When a member of the Eagles gave a teenage Tom Petty a guitar lesson
The best guitar players tend to be as much because they were inspired by the very best and had good teachers. Tom Petty had the luxury of both of those things.
After being inspired by some guitar greats who came before him, such as Brian Jones and Keith Richards, Petty knew how useful a tool a good guitar line could be. Interestingly, he started his career playing the bass, and this helped him when it came to becoming a rhythm guitarist, as he understood his role might not be the flashiest but would be integral to the construction of a good song.
When he started learning the guitar, he did so with his bass player’s hat on, which meant creating a solid rhythm that could be interwoven throughout any song thrown his way. You can hear this in all his music, as regardless of what era of Tom Petty you’re listening to, there’s no escaping the fact that he gives you some very easy chord progressions to latch on to that guide you through the track.
“I guess, because I’d been a bass player, I wanted to play rhythm in a real solid way,” said Petty, “So our music is really based on that rhythm guitar, and everything else grows from there. If I’m showing the band a new song, it’s based on rhythm guitar, and they fill in around that. But I stick really closely to the groove with the instrument.”
It’s all well and good being inspired by the right people, but one of the most important things that budding guitarists face is that very first lesson, as this can make or break the best of them. I wonder how many great guitarists the world never got to hear because they had a bad teacher who made them want to quit. If the first lesson goes bad, the instrument can feel impossible, and musicians opt to leave it by the roadside in pursuit of something else. Lucky for Petty, he had one of the best teachers around – Don Felder.
The two would-be rock stars both grew up in Gainesville, Florida, which meant they would occasionally bump into one another on the music scene. When Don Felder was making a bit of extra money working in a music store, he heard that Petty was keen on putting down the bass and learning the guitar. Knowing how important those first few lessons can be, Felder decided to take Petty under his wing and show him the basics.
“[Petty] was playing bass at the time in this band, which I think was called The Epics,” said Felder. “I remember them as the Rucker Brothers Band. It had two guitar players that both just flailed artlessly on the electric guitar, and Tommy was playing bass and singing and fronting the band, and he really didn’t want to be the singing bass player. He wanted to play guitar, so I started teaching him guitar in this music store, and going out to see him and teaching him at his house.”
Despite him only being in the early stages of his career, Felder said it was clear that Petty was going to be a star. His playing ability was second to none, and the minute he took to the stage, he had a charisma you simply can’t teach. When Felder saw that, he knew he was working with someone who would go on to become a worldwide sensation.
“Tommy was very charismatic on stage,” recalled Felder, “He had a great stage presence and a commitment that he could sell on his presence which was great, and a lot of people might have the talent, they just don’t have the commitment and charisma to get it across, and Tom has it in spades.”
