by Paul Zollo
Copyright © 2005 Paul Zollo and Shoreline Gold LLC
This edition © 2012 Omnibus Press
(A Division of Music Sales Limited, 14–15 Berners Street, London W1T 3LJ)
Cover & Book Art Direction/Design: Christine Cano
Photo Research: Christine Cano
Cover Photo: Joel Bernstein
EISBN: 978–0–85712–764–8
The Author hereby asserts his / her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with Sections 77 to 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages.
Every effort has been made to trace the copyright holders of the photographs in this book, but one or two were unreachable. We would be grateful if the photographers concerned would contact us.
A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library.
For all your musical needs including instruments, sheet music and accessories, visit www.musicroom.com
For on-demand sheet music straight to your home printer, visit www.sheetmusicdirect.com
Dedicated with all my love, to Leslie and Joshua.
contents
Information Page
acknowledgments
about the author
foreword by tom petty
introduction
part one: life
chapter one dreamville
chapter two california
chapter three anything that’s rock ‘n’ roll
chapter four tangles & torpedoes
chapter five changing horses
chapter six who got lucky
chapter seven don’t come around here as much
chapter eight runaway trains
chapter nine handle with care
chapter ten into the great wide open
chapter eleven somewhere you feel free
chapter twelve some days are diamonds
chapter thirteen angel dream
chapter fourteen howie
chapter fifteen joe
part two: songs
chapter sixteen the records
tom petty & the heartbreakers
you’re gonna get it
damn the torpedoes
hard promises
long after dark
southern accents
pack up the plantation: live!
let me up (i’ve had enough)
full moon fever
into the great wide open
greatest hits
wildflowers
playback
songs and music from “she’s the one”
echo
anthology: through the years
the last dj
epilogue
highway companion
discography
photo credits
acknowledgments
I’d like to thank all those who helped make this book a reality. This includes many people, but mostly it includes Mary Klauzer, Andrea Rotondo, Tony Dimitriades, Christine Cano, Burt and Lois Zollo, Howard Diller, Ben Schafer, Jeff Gold, Judy Close, Peter Zollo, Andrew and Anne Kurtzman, Peggy Miller, Liza Miller, Cathy Buffington, Dana Petty, and especially Tom Petty. There are also many fans who deserve a nod, including the fans at the official BBS at TomPetty.com and the Honeybees. At Omnibus Press, I’d like to thank publicist Alison Wofford, art director Sarah Nesenjuk, production director Dan Earley, and proofreaders Amy Blankstein and Barbara Schultz.
about the author
Paul Zollo is a singer/songwriter, author, and music journalist. Since 1987, he’s dedicated himself to interviewing the world’s greatest songwriters. From 1987 to 1997, he was the editor of SongTalk, the journal of the National Academy of Songwriters. He’s currently the senior editor for American Songwriter. Born in Chicago, he studied English and Music at Boston University and is the author of The Beginning Songwriter’s Answer Book, Songwriters on Songwriting, and Hollywood Remembered. He has written about music for many magazines, including Performing Songwriter, Acoustic Guitar, Sing Out!, Billboard, Variety, and Musician, and has contributed CD liner notes for artists including Paul Simon, Laura Nyro, Dan Fogelberg, Townes Van Zandt, and Thom Bishop. As a singer/songwriter, he has performed with his own band and solo, and has co-written songs with many artists, including Severin Browne, Darryl Purpose, and Steve Allen.
foreword
When the idea of Paul Zollo conducting a series of interviews that would focus on my music came up, I thought it not a bad idea. For years fans have complained that there was no one source that covered our musical output in great depth and detail. I knew Paul from several interviews over the last decade. I found him good company and almost ridiculously prepared for each interview. He is a man whose writing has shown a great passion for songwriters and their methods. And these interviews would not be the exception. We met many times in 2004 to 2005 for talks that came to necessitate my re-listening to thirty-odd years of music as Paul would show up knowledgeable to the point of having learned to play the songs himself.
As the interviews progressed, it became clear that to understand the music one would also have to have knowledge of my life and how it has unfolded.
This, to be sure, is not an autobiography. That is for another book and another time. But to be certain, Paul has extracted what is certainly our most in-depth biography ever.
Mr. Zollo has knocked the dust off many a memory here. I hope you enjoy reading them half as much as I have living them. All the best.
—Tom Petty
introduction
This book is divided into two essential parts: The life and the music of Tom Petty. I admit it’s an arbitrary—and certainly fine and delicate—division, as Tom Petty’s life is all about his music and his music is all about his life. So these parts overlap and even repeat at times, but they succeed in capturing what has been an extraordinary life in music, and an exceptional viewpoint on the music that reflects this life.
Tom was in a happy place and spirit as we conducted the many interviews that comprise this book. We conducted these discussions over many months in 2004 and 2005 at Tom’s two Malibu homes. Sometimes we would sit in his home recording studio, surrounded by guitars, keyboards, mikes, and other abundant recording gear. We invariably used a conga drum as a table, and drank together—never booze, but Coca-Cola out of the old-fashioned little bottles—which he had conveniently stashed nearby in the studio fridge. He wore a variety of hats, and occasionally purple-tinted sunglasses. His big, gentle dog, Chase, would sometimes join us and would obey Tom’s tender commands to lie down on the floor as we spoke. On other occasions, Tom’s beloved wife Dana would come in to say, ‘Hi,’ or to give Tom some homey news. One time she brought us fruit smoothies to drink, sensing we needed a break. Another time, after a lengthy and laborious session, she served us both some delicious bowls of chili in their big kitchen. Dana’s presence always seemed to make Tom, who was already a genuinely happy guy, even happier.
It was an honor to conduct these interviews and compile this collection of remembrances. I had interviewed Tom on many other occasions, and always found him one of the warmest, most likeable, and open songwriters I’ve been fortunate enough to meet. He is an extraordinary songwriter and musician, in that his songs have transcended the decades, have appealed to many generations, and have persisted in sounding as powerful as when we first heard them. Starting in the early Seventies in his band Mudcrutch, and eventually forming one of the greatest American rock bands ever to play rock ‘n’
roll, Tom Petty has succeeded in writing songs which speak to our hearts and our souls, and which have resounded timelessly over the many years. And unlike so many of his peers who started at the same time he did and never surpassed their inaugural work, Tom has accomplished what few have accomplished in rock ‘n’ roll: A steady stream of powerful music over thirty years. It’s one of the reasons he has such an engaged and extensive fanbase. As classic and consummate as his first albums were (such as the perpetually masterful Damn The Torpedoes), he has continued to grow as a musician, and has created successive masterpieces, both solo and with his band The Heartbreakers, such as the haunting Southern Accents, the magical Full Moon Fever, and the glorious Wildflowers. He never for a moment rested on his laurels but continued to challenge himself and his band to create music that was as good and even better than what had come before.
And he was so prolific that each album had leftovers; songs that didn’t fit for one reason or another and were relegated to the vaults. Fortunately for his fans, many of these rare leftovers were given new life by producer George Drakoulias, who compiled an exquisite six-disc boxed set called Playback, which goes a long way in proving that Petty’s hits, as great as they are, are not his only great work. So many of the songs on Playback, many of which had never previously been released, could easily have been hits, so powerful are they, and so deserving of the attention that the hits received. “Our greatest hits are not necessarily our best songs,” Tom said more than once, and it’s true. There are countless songs that, if they had been released as singles with accompanying videos, could easily have been hit singles, as well. But Tom was always careful not to overextend himself or The Heartbreakers, and held a lot of classic songs back.
“I think I was at the top of my game,” he said of the album Wildflowers, “in terms of craft and inspiration colliding at the same time.” It’s a truism that can be applied to much of his work—not only does the man know how to craft a song, he does it with the bountiful love he has for songs themselves, for that delicate but powerful amalgam of words and music, a love that perseveres for the great rock ‘n’ roll songs of the Fifties and beyond which have inspired him throughout his life, and were the initial impetus for his musical journey.
What follows is the story of his life and his music, and the music of his life. The two are really inseparable, though they’ve been divided here. Yet the spirit of rock ‘n’ roll persists in holding the two parts together, as it has galvanized his work over the years and provided the world with an amazingly diverse and glorious compendium of astonishing, timeless songs.
“I don’t want to be one of those people who are miserable even when they’re successful,” he said. “That’s not the way I want my life to go.” He’s one of the rare ones who has succeeded in finding genuine happiness in the heart of huge commercial success, acknowledging that it’s a challenge to match his previous works, which include countless classics, but he also admitted it’s a fun and nurturing process, and one he has no inclination to cease. “Other people take vacations and go to Hawaii and play golf, or scuba dive. This is what I do. I write songs and I make records.” He’s prospered in his ability to be prolific over so many years, and has done so by staying connected to the thing he loves the most, the music.
He was born in Gainesville, Florida on October 20, 1950. As a kid he met Elvis, saw The Beatles on TV, and recognized that rock ‘n’ roll was the surest and most potent means of escaping his Florida existence, and providing him with a life beyond his dreams. The rest is truly history—the history of his life and his art. And it’s all here, in his own words.
—Paul Zollo
part one: life
dreamville chapter one
There’s a rumor that your grandfather killed a guy in Georgia, which forced the family to move to Florida. Any truth to that?
tp: This is what my father told me. Very late in his life. We were out on a tour bus. I asked how did the family end up in Florida if they were from Georgia. So then the story unfolded. My father’s mother was a full-blooded Cherokee Indian. “Native Americans,” as they call them now, but my family always called them “Indians.” We never referred to it [Laughs] as “Native American.”
What happened is that my grandfather was a white guy. My grandmother was a cook in a logging camp. He worked in the logging camp. They made it into pulp-wood. He married my grandmother, which was not popular, to mix the races. They didn’t dig it at all. So they were going to make it out of there. And they were on a horse and wagon. I don’t know if he stole the wagon.
He was stopped on a road by several guys. Some kind of violent situation came down about him being with an Indian. And somebody got insulted, and my grandfather ended up killing a guy. That’s what my father told me. Though I had never heard that in my life till then. They killed a guy and fled to Florida. Which makes me wonder if he didn’t change his name when he went into Florida. I don’t know. I asked my dad if he changed his name, and my dad said, ‘I don’t know. He always had this name.’ So I have no idea.
This is the story as told to me by my father. So I take it to be true, I guess.
You didn’t hear that story till you were an adult?
Yeah, it was in the Nineties actually. I remember one night we were in the bedroom of a tour bus, and we were talking, and I said, ‘Hey—how did the family wind up in Florida?’ It had never come up. Because I knew that we had relatives in Georgia. And there was always this talk about Georgia. But no one ever explained how we came to be in Florida. They came down to Florida, and they both got jobs as migrant fruit pickers. And then they’d move on to the next place. And then my grandfather eventually got back into the pulpwood business. And actually was called Pulpwood. That was the name he went by: Pulpwood Petty. I know that was true because I met another guy, this older guy named Beck. Probably in his sixties, or almost seventy. And he met me and he goes, ‘Hey—are you related to Pulpwood Petty?’ It turned out he really did know my grandfather somewhat. He said, ‘All I know about him is that he used to actually hitch down the road to work. He was a hitchhiker, and I’d pick him up sometimes and give him a ride.
I only met my grandfather a few times. He wasn’t around much. He wore a big hat. He was a very mysterious guy. [Laughs] That’s what I remember as a kid, the guy that wore a brown hat. Didn’t say a hell of a lot.
Did you know your grandmother?
Yeah, I knew her for quite a while. They lived in the country. They were country people. Had a corn crop, probably an acre. And chickens. [She] was in complete denial about being Indian. Didn’t want that out too much. Didn’t want to talk about that. Now I can see why. It was sad, really. The Indian thing was not a popular subject. They wanted to be white. Meaning my grandmother and her other two sons.
Did it mean much to you as a kid, being descended from an Indian?
It didn’t mean much because I didn’t know about it. I kind of knew about it. It was said. And you couldn’t help but know it when you saw [my grandmother]. That she was an Indian, or that she was something different than what I was used to. And we all ended up with this really straight hair, Indian hair, and Indian noses. I’m the only blonde, blue-eyed guy in the family. Everyone else is dark-skinned Indian. My mother, who was of English and French descent, was fair-haired. So I came out this way. My brother didn’t. He’s dark-skinned.
But it wasn’t something that was brought up a lot, and my mother didn’t like the whole idea at all. That we were Indian. So it wasn’t like today when I see Indian families, and they’re quite proud of it, and they stay on the reservations. [My grandparents] didn’t want to do that. My grandmother was a real small-time farmer. They lived near poverty level. I remember the house had newspaper patches, where they’d patch up a wall with a lot of newspaper and varnish it. And I thought that was really bizarre, because we came from the suburbs. [Laughs] So I did know her a bit, but not really that well. We’d only go see her two, three times a year. We’d go see her Christmas Day and maybe Ea
ster Sunday. But we never saw them much.
Were they far away?
No. They were probably about a hundred miles away, back in the sticks. A place called Reddick. That was the nearest little village, little town, to where they lived. They kind of lived back in the woods from there.
You have one brother.
Yes. Bruce. He doesn’t play music. He’s seven years younger. He lives in Tallahassee, Florida, and works for a company. He’s a sales rep, he’s got a real straight job. He really loves music and he knows it pretty well. But he never wanted to play it, because he saw all the strife I was going through, so he kind of backed away from it. I think sometimes he wishes he had. Because I tried to encourage him to do it. I told him, ‘It’s the best job around.’ [Laughs] But he didn’t go for it.
Was there a piano in your house?
No. I wish there had been.
Did you start singing early on?
Yes. Somehow I learned so many songs from listening, from the age of about eleven to fourteen, which has served me well later. I just absorbed all these rockabilly records. Tons of stuff I was interested in. I really had this knack for learning all the words. I don’t know why. My dad says I could memorize nursery rhymes when I was three. He would read me this book, and when he came back to it, he was amazed that I had memorized some of it. So I never had trouble memorizing songs.
I think the first song I sang on a microphone was probably “High Heel Sneakers” [written by Tommy Tucker]. I remember doing that and I remember doing “Love Potion #9” [written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, performed by The Searchers]. That was a big hit at the time. I just got up on the mike and did it. But I had no idea of singing in pitch. I didn’t even know about that stuff. I just sang. I didn’t even know what harmony was, really. I thought everybody sang and it came out that way. [Laughs] It would be a good year or so before I figured out, oh, there’s different lines to make harmony. I was that uneducated.