Tom Petty’s joke about the daunting experience of opening for Bruce Springsteen
There are a few great stories in music history about landmark support act slots. There was the moment in 1981 when Prince opened for The Rolling Stones, only to be booed by their classic rock fans confused by ‘The Purple One’s energy. In 1967, a yet unknown Jimi Hendrix opened for The Monkees in what might be the grandest clash of cultures the stage has ever known. It must be daunting, opening up the stage to a crowd waiting for a legend to come on. Tom Petty felt that fear and pressure perhaps at its heftiest when he opened for the ultimate American legend, Bruce Springsteen.
Springsteen seems to understand that perhaps his limelight is too bright and too glaring to share. When he performs, he generally opts out of the tradition to have a smaller artist open up the show. His upcoming 2024 tour won’t have a support act but instead will just feature his own epic, usually hours-long set.
It could be said that that is a huge shame. When he played at British Summer Time, headlining London’s Hyde Park for a special event, there was a lineup of ones to watch in tow. Stone and Picture Parlour both got a chance to open up for ‘The Boss’, with the latter writing, “Yesterday was a dream.” Surely, for any artist, sharing a bill with the legend would be an incredible honour and a major moment in their career. But if you asked Tom Petty, he probably would have told you that the reality is far scarier than the reward.
In 1979, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers found themselves on the same bill as Springsteen. By this point, the band were already a success, achieving mainstream notoriety off the back of hits like ‘American Girl’ and ‘Breakdown’. They were big enough to join the roster of the No Nukes concert at Madison Square Gardens alongside Crosby, Stills & Nash, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Carly Simon and the Doobie Brothers. But mostly, they were big enough to be last on before the headliner, Bruce Springsteen.
If Tom Petty was big, Springsteen was already a giant. His 1975 album Born To Run made him a sensation, placing him as the new mouthpiece of the American working man. Darkness on the Edge of Town only built on this, and by the time the 1979 concert came around, he was one of, if not the grandest, acts in the country.
Just as they are today, Springsteen’s fans have always been fiercely loyal, dedicated and obsessed. They hold the musician up as the king, or the boss, of modern rock, to which no one else can hold a candle. Petty encountered that in full force.
“Our slot was immediately before Bruce Springsteen, who was headlining that night,” he remembered, “People were yelling ‘Bruce!’ all night long.” To any artist, that would be incredibly daunting and somewhat unpleasant, feeling like your audience was never there for you and was simply waiting for your set to be over to get to the main act. But Petty handled it with real humour.
“Jackson Browne was at the side of the stage, and he says to me, ‘Now listen, if you go on and you think they’re booing you, don’t get thrown. They’re really just saying Bruce’” he recalled. In a perfect display of the musician’s wit and charismatic humour, he quipped back, “And I said, ‘Well, what’s the difference?’”
Petty bowed to Springsteen, just like his fans did and continue to do. Even though they were peers coming up at the same time, the musician clearly saw the magic in The Boss that has made him an enduring and untouchable star. So, while it’s a shame that he doesn’t share his stage to give up-and-coming acts a boost, Petty recognised that maybe that spotlight is more of a burden when trying to live up to someone so legendary.
