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It was a tragic jolt when we lost Tom Petty on October 2, 2017—right after he had celebrated the 40th anniversary tour of his band, the Heartbreakers.
PHOTOS COURTESY EAST END MANAGEMENT
It was a tragic jolt when we lost Tom Petty on October 2, 2017—right after he had celebrated the 40th anniversary tour of his band, the Heartbreakers. Throughout the years, Petty and Heartbreakers’ guitarist Mike Campbell had always made themselves available to share musical insights with Guitar Player readers, so we felt a fitting tribute to this rock and roll legend would be to dig out some wonderful quotes from his May 1999 and July 2006 GP cover stories.
THE HEARTBREAKERS
“We probably invented new wave, but we were running ahead of it. I didn’t want any label to be put on us, and I was very conscious that we were a rock and roll band and not anything else. I think the number one reason we’ve stayed together so long is that we have become a family over all these years, but the band has somehow become bigger than all of us. To go anywhere else would be a disappointment. I also see it in kind of a holy way. The Heartbreakers have made so many people happy that it would almost be a sacrilege to turn my back on it.”
“In the studio, we tend to play best early on—when we’re discovering the song. It’s actually a little frustrating that once the band learns a song, it doesn’t get any better. It just gets more studied.”
“I don’t think the Heartbreakers could make it if we had to start all over today. We were so nurtured by Denny Cordell—a great producer who had done all these amazing records. He was the secret.