something about this period on the road that reinvigorated them as their live show got tighter and more exciting, they felt revived and reinspired as a band and they were boosted by some quality time with a musician they deeply respected, with Petty saying, “I don’t think there is anyone we admire more.”
