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Formed in Gainesville, FL, in 1970, Mudcrutch were essentially a precursor to Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, with a then 17-year-old Tom Petty on bass, Mike Campbell and Tom Leadon (the brother of ex-Eagle Bernie Leadon) on guitars, Benmont Tench on keyboards, and Randall Marsh on drums. Popular on the Florida bar circuit, Mudcrutch relocated to L.A. in 1974 and was offered a recording contract from Leon Russell and Denny Cordell's Shelter Records, but the band splintered before any significant recording was completed, although Petty remained under contract to Shelter as a solo artist. In time, the band drifted back together, this time with Petty and Campbell on guitars, Tench on keyboards, and a rhythm section of Ron Blair on bass and Stan Lynch on drums. Calling themselves Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, they assumed Petty's solo contract with Shelter Records and released the self-titled Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers LP on the label in 1976. The rest, as they say, is history. In the s...