“It really bothered me”: The 1985 Tom Petty tour that disgusted REM
The history of America’s Deep South is complex. On one hand, it produced a powerful and inspiring legacy of art and music, especially blues and country, which eventually evolved into rock and roll. That cultural tradition shaped artists like Tom Petty and REM. But on the other hand, the region also carries a deeply troubling history of racism.
The Deep South states were the most economically dependent on slavery. The plantation system was strongest there, and as a result, racism became deeply embedded in the region. It was in the Deep South that the Ku Klux Klan originated, where Jim Crow laws were enforced most aggressively and proved hardest to dismantle, and where attitudes rooted in conservatism and “white Christian values” often remain especially strong today.
However, from the 1960s and into today, it’s also where social justice groups are rallying hard to turn attitudes around, stamp out racism and work on finally dispelling the stereotype of the area. There’s still an active attempt to usher in the ‘New South’, and as artists like Petty and REM hit the big time, they were part of that wave.
Though they broke out in different decades, Floridian Tom Petty and Georgia’s REM are two leading lights as artists from the Deep South who broke down stereotypes both musically with their fresh sonics, but also filled their lyrics with politically and social consciousness. Across his discography, Petty considered topics like corporate greed, violence and political riots. REM looked at their own modern landscape and attempted to grapple with the various issues of social, political and economic strife.
Both felt like acts that could make a difference to your classic southern listener. The music was still connected to that classic all-American rock sound, being just easy-listening and smooth enough to draw them in. But then, when REM saw what they were being drawn into, they instantly lost respect for Petty.
During his 1985 run of dates, titled the Southern Accents Tour and heavily themed around his Southern roots, Petty used the Confederate flag as part of his stage backdrop. The symbol is now widely recognised as representing white supremacy and racism. Historically, it was tied to the Confederacy, a breakaway state formed in opposition to the United States when slavery was abolished. When REM saw the flag displayed on Petty’s stage, they were disgusted, particularly as fellow Southerners who understood the weight of its history.
“Only someone who hasn’t lived in the South for 15 years would dare put a Confederate flag up above their stage,” Peter Buck said in 1986, shocked by Petty’s ignorance. He added, “It really bothered me. The Confederate flag basically stands for a lot of badness that I don’t want to know about, that should be gone. And it’s the idiots that wave those kinda things around that don’t think.”
Later down the line, Petty himself would come to regret the move, stating, “downright stupid” and “ignorant”. He said that in his youth, he’d see the flag as just “wallpaper”, but had come to see it for what it meant today, urging his fans not to bring the symbol to his shows and apologising to those he offended.
