November 28, 2023 • 40 mins
November marks a number of anniversaries for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and on this episode of Takin A Walk we celebrate them with two guests who have been up close for many years.
Joel Selvin is a an American-San Francisco based music critic and author known for his weekly column in the San Francisco Chronicle from 1972 to 2009. San Francisco was an important market for Tom Petty and Joel had a ring side seat for all of the festivities.
Jon Scott is a former label executive with Tom Petty's label and the author of the book "Tom Petty and Me."
November Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers milestones include:
November 9, 1976, is the date they released their first album.
November 2, 1982, is the date they released "Long After Dark."
Support the show: https://takinawalk.com/
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Taking a Walk. What was happening on stage was that
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were rediscovering themselves as a
great rock and roll band and connecting again to the
bliss that brought them in the things. They played a
Zombies song called they Want You Back Every Night that
Tom remembered from having seen the Zombies back in nineteen
(00:23):
sixty six.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Welcome to the Taking a Walk Podcast, a celebration in
music history. Join your host Buzz Night celebrating the great
Tom Petty and some November moments that are pure nuggets
in music history. Tom's self titled debut album was released
in November of nineteen seventy six. His Long After Dark
album was released in November of nineteen eighty two. Then
(00:46):
there was that great run of shows at the film
Wore that were released in November of twenty two. On
this special Petty celebration, Buzz welcomes music journalist Joel Selvin,
who spent years covering the work of Tom Petty and
the heart Breakers, and John Scott, who worked for years
for Tom's label and is the author of Tom Petty
and Me. Join Buzz next celebrating Tom Petty.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
As we like to celebrate music history, we celebrate Tom
Petty and we turned to an authority.
Speaker 4 (01:17):
On all things music.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
He is a legendary San Francisco based music critic known
for his work at the San Francisco Chronicle, the author
of multiple books, and he's a returning guest on the
Taking a Walk podcast.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
Hello, Joel Selvin.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
I can't decide whether I've been knighted or buzzed.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
All the above. Good to be back, buzz Thank you
for being on.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
So how was Tom Petty received to your recollection? In
nineteen seventy six, when the debut album came.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Out, the band played six nights in the Bay Area,
three nine in the club in Palo Alto, the Keystone
Palo Alto, and three nights at the sister club, Keystone Berkeley.
The opening act was a local band that just also
put out their first album, that'd be the Greg Kin Band.
(02:17):
Patty's album was already getting airplay on the FM station
in Town, Ksa, n They were really one of the
first stations in the country to join the Pom Petty bandwagon,
and that first album was very well received. So there
was some interest in the band beyond like, you know,
(02:38):
who are these guys with a new album, there was
some knowledge and my recollection of the opening night show
at Keystone Palo Alto was that there was like, you know,
three quarters of a house, a good crowd, and the
band just blew everybody's mind the case and had them
back very shortly there after for a live broadcast which
(03:04):
was recorded and released on an official bootleg album as
a promo item. It's quite a collector's item these days,
but it has a terrific live version of Luna on it.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
And did you get access to him at all interview wise?
In that first go round?
Speaker 1 (03:24):
I met the band yahaya great looking forward to it,
and you know, that was it. The Tom Petty interviews
started a little bit later, and you know, over the
course of time, he was such a popular act in
San Francisco, and I think the band sort of looked
upon San Francisco as kind of a home away from
(03:46):
home where they were very well received from the very
beginning of their career. So yeah, no, Tom was always
you know, a feature of the Chronicles pop music coverage.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
And then we moved to Long After Dark, which was
really a breakthrough in nineteen eighty two.
Speaker 4 (04:04):
What was your recollection of the release of that.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
You know, by that time, the Petty records were a thing.
I mean, you know, you knew that there was a
new Tom Petty album that was going to have important
tracks on it. They were going to be on the radio.
And you know, I was looking at old clip files recently,
(04:30):
and I mean that period of time was just so rich.
I saw that. In one week in nineteen eighty four,
I reviewed Bob Seeger, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and
Prince and they were all had new albums out. They're
all big hit records, They're all sold out Oakland Coliseum shows.
(04:55):
It was just an amazingly rich period of time in
rock music.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
And that long after Dark really had the MTV breakthrough
for Petty, didn't it.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
You know, Petty was not like that MTV kind of
a guy. You know, the thespian qualities of Duran. Duran
were something they didn't aspire to, but inevitably the records
were so good that the TV station had to break
down and get him on there.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
And then you were in the middle of it in
nineteen ninety seven with the unbelievable residency that he did
at the Fillmore West, which I know started in November
of that year, but moved into ninety eight.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
What were your recollections of those shows?
Speaker 1 (05:48):
That's pretty much pressed into my mind, so I forget
the exact count. There was like twenty thirty shows, and
it was like a part time job for me. I mean,
you know, I covered the first weekend Friday, Saturday, and Sunday,
and then as they kept going, I would stop back
(06:08):
and maybe I'd be on my way out somewhere else
and I'd stop by and catch the first part of
this set, or maybe I've been out somewhere else and
I'd come back to the film more and catch the
last part. I don't know how many of my I saw.
It just seemed like, you know, like I said, like
it was a part time job. I had to beat
the filmore to see Tom Petty, and there were a
lot of us that were doing that, you know, because
(06:31):
we were comparing notes, Well he did what last night?
Oh my god, let me see the song last you know.
Such a unique and extraordinary run of events. Now, what
was going on with the band is so interesting. They
had taken a year off. The year before that, they
(06:51):
had been on the road extensively, playing all the sheds
in America, playing the same songs in the same order
every night, and they were super conscious about delivering consumer satisfaction.
You know, high ticket prices, parking, all the hassle to
(07:12):
get to the show and park your car and make it.
They were really conscious of that and worked really hard
to put on this very well designed show. But somewhere
in the process they lost the bliss of being a
rock and roll band. They became like an automatic thing,
and they took a year off and really didn't know
(07:33):
what to do. And it was Petty's idea to come
up to the fillmore and just sit down there. And
the shows were not anything like the Tom Petty and
the Heartbreaker shows that had been in the sheds. Almost
every night it opened with some old rock and roll song,
(07:53):
whether it's Little Richard or put on your break Dress Baby.
Speaker 5 (08:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Then one night they did that, I mean it was
just and then they would pick pieces out of the
Tom Pitty and the Heartbreaker's repertoire. Some of them were
in every night, like Mary Jane's Last Dance was every
night ten twelve, fifteen minutes long. King's Highway was frequent.
(08:26):
I'd have to look at the box set again to
remember the whole repertoire. But they had like a half
a dozen heartbreaker songs and they threw him in at
different points in the show. Toward the end of the run,
they had a kind of climax built into a giant
version of Gloria g l Oria and they're bringing in
(08:49):
special guests. They brought in Roger mcgwinn and the Birds,
John Lee Hooker, Carl Perkins. It was just it was
a club and they were the members of the club,
and we just were there to be their audience. It
was a fantastic run. And when I look back on
(09:10):
not just I mean of all the music I've seen
in my life, I got it put the Last Waltz
at the top of the list. It was just an
amazing night of music. But second place is the Tom
Petty Filmore run. It was just so satisfying and the
band was living out a dream and rediscovering themselves. One afternoon,
(09:37):
guitarist Mike Campbell was sitting in the hotel, which is
like two blocks from the film wre I mean, they
didn't even take a cab to the gig, right, they
just walked. And he's working on a guitar lick and
he gets it together and goes to soundcheck and shows
it to Tom, and Tom writes a bunch of lyrics
(09:58):
and they play the song that night. It's called Dating
the Ugly Homecoming Queen, and it's on the live box
set and it's wonderful, sort of Fleetwood macish thing that
you know. It was just fresh on the slab tonight
here it is. So that was the kind of attitude
that those guys were playing. They came to a closing
(10:20):
night and they broadcast it on the FM radio, I
think all across the country on some network. But that
night they just decided to do everything, everything they'd ever done,
And I mean like Campbell was doing a surf instrumental
every night, Benmont Tansh was playing Booker t songs, Petty
(10:41):
was doing everything from Bill Withers to saying you Are
My Sunshine. One night because that was the first song
he ever learned. He played it back in summer camp.
I mean, it was just no telling what was going
to happen. Everybody was having a great time, and what
was happening on stage was that Tom Patty and the
Heartbreakers were rediscovering themselves as a great rock and roll
(11:04):
band and connecting again to the bliss that brought them
in the things. They played a zombie song called they
Want You Back every Night that Tom remembered from having
seen the Zombies back in nineteen sixty six.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
And I think you've told me you had opportunities to
sit and interview Tom.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Is that correct? Oh, we had to explain the run
to the newspaper readers, and then we had to like
patch up on how it was going during the run,
and then we had to do a summation. So, you know,
I checked in with Tom in depth at the beginning
and the end and through the middle. You know, I
(11:47):
pick up, you know, a little quotes and comments and
stuff like that. And so as I said that he
was completely tired of what he was doing, wanted to
re animate the whole Tom Petty and the Heartbreaker's thing.
And that was the goal of this filmore run. To
throw away the set list, to be a rock band,
(12:11):
to enjoy what they're doing, and to do it for themselves,
not the audience. And that was what it took. And
by the end of the run, and it went into January,
so it was pretty much about three months, Tom was
a returned to who he had been, he was back
(12:34):
in the band, he was happy, he was reconnected with
all the things that were important to him, and off
they went. They came back to the Filmore the next
year for another short run, but you know, they've done
the thing and it had had its effect, and that
lasted the band the rest of Tom's life.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
Well, I have to also ask in closing, there's some
recent news that involves the Heartbreakers and involves Dylan, which
I'm sure you have followed with the recent live Aid
surprise appearance there with Bob. What impact do you think
(13:15):
the Heartbreakers and Tom certainly had on Dylan And where
do you think this might be going with Dylan's future.
Speaker 4 (13:23):
Do you think there'll be more of this type of event?
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Dylan's never predictable. I love Bob Dylan because he's really
just his own self. Of course, they did a world
tour with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers as Dylan's backup
band back in the mid eighties when Dylan was you know,
kind of you know, a low point in his career
and he was kind of borrowing the Petty audience. After that,
(13:51):
he went out and did a bunch of dates with
the Grateful Dad and just completely borrowed their audience. But
the Petty and Dylan show, we're much more of an
authentic collaboration. And it really loosened Dilan up a lot
and gave him a great rock band to play with
for a while. And I remember he was throwing in
songs in the set that he hadn't done ever before.
(14:15):
I remember he was doing Ricky Nelson's Lonesome Town. Ricky
Nilson used to like to do my songs I'd like
to do. Want to hear this, you know, I mean
it was a renaissance for Dylan at a time when
he needed it. So those guys were tight and tidy,
and of course Tom and Bob were in the Traveling
Wilbury's together. It wasn't a surprise to me to see
(14:37):
them show up and back him up at Farmaid for
three songs. And you know, they all know each other,
they've all played together, they're all like minded individuals. It's
a beautiful collaboration. I don't know if it'll ever happen
again or not, but you know it's up there on YouTube.
You can check it out.
Speaker 4 (14:54):
Joel, thank you, thank you so much for doing this.
I appreciate it.
Speaker 6 (14:59):
We'll be right back with more of the Taking a
Walk Podcast. Welcome back to the Taking a Walk Podcast.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
So as we continue celebrating Tom Petty on the Taking
a Walk Podcast, We're going to turn to the author
of the book Tom Petty and Me, a Journey told
by the amazing John Scott from his experience and friendship
with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. It's so great to
reconnect with you, mister Scott.
Speaker 5 (15:32):
You too, buzz And I love anybody who has a
name like buzz is on the radio. That's really cool.
Buzz I love that I was just John Scottland Radio,
but Buzz, I think is a cool name. Man. Thank
you anyway, I'm good. I'm so glad to be here
because so I've kind of got a lot of Petty
memories running around my head right now. And he dedicated
(15:54):
a song to me at his last concert of his life,
and I didn't know what was coming, and it was
because of all the things I did with him back
in the seventies and continued on doing things. And I
still say, there'll never be another Tom Petty. He was
one of a kind, great guy, great songwriter, just a
(16:19):
true icon. I mean, doesn't get much better than Tom
Petty and the Heartbreakers, maybe the Traveling Mulberry's.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
But well, we love celebrating here in November. The significant days,
the first being going back to November ninth, nineteen seventy six,
which was when the debut album was released. Give me
(16:46):
your recollection of that moment, as you were close to
Tom and working with Tom when that first release came out.
Speaker 5 (16:54):
Well, guess what, I have no recollection whatsoever of that
album coming out. And I'll tell you why. Around that
time in October of seventy seven, maybe there was a
friend of mine. I was in Boston and a who concert.
I was working for MCA Records, and I was the
national album promotion director and I was sitting with a
guy who worked at ABC Records. He said, you know,
(17:16):
I got up this band I want to send you.
I think you will like him. They're called Tom Penny
and Heartbreakers, and I'll send you a copy. And he
never did. And so I just kind of forgot the
name Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers because it's the time
I was working for an ACA, like I said, and
I got fired by them because I was trying to
(17:38):
get this record played on the radio. That was part
of my job is to get records played on the radio,
as you know. And I was working with this kid
named Johnny Cougar and I just dug the kid. I
thought he's really good. He had a lot of promise,
and MCA hated him and they told me to stop
working the record And went, what do you mean. I
just got WMMS in Cleveland on the record, one of
(18:01):
the biggest stations in the America. They said, we don't
we don't care. You're fired. I went, WHOA, just trying
to do my job anyway. So right around that time, well,
I'm still working for MCA, but that's my memory, first
memory of hearing the name Tom Petty the Heartbreakers, and
the guy never sent me the album. And I went
to work at ABC Records in August of seventy seven.
(18:24):
So first time I going. First time came out in
seventy six, right, And I went to work in August
of seventy seven and still had no idea who Tom
Petty and the Heartbreakers were. And all I knew was
that my boss told me not to get involved like
you did with Johnny Couger again, or you'll get fired,
(18:45):
because if we want to drop an artist we're going
to drop him, and if you get in the way,
you're gonna get fired again John, and I had to
raise my right hand. That's short of God, Okay, I
raised my right hand. I will not be involved with
any bands that you're about to drop. And it was
kind of a funny moment, but I didn't think anything
(19:06):
about it. But three days later, I was in my
office and I didn't have anything to do because I
was in between albums being worked, and I opened my
closet door to get my jacket out as a record
fell down out of the closet and it was a
white album cover and I pulled the vinyl out and
was nothing on the vinyl, and being a former DJ,
(19:30):
I went, I got to listen to this record because
I don't know who it is. And I sat down
and I heard a breakdown and I heard American girl
and hair is standing up on my arms, Like you
know what that feeling is like when you hear something.
I'm sure a lot of your listeners too, when you
hear something you turns you on. Your hair got get goosebumps,
and the hair stands up on my body and on
(19:50):
my arms, not everywhere, but and I just I was
in a trance. To be quite honest with you, I
was going, who the hell, this is one of the
greatest records I've heard in a long time. And I
went to my boss and he said, let me see
that album. He puts it on. Ten seconds. Oh that's
that punk band, Tom Petty and the Heartburgers. And I
(20:12):
kind of went, you said, punk band, this is a
rock and roll band. He said, no, it's a punk band. Well,
holy shit, if you listen to American Girl, that's the
rock and roll record. And he said, we're dropping them.
I'm like, oh, you can't do that. Don't do that.
We got we're ropping them six weeks. The record's been
out for eight months, so twelve thousand copies, and we
(20:36):
spent too much money on the band, so we're dumping them.
And I'm going, oh my god, just give me a
chance to try and get this record. Played call a
few of my friends and he said, John, you're doing
it again. I went, I don't care. I don't know.
I'm just in my mind. I knew what I heard.
You know what it's like when you hear something like that.
(20:57):
And I said, I don't care. I don't care. If
I get fired or not, just give me six weeks
to try to get my friends, to some of my
radio friends to at least listen to it. And he
finally said okay, and so I go back to my office.
I started calling some of my radio friends and they
went and then eight months about eight month old album,
and then a punk band, and I'm kind of like,
(21:18):
what hell these people thinking? And the cover comes out.
The cover of Tom's first album is what caused one
of the reasons a problem was caused because he had
a black leather jacket on and bullets around his neck
and a smirk. And I guess people, I mean radio
(21:41):
stations weren't really playing punk records at the time. I
don't think. I don't think they were playing the Ramones
or I don't know. I don't know. I just I
just know that I keep hearing the word punk, and
I'm going, what is wrong with people? And anyway, So
I was sitting there and I finally got somebody on
the phone and oh, yeah, so I'm pretty good here
(22:01):
and I went, oh, I'm on this something, I'm onto
something finally here and the next day a guy named
Charlie Kendall. You probably know who Charlie is. He went
to work at KWST, a new station in Los Angeles.
It was going to challenge kamy T, which was the
big dog in Los Angeles. I went over to his
apartment and said, Charlie, you just sit on the floor.
(22:22):
Listens now. Put the headphones on this album. And he
sat there and he's cross legged. He was kind of
bobbing along. He pulled the headphones office. Who is this band?
They're incredible? Who is this? I said, Tom penny Hartburgers.
I never heard of him. I said, well, a lot
of people haven't heard of them. But anyway, he said,
(22:44):
are they any good live? And I said, I just
picked up the record by accident three days ago. I
have no clue if they're any good live, but I
do know that they're opening for Blondie this coming Saturday
night at the Whiskey by chance. And he said, we're
going to go, hell yeah, we're going to go see
this guy, Tom Petty. And we went to the club
(23:04):
and he came on at seven o'clock, about ten fifteen
people in the club and we were just kind of going, Oh,
the way, knows who this guy is. He came on
and did oh, Carol the Chuck Berry song and just
killed it. Man, Mike Campbell killed it, and what a
great guitar player he is. And anyway, Charie, and then
(23:26):
he played Breakdown, and Charlie leaned over and said, I'm
gonna start playing Breakdown on Monday morning. And nobody in
Los Angeles had been playing Tom Petty. So he does
a thirty minute set and it's over, no encore. But
and when they came out, I was gonna, please, don't
be a punk man, please please please, And they came out.
They had their own coolness about him comment a scarphone,
(23:46):
and I know the other guys just looked so cool.
And I saw vox amps on the stage and that's good.
But anyway, so they did, and Charlie's when he said,
I'm gonna start playing Breakdown once an hour every hour.
This is a hit record. I knew, if you're promotion guy,
you have that ad in your pocket, you know, and
you're going all right? And so the show endedn't know,
(24:09):
I say, he didn't do an encore, and I said,
let's go meet this guy. We go upstairs with no
security and I see Tom's in the corner wiping his
face off. With catal I'm going to Hey, Tom, I'm
I'm John Scott, the new head of album promotion at
ABC Records. I don't give a crap who the fuck
(24:30):
you are? We hate ABC Records and they've done nothing
for us for eight months, so who are you? I said, well,
I really like your music, but have you ever heard
it on the radio in Los Angeles? He went to
know why. I said, well, this guy here is so
start playing it Monday morning on the news station. He
went bullshit, another ABC nut job, telling me they're going
(24:55):
to do something, and for eight months they've done nothing,
and I'm kind of taking aback because I've never had
an artist do that to me in my life, you know.
Just start cursing at me. I said, look, I have
no I have no history of what happened with ABC
Records that I have no clue. But he said, just
get out, please. Bug just scored him out, and the
(25:15):
roady came over to score me and Charlie out, and
I stopped and said, Tom, I'm going to break your
career wide open. How's that? And I'm saying this because
I don't I don't know if I can, but in
my heart, in my ears, I knew I could. And
then boy, the whole room was the band was laughing,
and this guy's going to break our career. And he
(25:38):
had started off, he'd gotten a little following going in England,
but he came home and there were nobody's and that's
why they're giving me all the static. And right when
I got to the door, I just turned around and said,
Tom Petty, my name is John Scott. When you hear
your record of the radio, you will never forget my name. Okay,
(25:59):
get out, And he threw us out of the whiskey,
and so Charlie and I are actually laughing as we
walked down the stairs of the whiskey because we just
knew what was going to happen. We knew the Breakdown
was going to come out and just take over Los Angeles.
At least we thought we were sure enough. He started
playing in Monday morning. On Wednesday, he called and said, Man,
(26:22):
Tower Record just called most of who this band isn't playing.
I was blown away. And although I kind of expected
that to happen, I really did. It sounds crazy, you know,
but so at the time, Times manager Tony Demitriodis, who
was his manager for forty fifty years called said, who
are you. I'm the new guy at ABC. Well, you
pissed off my hartist. I did why? He said, you
(26:47):
told him you were going to break his career, and
you know ABC has done nothing for us R eight
once and I kept going, I don't know this, I
don't know think about this eight month old thing. And anyway,
he hung up on me. And then Friday, Tom actually
called my assistant said Tom Petty's on the phone. I'm
(27:07):
kind of going out. Jeez, it's either going to be
another cursing out or whatever. I don't know. And he
called and it was just just a guy in a
southern accident and going, John, it's Tom Petty. I also
want to apologize for throwing you out of the whiskey
the other night. My friends are telling me they're hearing
my record on the radio and I'd like to meet you,
(27:30):
And I said, how about tonight? I wrote scribbled down
his address because I had to go see this guy. Man.
He was like, you know, I've been listening to his
record for right now, two or three weeks in the
car home at work. It's all I had on, just
Tom penny Hart records non stop. And so We went
to his house and he had a big Confederate flag
(27:52):
in the hallway and I said, well, I'm a Southern boy,
I know what I know. You're from the South right anyway,
So we just talked little bit and went outside and
we did smoke a peace BikeE I'll call it because
of the whiskey thing. And now I asked Tom about
have you been in any other bands that I might know?
(28:13):
And he said, yeah, you never heard of them. They're
called mud Crutch. And I said, you mean the song
Deepot Street. He goes, how the hell do you know
Deepost Street. There's only three stations in America that played
that record, and I said Tom, I left radio, went
to work for MCA Records. Said one of the first
records that gave me was a song called Deepot Street
(28:34):
by mud Crutch, and I got it added on a station.
He said, well, like I said, there's only three stations
in America that played it. I said, well, I got
one of them. And I called my aunt my boss
and Los Angeles said, John, it's a single, there's no album.
Go work a Louis and John's record. Forget about mud Crutch?
Speaker 1 (28:54):
And I did.
Speaker 5 (28:54):
I forgot about him whatever. I don't even know if
I ever saw the forty five because the writer depot
she was Thomas Petty and said, look back up when
I got a copy of it. And anyway, we he said,
you do you know, mud crutch, you tell me, you
tell me you're going to break my career wide open. Yeah,
(29:17):
And we kind of stared at each other like something
serendipitous was going on here, like I was supposed to
be in his life and he was supposed to be
in my life, and it was it was kind of
it was kind of strange. I mean, it's strange, strange
in a good way. I said, you got anything I
can hear or new stuff you're working on? He said, yeah,
come on in and he played me Listen to Her
(29:38):
Heart and Mike Campbell's guitar opens that thing up, and man,
I'm you're hooked on the guitar right away? And uh,
I went, I asked him, played it five times? I
left and went back to ABC the next day. I said,
you guys got to hear what he's kind of the
can you won't believe it? We don't care? Well, oh
my god, seriously, come on, come on. And so all
(30:01):
of a sudden when Charlie added the record, it started
getting more and more airplay. People were noticing it a
little bit more, and I was just on the phone
banging away anybody. I would call anybody, you know, I
don't even care if they were a classical station, I
would have called him and asked them if they knew
Tom Betty and the Heartbreakers. So there was nothing to
be There was not going to be a second album
(30:22):
on ABC or Shelter. I think it was on Shelter,
but ABC distributed Shelter. But there wasn't going to be
a second album. They were going to be dropped. All
of a sudden, I brought back listened to Her Heart,
and all of a sudden, every my ears perked up,
and they re signed the band for another album, and
(30:43):
that came out I think in seventy eight. I want
to say, and it's called You're going to Get It?
I think it opened would listen to Her Heart, and
that's the song that Tom said cocaine in it, take
away with your money and your cocaine, And that's the
song that ABC wanted to be single. And if you
change it to Champagne, we'll put it as a single.
(31:05):
No I'm not doing that. Champagne is not as expensive
as cocaine, and it was cocaine that There's Sky had
trying to get my wife anyway, So whatever that was
his tom, you know, he was just he never backed down.
The album came out, and before that, Breakdown had been released.
Right around when the album came out, was around seventy seven,
(31:28):
November seventy seven. Breakdown came out as a single and
did nothing, And all of a sudden we had at
number forty on the Billboard charts and still had ninety
stations not playing it. And guess who consulted those ninety
stations Burkeard Abrams and Burkard Abrams.
Speaker 4 (31:55):
Anyway, I love that, do you do? You remind Lee
Abrams of that to this.
Speaker 5 (32:00):
Day always, and he's in my book. He's in my book,
and I tell the story, well the story. I said, well,
I've gotten as far as I can right now. I
should go out and hit these ninety stations or it's
top ten markets. And so I went to Dallas. My
first job was kt XQ and Tim Spencer, the morning DJ,
(32:25):
was also the program director and he wasn't off the
area yet. We're going to go to breakfast and he said,
just read billboard or something and then whatever. So open billboard.
I knew that the album had just hit the charts
at one hundred and seventy seven. I said, I'm just
gonna have another look at this. This is beautiful. Opened
up Billboard. It was a circle around number one seventy seven.
I said, do not play. This is a John Scott
(32:47):
hype record. And I went, WHOA. I was so pissed
through the album the billboard across the room. I was hitting,
but he said I didn't do that as my consultant
Lee Abrams, and so I jumped on the plane to Atlanta.
I was going somewhere else. I said, I'm changing my plans.
(33:07):
I'm gonst see this guy Lee Abrams, because I knew Lee,
but you know, he was in control of the ninety
stations in America and would try to change the face
of what disc jockeys and program directors used to have
the ability to do is play what they wanted to play.
I just walked right in and said I want to
see Lee Abrams. And funny he was there and he
(33:29):
walked me in and I told him what I was doing,
and he said, well, let me think about this. Let's
have breakfast tomorrow morning and I'll think about it. I
I'm somewhat optimistic. And next morning he said, do you
think ABC would consider doing what they call the low
dough concerts where you station's one O three in the dial,
(33:50):
the tickets are dollar three? And I said, I don't know,
but I'll find out. He says, if they do, they
do ten of them. For me, I'll add that record
all over my network across America. He said, Then, we
do have two stations playing it with a little bit
of a response to WKLS in Atlanta, Drew Murray and
(34:11):
one other station I can't remember, but anyway, Drew was
a friend of mine by chance. And so next morning
he comes out and I call ABC Records and they said, well,
we'll back it, because you know, it's getting starting to
pick up really good. It's getting when it gets to
forty and Billboard in the charts and been out for
eight months. There's not many records that come out eight
months later and all of a sudden they're a hit.
(34:33):
You know, eight months is a long time. They shit,
thirty seconds is a long time sometimes when you're in
the music business, right you listen to a record for
thirty seconds, does it? Anyway, we started doing these low
dough concerts and we'd get two thousand kids in an
auditorium or venue, concert venue, and they would come out
Tom Petty fans. And if anybody's ever been to a
(34:56):
Tom Petty concert, that's listening, you know exactly what I mean.
It's one of the greatest shows there is. And I mean,
of course there's Bruce and the Stones, but something about
Tom Petty concerts. He's such a prolific writer about things
that mean something to me and you and just simple simple,
so but anyway, so we did the Dollar three shows
(35:19):
and Lee added director to the ninety stations, and I
can't remember where the album went up to, but it
definitely led to a second album being released. And I'm
I'm loving life because I'm traveling on the road to
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in their bus now and
they got strict rules on the bus, no girls allowed,
you know. Yeah, how it is when an artist does
(35:41):
a concert, it takes an hour or so sometimes it
you know, calm down or debuzz themselves, not shure word,
and we would just sit around and listen to you.
I had a record player. We'd listen to forty fives
and talk about, you know, the zombies or the birds
or whoever. Because he was a student of music. So
(36:03):
I was just in seventh heaven traveling with Tom. Every
show I saw, I was like, I felt like history
was being made. And I saw one show where he
did six encores and I've never seen a band do
six encores. And I went backstage and people were still
applauding for the seventh one. And I went backstage and
I said, Tom, there's still want more. He said, we
(36:25):
don't know any more songs. And that's one of the
reasons I love traveling with him, because they just were
such cool guys. I mean, every remember that band was
such a cool guy in his own way.
Speaker 3 (36:39):
So John the live performance thing, I loved the sixth
the six encore story. It brings me to think about
another moment in Tom's history. That was in November of
nineteen ninety seven when he started the legendary twenty night
residence see at the film Bore.
Speaker 4 (37:02):
Tell me what you remember about that period.
Speaker 5 (37:05):
Well, you know, I went to one of the concerts
and I think they played twenty seven nights and it
was Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers unfiltered. And then they're
a great cover band, as you know, they can cover
just about any song in the world and do it justice.
The thing they loved about playing the film Wars. They
could play anything they wanted to, nothing necessarily hits, and
(37:28):
they would bring out They brought out Carl Perkins and
they were fans Sun Records, and sometimes Tom would just
turn around and play and name a song and the
band didn't know they were going to play it, and
they just they'd break into it and just cover it.
And that's what I always liked about Tom is they
could do any cover song of any any band. But
(37:49):
they just got to play what they wanted to play.
And it was a joyous time because they stayed in
this one hotel called the Miaco Hotel in San Francisco,
a Japanese hotel, and they were there for a full
month and every night was different, every show was different.
I think it was the time of their life, to
be quite honest with you, because they'd never been able
(38:12):
to do well. Play twenty seven nights one venue. And
Bill Graham, you know, he loved the band. He had
all kinds of stuff backstage. If you're a band playing
the film wore maybe know this. If they like basketball,
he'll have a basketball net up there before you shoot.
(38:33):
And I don't remember what he had up there for Tom.
Maybe some joints, I don't know, but like I said,
probably the greatest time they ever had as a band.
It was spontaneous and one song, a chuck Berry song
in there, and in the middle of it, Tom starts
singing different lyrics to another check Berry song and you
(38:55):
can see them, remember the band kind of looking around
like what the hell is he doing? But they just
kept up. They right went right into it. But I
don't even know if there was a set list. I'm
sure there was, but they just played, like I said,
whatever they wanted to play. And I remember him telling me,
that's just the best time we've ever had so far
in this journey is playing the film war Because San
(39:16):
Francisco was one of the first stations that jumped onto
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and a lot of stations
around them KT I M and Paul lobster Wells that
came with me and Kjo. We're big fans. So San
Francisco was one of the hot spots for Tom. It
was like San Francisco, Boston, Chicago. I just remember the night.
(39:41):
I suppose that's where you just sat and you just
loved every song that he played. And one thing I
loved about Tommy he also recorded every show, most of
them from the board, and you can go back, and
that's what such rich history that he had because he
recorded every show.
Speaker 4 (39:59):
I loved the vivid stories.
Speaker 5 (40:01):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (40:01):
And I think the vivid stories will live in the
book Tom Petty and Me Your Journey with Him. Where
can folks get the book?
Speaker 1 (40:10):
John?
Speaker 5 (40:11):
And Well, it's on my website, tompettyanme dot com. And
I signed every book and I personalize every book. If so,
I wasn't personalized.
Speaker 4 (40:22):
Thanks for keeping the flame burning, John.
Speaker 2 (40:26):
Thanks for listening to this special celebration of Tom Petty
on the Taking a Walk podcast. Please share this podcast
with your friends and find Taking a Walk on the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Taking a Walk. What was happening on stage was that
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were rediscovering themselves as a
great rock and roll band and connecting again to the
bliss that brought them in the things. They played a
Zombies song called they Want You Back Every Night that
Tom remembered from having seen the Zombies back in nineteen
(00:23):
sixty six.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Welcome to the Taking a Walk Podcast, a celebration in
music history. Join your host Buzz Night celebrating the great
Tom Petty and some November moments that are pure nuggets
in music history. Tom's self titled debut album was released
in November of nineteen seventy six. His Long After Dark
album was released in November of nineteen eighty two. Then
(00:46):
there was that great run of shows at the film
Wore that were released in November of twenty two. On
this special Petty celebration, Buzz welcomes music journalist Joel Selvin,
who spent years covering the work of Tom Petty and
the heart Breakers, and John Scott, who worked for years
for Tom's label and is the author of Tom Petty
and Me. Join Buzz next celebrating Tom Petty.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
As we like to celebrate music history, we celebrate Tom
Petty and we turned to an authority.
Speaker 4 (01:17):
On all things music.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
He is a legendary San Francisco based music critic known
for his work at the San Francisco Chronicle, the author
of multiple books, and he's a returning guest on the
Taking a Walk podcast.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
Hello, Joel Selvin.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
I can't decide whether I've been knighted or buzzed.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
All the above. Good to be back, buzz Thank you
for being on.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
So how was Tom Petty received to your recollection? In
nineteen seventy six, when the debut album came.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Out, the band played six nights in the Bay Area,
three nine in the club in Palo Alto, the Keystone
Palo Alto, and three nights at the sister club, Keystone Berkeley.
The opening act was a local band that just also
put out their first album, that'd be the Greg Kin Band.
(02:17):
Patty's album was already getting airplay on the FM station
in Town, Ksa, n They were really one of the
first stations in the country to join the Pom Petty bandwagon,
and that first album was very well received. So there
was some interest in the band beyond like, you know,
(02:38):
who are these guys with a new album, there was
some knowledge and my recollection of the opening night show
at Keystone Palo Alto was that there was like, you know,
three quarters of a house, a good crowd, and the
band just blew everybody's mind the case and had them
back very shortly there after for a live broadcast which
(03:04):
was recorded and released on an official bootleg album as
a promo item. It's quite a collector's item these days,
but it has a terrific live version of Luna on it.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
And did you get access to him at all interview wise?
In that first go round?
Speaker 1 (03:24):
I met the band yahaya great looking forward to it,
and you know, that was it. The Tom Petty interviews
started a little bit later, and you know, over the
course of time, he was such a popular act in
San Francisco, and I think the band sort of looked
upon San Francisco as kind of a home away from
(03:46):
home where they were very well received from the very
beginning of their career. So yeah, no, Tom was always
you know, a feature of the Chronicles pop music coverage.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
And then we moved to Long After Dark, which was
really a breakthrough in nineteen eighty two.
Speaker 4 (04:04):
What was your recollection of the release of that.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
You know, by that time, the Petty records were a thing.
I mean, you know, you knew that there was a
new Tom Petty album that was going to have important
tracks on it. They were going to be on the radio.
And you know, I was looking at old clip files recently,
(04:30):
and I mean that period of time was just so rich.
I saw that. In one week in nineteen eighty four,
I reviewed Bob Seeger, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and
Prince and they were all had new albums out. They're
all big hit records, They're all sold out Oakland Coliseum shows.
(04:55):
It was just an amazingly rich period of time in
rock music.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
And that long after Dark really had the MTV breakthrough
for Petty, didn't it.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
You know, Petty was not like that MTV kind of
a guy. You know, the thespian qualities of Duran. Duran
were something they didn't aspire to, but inevitably the records
were so good that the TV station had to break
down and get him on there.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
And then you were in the middle of it in
nineteen ninety seven with the unbelievable residency that he did
at the Fillmore West, which I know started in November
of that year, but moved into ninety eight.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
What were your recollections of those shows?
Speaker 1 (05:48):
That's pretty much pressed into my mind, so I forget
the exact count. There was like twenty thirty shows, and
it was like a part time job for me. I mean,
you know, I covered the first weekend Friday, Saturday, and Sunday,
and then as they kept going, I would stop back
(06:08):
and maybe I'd be on my way out somewhere else
and I'd stop by and catch the first part of
this set, or maybe I've been out somewhere else and
I'd come back to the film more and catch the
last part. I don't know how many of my I saw.
It just seemed like, you know, like I said, like
it was a part time job. I had to beat
the filmore to see Tom Petty, and there were a
lot of us that were doing that, you know, because
(06:31):
we were comparing notes, Well he did what last night?
Oh my god, let me see the song last you know.
Such a unique and extraordinary run of events. Now, what
was going on with the band is so interesting. They
had taken a year off. The year before that, they
(06:51):
had been on the road extensively, playing all the sheds
in America, playing the same songs in the same order
every night, and they were super conscious about delivering consumer satisfaction.
You know, high ticket prices, parking, all the hassle to
(07:12):
get to the show and park your car and make it.
They were really conscious of that and worked really hard
to put on this very well designed show. But somewhere
in the process they lost the bliss of being a
rock and roll band. They became like an automatic thing,
and they took a year off and really didn't know
(07:33):
what to do. And it was Petty's idea to come
up to the fillmore and just sit down there. And
the shows were not anything like the Tom Petty and
the Heartbreaker shows that had been in the sheds. Almost
every night it opened with some old rock and roll song,
(07:53):
whether it's Little Richard or put on your break Dress Baby.
Speaker 5 (08:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Then one night they did that, I mean it was
just and then they would pick pieces out of the
Tom Pitty and the Heartbreaker's repertoire. Some of them were
in every night, like Mary Jane's Last Dance was every
night ten twelve, fifteen minutes long. King's Highway was frequent.
(08:26):
I'd have to look at the box set again to
remember the whole repertoire. But they had like a half
a dozen heartbreaker songs and they threw him in at
different points in the show. Toward the end of the run,
they had a kind of climax built into a giant
version of Gloria g l Oria and they're bringing in
(08:49):
special guests. They brought in Roger mcgwinn and the Birds,
John Lee Hooker, Carl Perkins. It was just it was
a club and they were the members of the club,
and we just were there to be their audience. It
was a fantastic run. And when I look back on
(09:10):
not just I mean of all the music I've seen
in my life, I got it put the Last Waltz
at the top of the list. It was just an
amazing night of music. But second place is the Tom
Petty Filmore run. It was just so satisfying and the
band was living out a dream and rediscovering themselves. One afternoon,
(09:37):
guitarist Mike Campbell was sitting in the hotel, which is
like two blocks from the film wre I mean, they
didn't even take a cab to the gig, right, they
just walked. And he's working on a guitar lick and
he gets it together and goes to soundcheck and shows
it to Tom, and Tom writes a bunch of lyrics
(09:58):
and they play the song that night. It's called Dating
the Ugly Homecoming Queen, and it's on the live box
set and it's wonderful, sort of Fleetwood macish thing that
you know. It was just fresh on the slab tonight
here it is. So that was the kind of attitude
that those guys were playing. They came to a closing
(10:20):
night and they broadcast it on the FM radio, I
think all across the country on some network. But that
night they just decided to do everything, everything they'd ever done,
And I mean like Campbell was doing a surf instrumental
every night, Benmont Tansh was playing Booker t songs, Petty
(10:41):
was doing everything from Bill Withers to saying you Are
My Sunshine. One night because that was the first song
he ever learned. He played it back in summer camp.
I mean, it was just no telling what was going
to happen. Everybody was having a great time, and what
was happening on stage was that Tom Patty and the
Heartbreakers were rediscovering themselves as a great rock and roll
(11:04):
band and connecting again to the bliss that brought them
in the things. They played a zombie song called they
Want You Back every Night that Tom remembered from having
seen the Zombies back in nineteen sixty six.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
And I think you've told me you had opportunities to
sit and interview Tom.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Is that correct? Oh, we had to explain the run
to the newspaper readers, and then we had to like
patch up on how it was going during the run,
and then we had to do a summation. So, you know,
I checked in with Tom in depth at the beginning
and the end and through the middle. You know, I
(11:47):
pick up, you know, a little quotes and comments and
stuff like that. And so as I said that he
was completely tired of what he was doing, wanted to
re animate the whole Tom Petty and the Heartbreaker's thing.
And that was the goal of this filmore run. To
throw away the set list, to be a rock band,
(12:11):
to enjoy what they're doing, and to do it for themselves,
not the audience. And that was what it took. And
by the end of the run, and it went into January,
so it was pretty much about three months, Tom was
a returned to who he had been, he was back
(12:34):
in the band, he was happy, he was reconnected with
all the things that were important to him, and off
they went. They came back to the Filmore the next
year for another short run, but you know, they've done
the thing and it had had its effect, and that
lasted the band the rest of Tom's life.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
Well, I have to also ask in closing, there's some
recent news that involves the Heartbreakers and involves Dylan, which
I'm sure you have followed with the recent live Aid
surprise appearance there with Bob. What impact do you think
(13:15):
the Heartbreakers and Tom certainly had on Dylan And where
do you think this might be going with Dylan's future.
Speaker 4 (13:23):
Do you think there'll be more of this type of event?
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Dylan's never predictable. I love Bob Dylan because he's really
just his own self. Of course, they did a world
tour with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers as Dylan's backup
band back in the mid eighties when Dylan was you know,
kind of you know, a low point in his career
and he was kind of borrowing the Petty audience. After that,
(13:51):
he went out and did a bunch of dates with
the Grateful Dad and just completely borrowed their audience. But
the Petty and Dylan show, we're much more of an
authentic collaboration. And it really loosened Dilan up a lot
and gave him a great rock band to play with
for a while. And I remember he was throwing in
songs in the set that he hadn't done ever before.
(14:15):
I remember he was doing Ricky Nelson's Lonesome Town. Ricky
Nilson used to like to do my songs I'd like
to do. Want to hear this, you know, I mean
it was a renaissance for Dylan at a time when
he needed it. So those guys were tight and tidy,
and of course Tom and Bob were in the Traveling
Wilbury's together. It wasn't a surprise to me to see
(14:37):
them show up and back him up at Farmaid for
three songs. And you know, they all know each other,
they've all played together, they're all like minded individuals. It's
a beautiful collaboration. I don't know if it'll ever happen
again or not, but you know it's up there on YouTube.
You can check it out.
Speaker 4 (14:54):
Joel, thank you, thank you so much for doing this.
I appreciate it.
Speaker 6 (14:59):
We'll be right back with more of the Taking a
Walk Podcast. Welcome back to the Taking a Walk Podcast.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
So as we continue celebrating Tom Petty on the Taking
a Walk Podcast, We're going to turn to the author
of the book Tom Petty and Me, a Journey told
by the amazing John Scott from his experience and friendship
with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. It's so great to
reconnect with you, mister Scott.
Speaker 5 (15:32):
You too, buzz And I love anybody who has a
name like buzz is on the radio. That's really cool.
Buzz I love that I was just John Scottland Radio,
but Buzz, I think is a cool name. Man. Thank
you anyway, I'm good. I'm so glad to be here
because so I've kind of got a lot of Petty
memories running around my head right now. And he dedicated
(15:54):
a song to me at his last concert of his life,
and I didn't know what was coming, and it was
because of all the things I did with him back
in the seventies and continued on doing things. And I
still say, there'll never be another Tom Petty. He was
one of a kind, great guy, great songwriter, just a
(16:19):
true icon. I mean, doesn't get much better than Tom
Petty and the Heartbreakers, maybe the Traveling Mulberry's.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
But well, we love celebrating here in November. The significant days,
the first being going back to November ninth, nineteen seventy six,
which was when the debut album was released. Give me
(16:46):
your recollection of that moment, as you were close to
Tom and working with Tom when that first release came out.
Speaker 5 (16:54):
Well, guess what, I have no recollection whatsoever of that
album coming out. And I'll tell you why. Around that
time in October of seventy seven, maybe there was a
friend of mine. I was in Boston and a who concert.
I was working for MCA Records, and I was the
national album promotion director and I was sitting with a
guy who worked at ABC Records. He said, you know,
(17:16):
I got up this band I want to send you.
I think you will like him. They're called Tom Penny
and Heartbreakers, and I'll send you a copy. And he
never did. And so I just kind of forgot the
name Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers because it's the time
I was working for an ACA, like I said, and
I got fired by them because I was trying to
(17:38):
get this record played on the radio. That was part
of my job is to get records played on the radio,
as you know. And I was working with this kid
named Johnny Cougar and I just dug the kid. I
thought he's really good. He had a lot of promise,
and MCA hated him and they told me to stop
working the record And went, what do you mean. I
just got WMMS in Cleveland on the record, one of
(18:01):
the biggest stations in the America. They said, we don't
we don't care. You're fired. I went, WHOA, just trying
to do my job anyway. So right around that time, well,
I'm still working for MCA, but that's my memory, first
memory of hearing the name Tom Petty the Heartbreakers, and
the guy never sent me the album. And I went
to work at ABC Records in August of seventy seven.
(18:24):
So first time I going. First time came out in
seventy six, right, And I went to work in August
of seventy seven and still had no idea who Tom
Petty and the Heartbreakers were. And all I knew was
that my boss told me not to get involved like
you did with Johnny Couger again, or you'll get fired,
(18:45):
because if we want to drop an artist we're going
to drop him, and if you get in the way,
you're gonna get fired again John, and I had to
raise my right hand. That's short of God, Okay, I
raised my right hand. I will not be involved with
any bands that you're about to drop. And it was
kind of a funny moment, but I didn't think anything
(19:06):
about it. But three days later, I was in my
office and I didn't have anything to do because I
was in between albums being worked, and I opened my
closet door to get my jacket out as a record
fell down out of the closet and it was a
white album cover and I pulled the vinyl out and
was nothing on the vinyl, and being a former DJ,
(19:30):
I went, I got to listen to this record because
I don't know who it is. And I sat down
and I heard a breakdown and I heard American girl
and hair is standing up on my arms, Like you
know what that feeling is like when you hear something.
I'm sure a lot of your listeners too, when you
hear something you turns you on. Your hair got get goosebumps,
and the hair stands up on my body and on
(19:50):
my arms, not everywhere, but and I just I was
in a trance. To be quite honest with you, I
was going, who the hell, this is one of the
greatest records I've heard in a long time. And I
went to my boss and he said, let me see
that album. He puts it on. Ten seconds. Oh that's
that punk band, Tom Petty and the Heartburgers. And I
(20:12):
kind of went, you said, punk band, this is a
rock and roll band. He said, no, it's a punk band. Well,
holy shit, if you listen to American Girl, that's the
rock and roll record. And he said, we're dropping them.
I'm like, oh, you can't do that. Don't do that.
We got we're ropping them six weeks. The record's been
out for eight months, so twelve thousand copies, and we
(20:36):
spent too much money on the band, so we're dumping them.
And I'm going, oh my god, just give me a
chance to try and get this record. Played call a
few of my friends and he said, John, you're doing
it again. I went, I don't care. I don't know.
I'm just in my mind. I knew what I heard.
You know what it's like when you hear something like that.
(20:57):
And I said, I don't care. I don't care. If
I get fired or not, just give me six weeks
to try to get my friends, to some of my
radio friends to at least listen to it. And he
finally said okay, and so I go back to my office.
I started calling some of my radio friends and they
went and then eight months about eight month old album,
and then a punk band, and I'm kind of like,
(21:18):
what hell these people thinking? And the cover comes out.
The cover of Tom's first album is what caused one
of the reasons a problem was caused because he had
a black leather jacket on and bullets around his neck
and a smirk. And I guess people, I mean radio
(21:41):
stations weren't really playing punk records at the time. I
don't think. I don't think they were playing the Ramones
or I don't know. I don't know. I just I
just know that I keep hearing the word punk, and
I'm going, what is wrong with people? And anyway, So
I was sitting there and I finally got somebody on
the phone and oh, yeah, so I'm pretty good here
(22:01):
and I went, oh, I'm on this something, I'm onto
something finally here and the next day a guy named
Charlie Kendall. You probably know who Charlie is. He went
to work at KWST, a new station in Los Angeles.
It was going to challenge kamy T, which was the
big dog in Los Angeles. I went over to his
apartment and said, Charlie, you just sit on the floor.
(22:22):
Listens now. Put the headphones on this album. And he
sat there and he's cross legged. He was kind of
bobbing along. He pulled the headphones office. Who is this band?
They're incredible? Who is this? I said, Tom penny Hartburgers.
I never heard of him. I said, well, a lot
of people haven't heard of them. But anyway, he said,
(22:44):
are they any good live? And I said, I just
picked up the record by accident three days ago. I
have no clue if they're any good live, but I
do know that they're opening for Blondie this coming Saturday
night at the Whiskey by chance. And he said, we're
going to go, hell yeah, we're going to go see
this guy, Tom Petty. And we went to the club
(23:04):
and he came on at seven o'clock, about ten fifteen
people in the club and we were just kind of going, Oh,
the way, knows who this guy is. He came on
and did oh, Carol the Chuck Berry song and just
killed it. Man, Mike Campbell killed it, and what a
great guitar player he is. And anyway, Charie, and then
(23:26):
he played Breakdown, and Charlie leaned over and said, I'm
gonna start playing Breakdown on Monday morning. And nobody in
Los Angeles had been playing Tom Petty. So he does
a thirty minute set and it's over, no encore. But
and when they came out, I was gonna, please, don't
be a punk man, please please please, And they came out.
They had their own coolness about him comment a scarphone,
(23:46):
and I know the other guys just looked so cool.
And I saw vox amps on the stage and that's good.
But anyway, so they did, and Charlie's when he said,
I'm gonna start playing Breakdown once an hour every hour.
This is a hit record. I knew, if you're promotion guy,
you have that ad in your pocket, you know, and
you're going all right? And so the show endedn't know,
(24:09):
I say, he didn't do an encore, and I said,
let's go meet this guy. We go upstairs with no
security and I see Tom's in the corner wiping his
face off. With catal I'm going to Hey, Tom, I'm
I'm John Scott, the new head of album promotion at
ABC Records. I don't give a crap who the fuck
(24:30):
you are? We hate ABC Records and they've done nothing
for us for eight months, so who are you? I said, well,
I really like your music, but have you ever heard
it on the radio in Los Angeles? He went to
know why. I said, well, this guy here is so
start playing it Monday morning on the news station. He
went bullshit, another ABC nut job, telling me they're going
(24:55):
to do something, and for eight months they've done nothing,
and I'm kind of taking aback because I've never had
an artist do that to me in my life, you know.
Just start cursing at me. I said, look, I have
no I have no history of what happened with ABC
Records that I have no clue. But he said, just
get out, please. Bug just scored him out, and the
(25:15):
roady came over to score me and Charlie out, and
I stopped and said, Tom, I'm going to break your
career wide open. How's that? And I'm saying this because
I don't I don't know if I can, but in
my heart, in my ears, I knew I could. And
then boy, the whole room was the band was laughing,
and this guy's going to break our career. And he
(25:38):
had started off, he'd gotten a little following going in England,
but he came home and there were nobody's and that's
why they're giving me all the static. And right when
I got to the door, I just turned around and said,
Tom Petty, my name is John Scott. When you hear
your record of the radio, you will never forget my name. Okay,
(25:59):
get out, And he threw us out of the whiskey,
and so Charlie and I are actually laughing as we
walked down the stairs of the whiskey because we just
knew what was going to happen. We knew the Breakdown
was going to come out and just take over Los Angeles.
At least we thought we were sure enough. He started
playing in Monday morning. On Wednesday, he called and said, Man,
(26:22):
Tower Record just called most of who this band isn't playing.
I was blown away. And although I kind of expected
that to happen, I really did. It sounds crazy, you know,
but so at the time, Times manager Tony Demitriodis, who
was his manager for forty fifty years called said, who
are you. I'm the new guy at ABC. Well, you
pissed off my hartist. I did why? He said, you
(26:47):
told him you were going to break his career, and
you know ABC has done nothing for us R eight
once and I kept going, I don't know this, I
don't know think about this eight month old thing. And anyway,
he hung up on me. And then Friday, Tom actually
called my assistant said Tom Petty's on the phone. I'm
(27:07):
kind of going out. Jeez, it's either going to be
another cursing out or whatever. I don't know. And he
called and it was just just a guy in a
southern accident and going, John, it's Tom Petty. I also
want to apologize for throwing you out of the whiskey
the other night. My friends are telling me they're hearing
my record on the radio and I'd like to meet you,
(27:30):
And I said, how about tonight? I wrote scribbled down
his address because I had to go see this guy. Man.
He was like, you know, I've been listening to his
record for right now, two or three weeks in the
car home at work. It's all I had on, just
Tom penny Hart records non stop. And so We went
to his house and he had a big Confederate flag
(27:52):
in the hallway and I said, well, I'm a Southern boy,
I know what I know. You're from the South right anyway,
So we just talked little bit and went outside and
we did smoke a peace BikeE I'll call it because
of the whiskey thing. And now I asked Tom about
have you been in any other bands that I might know?
(28:13):
And he said, yeah, you never heard of them. They're
called mud Crutch. And I said, you mean the song
Deepot Street. He goes, how the hell do you know
Deepost Street. There's only three stations in America that played
that record, and I said Tom, I left radio, went
to work for MCA Records. Said one of the first
records that gave me was a song called Deepot Street
(28:34):
by mud Crutch, and I got it added on a station.
He said, well, like I said, there's only three stations
in America that played it. I said, well, I got
one of them. And I called my aunt my boss
and Los Angeles said, John, it's a single, there's no album.
Go work a Louis and John's record. Forget about mud Crutch?
Speaker 1 (28:54):
And I did.
Speaker 5 (28:54):
I forgot about him whatever. I don't even know if
I ever saw the forty five because the writer depot
she was Thomas Petty and said, look back up when
I got a copy of it. And anyway, we he said,
you do you know, mud crutch, you tell me, you
tell me you're going to break my career wide open. Yeah,
(29:17):
And we kind of stared at each other like something
serendipitous was going on here, like I was supposed to
be in his life and he was supposed to be
in my life, and it was it was kind of
it was kind of strange. I mean, it's strange, strange
in a good way. I said, you got anything I
can hear or new stuff you're working on? He said, yeah,
come on in and he played me Listen to Her
(29:38):
Heart and Mike Campbell's guitar opens that thing up, and man,
I'm you're hooked on the guitar right away? And uh,
I went, I asked him, played it five times? I
left and went back to ABC the next day. I said,
you guys got to hear what he's kind of the
can you won't believe it? We don't care? Well, oh
my god, seriously, come on, come on. And so all
(30:01):
of a sudden when Charlie added the record, it started
getting more and more airplay. People were noticing it a
little bit more, and I was just on the phone
banging away anybody. I would call anybody, you know, I
don't even care if they were a classical station, I
would have called him and asked them if they knew
Tom Betty and the Heartbreakers. So there was nothing to
be There was not going to be a second album
(30:22):
on ABC or Shelter. I think it was on Shelter,
but ABC distributed Shelter. But there wasn't going to be
a second album. They were going to be dropped. All
of a sudden, I brought back listened to Her Heart,
and all of a sudden, every my ears perked up,
and they re signed the band for another album, and
(30:43):
that came out I think in seventy eight. I want
to say, and it's called You're going to Get It?
I think it opened would listen to Her Heart, and
that's the song that Tom said cocaine in it, take
away with your money and your cocaine, And that's the
song that ABC wanted to be single. And if you
change it to Champagne, we'll put it as a single.
(31:05):
No I'm not doing that. Champagne is not as expensive
as cocaine, and it was cocaine that There's Sky had
trying to get my wife anyway, So whatever that was
his tom, you know, he was just he never backed down.
The album came out, and before that, Breakdown had been released.
Right around when the album came out, was around seventy seven,
(31:28):
November seventy seven. Breakdown came out as a single and
did nothing, And all of a sudden we had at
number forty on the Billboard charts and still had ninety
stations not playing it. And guess who consulted those ninety
stations Burkeard Abrams and Burkard Abrams.
Speaker 4 (31:55):
Anyway, I love that, do you do? You remind Lee
Abrams of that to this.
Speaker 5 (32:00):
Day always, and he's in my book. He's in my book,
and I tell the story, well the story. I said, well,
I've gotten as far as I can right now. I
should go out and hit these ninety stations or it's
top ten markets. And so I went to Dallas. My
first job was kt XQ and Tim Spencer, the morning DJ,
(32:25):
was also the program director and he wasn't off the
area yet. We're going to go to breakfast and he said,
just read billboard or something and then whatever. So open billboard.
I knew that the album had just hit the charts
at one hundred and seventy seven. I said, I'm just
gonna have another look at this. This is beautiful. Opened
up Billboard. It was a circle around number one seventy seven.
I said, do not play. This is a John Scott
(32:47):
hype record. And I went, WHOA. I was so pissed
through the album the billboard across the room. I was hitting,
but he said I didn't do that as my consultant
Lee Abrams, and so I jumped on the plane to Atlanta.
I was going somewhere else. I said, I'm changing my plans.
(33:07):
I'm gonst see this guy Lee Abrams, because I knew Lee,
but you know, he was in control of the ninety
stations in America and would try to change the face
of what disc jockeys and program directors used to have
the ability to do is play what they wanted to play.
I just walked right in and said I want to
see Lee Abrams. And funny he was there and he
(33:29):
walked me in and I told him what I was doing,
and he said, well, let me think about this. Let's
have breakfast tomorrow morning and I'll think about it. I
I'm somewhat optimistic. And next morning he said, do you
think ABC would consider doing what they call the low
dough concerts where you station's one O three in the dial,
(33:50):
the tickets are dollar three? And I said, I don't know,
but I'll find out. He says, if they do, they
do ten of them. For me, I'll add that record
all over my network across America. He said, Then, we
do have two stations playing it with a little bit
of a response to WKLS in Atlanta, Drew Murray and
(34:11):
one other station I can't remember, but anyway, Drew was
a friend of mine by chance. And so next morning
he comes out and I call ABC Records and they said, well,
we'll back it, because you know, it's getting starting to
pick up really good. It's getting when it gets to
forty and Billboard in the charts and been out for
eight months. There's not many records that come out eight
months later and all of a sudden they're a hit.
(34:33):
You know, eight months is a long time. They shit,
thirty seconds is a long time sometimes when you're in
the music business, right you listen to a record for
thirty seconds, does it? Anyway, we started doing these low
dough concerts and we'd get two thousand kids in an
auditorium or venue, concert venue, and they would come out
Tom Petty fans. And if anybody's ever been to a
(34:56):
Tom Petty concert, that's listening, you know exactly what I mean.
It's one of the greatest shows there is. And I mean,
of course there's Bruce and the Stones, but something about
Tom Petty concerts. He's such a prolific writer about things
that mean something to me and you and just simple simple,
so but anyway, so we did the Dollar three shows
(35:19):
and Lee added director to the ninety stations, and I
can't remember where the album went up to, but it
definitely led to a second album being released. And I'm
I'm loving life because I'm traveling on the road to
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in their bus now and
they got strict rules on the bus, no girls allowed,
you know. Yeah, how it is when an artist does
(35:41):
a concert, it takes an hour or so sometimes it
you know, calm down or debuzz themselves, not shure word,
and we would just sit around and listen to you.
I had a record player. We'd listen to forty fives
and talk about, you know, the zombies or the birds
or whoever. Because he was a student of music. So
(36:03):
I was just in seventh heaven traveling with Tom. Every
show I saw, I was like, I felt like history
was being made. And I saw one show where he
did six encores and I've never seen a band do
six encores. And I went backstage and people were still
applauding for the seventh one. And I went backstage and
I said, Tom, there's still want more. He said, we
(36:25):
don't know any more songs. And that's one of the
reasons I love traveling with him, because they just were
such cool guys. I mean, every remember that band was
such a cool guy in his own way.
Speaker 3 (36:39):
So John the live performance thing, I loved the sixth
the six encore story. It brings me to think about
another moment in Tom's history. That was in November of
nineteen ninety seven when he started the legendary twenty night
residence see at the film Bore.
Speaker 4 (37:02):
Tell me what you remember about that period.
Speaker 5 (37:05):
Well, you know, I went to one of the concerts
and I think they played twenty seven nights and it
was Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers unfiltered. And then they're
a great cover band, as you know, they can cover
just about any song in the world and do it justice.
The thing they loved about playing the film Wars. They
could play anything they wanted to, nothing necessarily hits, and
(37:28):
they would bring out They brought out Carl Perkins and
they were fans Sun Records, and sometimes Tom would just
turn around and play and name a song and the
band didn't know they were going to play it, and
they just they'd break into it and just cover it.
And that's what I always liked about Tom is they
could do any cover song of any any band. But
(37:49):
they just got to play what they wanted to play.
And it was a joyous time because they stayed in
this one hotel called the Miaco Hotel in San Francisco,
a Japanese hotel, and they were there for a full
month and every night was different, every show was different.
I think it was the time of their life, to
be quite honest with you, because they'd never been able
(38:12):
to do well. Play twenty seven nights one venue. And
Bill Graham, you know, he loved the band. He had
all kinds of stuff backstage. If you're a band playing
the film wore maybe know this. If they like basketball,
he'll have a basketball net up there before you shoot.
(38:33):
And I don't remember what he had up there for Tom.
Maybe some joints, I don't know, but like I said,
probably the greatest time they ever had as a band.
It was spontaneous and one song, a chuck Berry song
in there, and in the middle of it, Tom starts
singing different lyrics to another check Berry song and you
(38:55):
can see them, remember the band kind of looking around
like what the hell is he doing? But they just
kept up. They right went right into it. But I
don't even know if there was a set list. I'm
sure there was, but they just played, like I said,
whatever they wanted to play. And I remember him telling me,
that's just the best time we've ever had so far
in this journey is playing the film war Because San
(39:16):
Francisco was one of the first stations that jumped onto
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and a lot of stations
around them KT I M and Paul lobster Wells that
came with me and Kjo. We're big fans. So San
Francisco was one of the hot spots for Tom. It
was like San Francisco, Boston, Chicago. I just remember the night.
(39:41):
I suppose that's where you just sat and you just
loved every song that he played. And one thing I
loved about Tommy he also recorded every show, most of
them from the board, and you can go back, and
that's what such rich history that he had because he
recorded every show.
Speaker 4 (39:59):
I loved the vivid stories.
Speaker 5 (40:01):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (40:01):
And I think the vivid stories will live in the
book Tom Petty and Me Your Journey with Him. Where
can folks get the book?
Speaker 1 (40:10):
John?
Speaker 5 (40:11):
And Well, it's on my website, tompettyanme dot com. And
I signed every book and I personalize every book. If so,
I wasn't personalized.
Speaker 4 (40:22):
Thanks for keeping the flame burning, John.
Speaker 2 (40:26):
Thanks for listening to this special celebration of Tom Petty
on the Taking a Walk podcast. Please share this podcast
with your friends and find Taking a Walk on the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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