He died at 8:40 p.m. the next night, after a daylong vigil by his family, friends and bandmates. I didnt want to stay too long. I wont get into all that, but we were young and stupid and full of too much testosterone. I grabbed him and told him what I needed to tell him. It was magical, it was spiritual, Campbell affirms. Lynch contributed to the bands first eight albums, and he served as the bands original drummer for two decades until he decided to leave in 1994. Lynch has this down pat in bushels full. I figured Id get a call in a month or two: Tom wants to get together and jam some shit out., Related As the jaunty acoustic guitar in his hands filled the room with a capoed, sonorous chime, he opened his mouth and started to sing. Warren himself had been a Tom Petty fan since he was eleven, when he heard Breakdown on WBCN in Boston. Theres a reason why he was in the Wilburys with Bob, Roy and a Beatle. Since her father's death, Violette has been sharing both her family's pride over the "American Girl" singer's . Zanes also coaxed Stan Lynch, the ex-drummer of Petty's longtime backing band, The Heartbreakers, to talk unflinchingly about his falling-out with Petty. They were laughing their asses off, says Lynch. And in five minutes or so, Tom Petty comes out. I dont know how it happened, says his longtime manager Tony Dimitriades. He soon found himself in the middle of some conversations that the band was having through himconversations they had never had with themselves. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers undefined. The New Yorker may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. I felt like all of the uniforms and emotional and metaphysical stuff about being a drummer, Id sort of outgrown. In a dramatic acknowledgment of the grieving across America that week for Petty and the victims of the October 1st massacre at a music festival in Las Vegas, country singer Jason Aldean who was onstage there when the shooting began opened the October 7th episode of Saturday Night Live with I Wont Back Down, Pettys anthem of iron will and moral certainty. Also, I could never really close doors on people that were important in my past. I have a proposition for you, said Campbell, who was on the verge of kicking off his first-ever solo tour, but was going to be without regular drummer Matt Laug for a period in the spring and summer when he had commitments in Europe with Italian superstar Vasco Rossi. What people dont know is that Lynch and Pettys conflict started way back at the time of their legendary singles. Petty is a rock star who is also a member of a band that has been together since the mid-seventies, and it is difficult to be one without undermining the other. I was roadieing for him!" One day, Pettys manager, Tony Dimitriades, called Zanes out of the blue and said that Tom had read Dusty in Memphis and wanted to have dinner the next time Warren was in L.A. For Zanes, who had a new baby at home in Cleveland, It was all I could do not to leave right then. When they did meet, Petty said that the Dusty book had inspired a song, and that he wanted Zanes to come to his house to hear it. In December 2016, during a radio interview to announce the 40th Anniversary Tour, he described a recent rehearsal with the Heartbreakers, their first in two years. Petty said at the time that there were various substitute drummers being put in to join them: I will say that when other drummers were brought in, they werent Stan Lynch. Im really proud of the legacy. Stevie Nicks reprised her duet with Petty, Stop Draggin My Heart Around, a Top Five hit in 1981. And its a new life. Thirty minutes before he walked onstage, Petty welcomed singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams into his dressing room. We apologized to each other for being assholes and young and stupid, says Campbell. He ended up recording harmonies on the bands Warner Brothers dbut album, and he brought the Del Fuegos with him on tour. Choosing to be a musician back then was not like choosing a job, but an entire lifestyle. The entire band was displeased by those decisions, but Stan was the most vocal. Its so bare, without any ambiguity. Send us a tip using our anonymous form. I was always amazed how they did it their own way. You see a friends tweet first, and he closes with Ugh. Yes, thats the noise you make when you get a gut punch. The 1993 edition of Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers included, left to right: Mike Campbell, Tom Petty, Stan Lynch, Benmont Tench and Howie Epstein. The 100 Greatest TV Shows of All Time, In some small ways, the experience mirrored a very difficult time in Lynchs career with the Heartbreakers when Petty cut 1989s Full Moon Fever as a solo album and asked the band to learn the songs and tour it with him. He was the original drummer for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers for 18 years until his departure in 1994. I was pleased to see that was still there. He was pissed, Petty told writer Paul Zollo. He was just a lovely guy who loved rock & roll and came up the hard way.. Its like fucking Disneyland out there. And Tom says to Bob, Youve never been to Disneyland. Bob just started laughing. ), Looking back at that intense time all these years later, Lynch says he wishes hed handled the situation a bit differently. But less is more., Petty returned to the Wildflowers project before his 40th Anniversary marathon was over. The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time To revisit this article, select My Account, thenView saved stories, To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. We started around the same time and had a lot of the same influences. Rolling Stone is a part of Penske Media Corporation. Even though Ferrone would continue to play drums with the Heartbreakers, the boyhood friendship which brought them together had finally come to an end. Send us a tip using our anonymous form. The one-two punch of The Wild One, Forever and Anything Thats Rock and Roll seemed to rise from a thoroughly singular new talent, blowing away rock musics post-punk irresolution to point a towards a sound both classic and original. And every night, they got multiple encores., With Damn the Torpedoes, Petty and the Heartbreakers became that rare phenomenon in rock: a critically acclaimed band that packed arenas, sold albums in platinum numbers including the 1985 experimental concept, Southern Accents and made challenging singles that were popular on Top 40 radio, FM rock stations and MTV (the eerie menace of You Got Lucky; the electro-psychedelic haze of Dont Come Around Here No More). I havent been a drummer since I was in my thirties. Lynch decided to show up within 24 hours after Ringo Starr was initially substituted because he didnt want to be outdone. But the times I was designated to tag along on a couple later tours for magazine profiles, he was always welcoming, inclusive, ready with a quip that came from his slightly mysterious but usually winning vein of humor. He described us as not his main gig. And heres the thing: He didnt have an ego. Not only did this prickly anthem propel the band into the US Billboard chart and help make them a household name . We had the amps up loud, Petty told me with a delighted chuckle. Petty didnt wander. His perfectionism sometimes ran him and band both ragged, but he never let us see him sweat in public, even during the energetic if happily quirky stage shows, for which he(a great interpreter and helpmate to Bob Dylan and the Byrds)would be reliably garbed in the post-Rolling Thunder gear that would run to stovepipe hats and undertakers long coats. His hooks, his titles when he gets to them, its solid as a rock, Newman says, likening Petty in a remote, odd way to the legendary pop songwriter Burt Bacharach, who winds all over the place. There are things I could have handled better, specifically with Mike. I was just that kind of guy, he said. He admitted acting wrong and didnt communicate with his bandmates properly. It was, she says, the last time I saw him.. The drummer looked back and opened up about his time with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers during a recent appearance. Zanes, now fifty, was telling the tale the other day, while ducking out of the rain for coffee at Benvenuto Caf, in Tribeca. "Tom told me, 'Look man, you can call anybody anything you wantbut you can't lay a hand on anyone in this band.' When I heard from Mike, I almost said, Thats probably not a good fit, but I appreciate the offer. Im just so sad, Campbell says now, to think that Im not going to play those songs again., I havent seen this outpouring since my dad passed, says Dhani Harrison, a few days after Pettys death. He plowed through a career thats ineradicable, treasured, ever-present for those who love him. The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time Ive thought about having different singers up there doing the songs, but why? That would have been smaller-scale, away from the hits, Campbell says. He famously fractured his left hand when he punched a wall during a contentious mixing session for Southern Accents. Theyd kick your ass. Bob used to say, These guys communicate without talking. He liked that., Petty had a great bullshit detector he didnt suffer fools, just like my dad, says Dhani Harrison. But if its all of us without Tom, theres this big hole in the room. Even though Tom Petty's . ', I dont give a shit what were playing, adds Lynch. Petty spent much of his stardom in ready, grateful service to his rock & roll elders. I wouldnt want to let anyone down, says Lynch. And our bass player Crawdaddy [Lance Morrison] said, You should play that song together in the show. Its sad that hes gone, Springsteen says of Petty, but it was nice to be alive in his lifetime. And the work remains. [3] Petty had come out to LA with his band Mudcrutch, which Tench and Campbell were originally a part of, and had a recording contract. However, they subsequently decided to end the litigation and join forces into . When a Tom Petty . Mary Austin Will Auction Off Freddie Mercurys, Yes Release Brand New Spanking Song All, Watch The Trailer For The New Syd Barret Film, Why These 12 Rock Hits Were Hated By Fans, Michael Anthony Shares The Plans To Explore Van Halen, Wild Man Of Rock n Roll Wee Willie Harris Passed. A series of writing projects followed, which lead to Petty asking Zanes to write the biography. And with that, there can be the ultimate cost. Drums, guitar, piano, vocals. ', But when he went to speak, he found himself tentatively agreeing to the plan. You know that without this guy and without that guy, there would be no you.. There was also this thing that set us apart from the other musicians in town this drive to write our own songs.. Joe Jacksons Four Decade Tour Brings His Inimitable Quirks toL.A. Want to know what everyone in the music business is talking about. "We have the same musical pulse we always had," says Campbell of hitting the road with his old Tom Petty bandmate after . The cause of his death later revealed as multisystem organ failure due to mixed drug toxicity. The band loudly declared their love for Petty at their shows. "I got to know him over the years, really got to know him when he was in the [Traveling] Wilburys 'cause of George . And so I have regrets, but they dont hold me back. Cage singer Matt Shultz contends that like David Bowie, Petty conquered the popular belief that creativity dies with age, especially in rock & roll. Dhani recounts a story that Petty once told him about the Heartbreakers tour with Dylan a story that says everything about the way Tom interacted with people: honest but cheeky. Onstage one night, Dylan kept complaining that the stage lights were too bright and threatened to leave if they were not turned down. All rights reserved. / Youtube. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - with Blair and original drummer Stan Lynch, both from Gainesville - released their self-titled debut album in November 1976, then hit the road in earnest. Location: Katy, TX. George put it on his jukebox, Dhani says, and just had it on repeat., Earlier this year, Dhani stopped by Pettys house to play him some new music: Dhanis first solo album, IN///PARALLEL. Anything I did was accented on the drums. And of course, it wasnt good, no good at all, because not long after they confirmed he was lost. I will move on., Tom never settled for anything but the best, on any level, says Campbell, Pettys musical partner since 1970, when he joined the singers early Florida band, Mudcrutch. As it was once put to me by Mike Campbell, the unerringly crackerjack guitarist who together with master keyboardist Benmont Tench and Tom formed the irreducible center of the Heartbreakers, Tom calls the shots. Petty ran the complex brotherhood that abbreviates as TPATH as a generally benign dictatorship. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were an American rock band from Gainesville, Florida.Formed in 1976, the band originally comprised lead singer and rhythm guitarist Tom Petty, lead guitarist Mike Campbell, keyboardist Benmont Tench, drummer Stan Lynch and bassist Ron Blair.In 1982, Blair, weary of the touring lifestyle, departed the band. Hi! Petty was our guy. It made a big difference for me, and I believe my participation made a huge difference for them., Lynch has stayed on good terms with Heartbreakers keyboardist Benmont Tench during the past 30 years, and the drummer is very open to the idea of one day playing with all the surviving members of the group in some capacity. 1 in early December 2004. I had been backstage in various rooms the road managers would open to journos and posers when the band played say, Fillmore East in the 70s or various rococo rock halls in other towns from Chicago to New Orleans. In a recent interview, Lynch recalled some of his most memorable experiences, including his 2002 . Sandwiched between punk, the first moans of goth and the flagging first wave of New Wave, Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers ' track Refugee took a defiant step in reasserting the dominance of guitar rock at the butt end of the 70s. Lynch started to work with various Florida bands, among them Styrophoam Soule and Road Turkey, and when he was 15 he met Ron Blair, who was six years older than Lynch. But, Tench says, I never want this guy to be thought of as OK, weve put him in the file, thats done. Because he resonates. 2023 Rolling Stone, LLC. Tom Petty Proteges the Shelters Remember Their Mentor " Even though he was still in the band in 1989, Lynch did not perform on any songs on Petty's solo album Full Moon Fever, even though Campbell, Tench and Epstein did. He was a great performer, full of the light, a friend, Dylan said of Petty, and Ill never forget him.. Early life. Thats a long run to have someone in your life one way or another., Campbell sent over the two recent albums he released with his longtime backing band the Dirty Knobs, 2020s Wreckless Abandon and 2022s External Combustion, and told him to learn the songs. I dont think he even knew when it happened. At one point, Dimitriades told Petty, You cant tour like that. The singer responded, Why not? And hes just kind of patting this thing and Im thinking, This could go any one of ten thousand ways. He hopes hell get another chance to play with Campbell in the future, but he says hes ready for whatever happens. The 200 Greatest Singers of All Time All rights reserved. Howard Norman Epstein (July 21, 1955 - February 23, 2003) was an American musician best known as a bassist with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. She was also in the video 'Make It Better (Forget About Me)'. Its become a very special moment and the crowd picked up on the love between us.. Petty gave him complete editorial freedom, and told him that he could interview whomever he liked, because thats how Tom Petty does things. Pettys only condition was that he get to read the completed manuscript and be given the opportunity to respond to anything he felt needed it. Stan Lynch, the bands longtime drummer, who eventually quit in 1994, is unsurprisingly the most critical of Petty. Another epiphany came in 1965 when Petty then a member of a local combo called the Sundowners went to Jacksonville for his first concert, headlined by the Beach Boys and featuring two British Invasion bands, the Zombies and the Searchers, who became crucial influences on Pettys lashing-jangle charge and pocket-grenade songwriting with the Heartbreakers. On that last night at the Bowl, in his adopted hometown, the Florida-born Petty covered every mile of his journey with determined, jubilant force: his creative odyssey as a songwriter; the commercial success that continually followed him; the record-business trials that came along with it; his eternal garage-band bond with the Heartbreakers lead guitarist Mike Campbell, keyboard player Benmont Tench, bassist Ron Blair, multi-instrumentalist Scott Thurston and drummer Steve Ferrone. Lynchs run ends after a June 26 show in Aspen, Colorado. Steve Ferrone joined the Heartbreakers in 1994 after original drummer Stan Lynch's departure. Were just gonna throw a bunch of records up in the air and see where they fall tonight, Petty told the sold-out crowd in his sandy, slow-as-molasses drawl, early in a two-hour streak of legacy that was, in fact, decisively chosen and largely set in stone throughout the tour. She was having a moment. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakershad been off the road for nearly a year when the 1994 Bridge School Benefit came around. Lynch reunited with his former bandmates in 2002 when they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, playing "American Girl" and "Mary Jane's Last Dance". I'm interested in rock music, literature, cinema, and doing research in Cultural Studies. If you listen to the old records, Stan and I are pushing, were locked, and lot of times were driving the songs. He didnt like the record. Out came Petty, walking his walk, carrying the manuscript. I got the phone call and told the folks in my house, Bruce Springsteen says, recalling the sudden, shocking impact of that news. "I remember he accused me of stealing an amp from him. It was the greatest thrill of my life, Zanes said. And he said, This is really good. He sounded just like Tom Petty when he said it. After being with the Heartbreakers, Lynch calmed down. Lets do some more. Michael and Tom were able to get through anything because they were the yin and yang of it. Petty was in some ways not the easiest person to get along with. I didnt need to be that way. The original Heartbreakers came back together for the song Mary Janes Last Dance, which became one of their biggest hits. It was getting close to showtime. The idea for a new unauthorized Tom Petty biography came from a surprising source: Tom Petty. His only encounter with Petty in the years that followed took place in 2002 at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, and the only communication he can recall from guitarist Mike Campbell in the two decades since that night was a brief phone call in 2017 shortly after Petty died. It was their first face-to-face encounter in 20 years, and they had a chat before playing much music together. His only encounter with Petty in the years that followed took place in 2002 at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, and the only . Lynch reflecting on his time in Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: There were many things that were not said that should have been said. Tom Petty fired Stan Lynch It's safe to say Lynch's dismissal from the Heartbreakers wasn't a mutual decision. But he was a very good drummer and he was really conscientious, and he worked really hard. Tom Petty, at age 66, rushed from his Malibu compound to ahospital and it didnt look good. Having Stan [Lynch] play on that is very cool. Petty declared bankruptcy while making Damn the Torpedoes to force his way to a more equitable record deal. Just a week before his death, Tom Petty completed which . I do believe, and with the help of his music I will do all I can to live up to this, that Tom Petty really meant it when advised us to carry on. Ad Choices. He was 66. Both now work as session musicians and have played some live shows. There will be a time and place to talk about the music as I was doing with a longtime colleague from Rolling Stone days for a long stretch of a Sunday hike on what I could not have known was the last full day of Tom Pettys life but each Petty fan has their personal stash. Walking like Tom Petty walks. I have a memory or running into him in the upper reaches of the House of Blues before a Willie Nelson show, and retreating into a shuttered, empty dining room to smoke one. A lot of the times Id just be focused on what I was doing, but then Id turn around and be like, My God, its Lynch and hes fuckin smoking it! His last gig with the Heartbreakers was on October 2, 1994, at the Bridge School Benefit Concert in Mountain View, California. I know your leg has been killing you. Lets do this tour first., In a 2014 conversation with Rolling Stone, Petty recalled the unique genesis of Wildflowers, pointing to a day when his co-producer, Rick Rubin, played him the Beatles demos for their 1968 double LP, The Beatles. I just learn from them., Campbell feels the same way. 2023 Rolling Stone, LLC. At times, I think they were looking for some help, like, I need to put a band together. We had this unit. My father looked at me as if I were going to wear a dress and dance in the circus. But those hooks and titles are so memorable.. (The Del Fuegos lasted for one more album before disbanding; Dan Zanes went on to be a fixture on the childrens-music scene.) (For a detailed account of this saga, check out Warren Zanes definitive book Petty: The Biography. In addition to academic papers on rock, he wrote the 33 and 1/3 book on Dusty Springfields album Dusty in Memphis. Around 2000, he stopped listening to new musicexcept for Tom Petty. We all have our go-to sources of solace, and inspiration, and our personal troves of top-quality, memory-stirring rock n roll and balladeering. Stan Lynch, the band's longtime drummer, who eventually quit in 1994, is unsurprisingly the most critical of Petty. I think I have some Tom nuances in my voice. You remember dozens of moments, including an interview for Billboardwhen he was 64 and you were sitting with him in a glassed-in studio booth while distracting activity swirled all around, and he took a beat and he could take a beat as well as any showman who has walked the stage with a six-string slung around his neck and smiled one of his complicated and almost furtive smiles and said, Were professionals, right?. But Toms attitude and personality gave it a modern edge., Tench believes that as a writer, Petty walked in this strange penumbra between the shadow and the light. Free Fallin, Pettys Top 10 single from Full Moon Fever, has a catchy chorus, Tench says. There was a lot of miscommunication and a lot of immature shit going down. I have regrets. It hit me how strong the songs were, Petty said, with just a couple of acoustic guitars. The musician revealed that he wishes he had handled the situation in the band in a more proper way regarding his departure. I didnt know whether to say, Thank you or Fuck you. I only knew I was grateful to have had the experience of having all those men in my life. 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