ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, September 21, 1996 TAG: 9609230107
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: B12 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES
SOURCE: MARK BROWN ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Even Tom Petty isn't quite sure how it all turned out like this.
``It wasn't a plot. It wasn't like we knew what we were doing,'' Petty said. ``I just feel fortunate that I'm not ashamed of the work we've done.''
In his manager's office on Melrose Avenue, Petty has a rare moment to reflect. One thought that might be going through his mind: Some vacation this turned out to be.
Instead of taking time off as planned, Petty and his band, the Heartbreakers, have yet another critical and commercial hit in the new album ``She's the One,'' the soundtrack for Ed Burns' film of the same name. They've got one gig to play - ``Saturday Night Live'' on Sept. 28 - then it's finally off for some recharging.
And a little more time, if Petty needs it, to ponder how he got here. He doesn't dwell on it much. But at the same time, he can't ignore it.
Petty's popularity is at an all-time peak, with the multiplatinum ``Wildflowers'' and ``Greatest Hits'' albums selling more than anything he's ever done.
The critics are also embracing his work, marveling at the breathtaking quality and consistency in everything from last year's sprawling six-disc box set, ``Playback,'' to the meticulously crafted ``Wildflowers'' in 1994 to the new, almost tossed-off ``She's the One.''
Since ``Full Moon Fever'' in 1989, the media's tone has gone from pegging Petty as a Florida fella who makes good albums to one of the rock era's finest songwriters - right up there with Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Marvin Gaye and the like.
Petty, 45, tries not to take notice of his press, but can't help but feel the satisfaction.
``I did see some of the reviews of the box set and they really warmed my heart,'' he admitted. ``It's nice not to be taken for granted.''
And, he said, he and the band have worked hard for it.
``I think we've gotten better,'' he noted. ``That's probably the one thing that sets us apart, the one thing that isn't normal about our career. We did improve as we got older. I think we're a much better rock 'n' roll band than we were in 1976. And I don't think that we got so good that we don't know what it's all about.
``That usually isn't the case. Usually people have a period where they'll really do this great work, then for one reason or another, the work becomes a little less than what it was,'' he continued. ``It was probably around the time of `Wildflowers' where people really started realizing that we're just improving. We're not going to go the other way.''
``She's the One'' is an album that wasn't supposed to be. Petty was taking some time off after a yearlong tour when director/writer/actor Ed Burns contacted him about scoring the movie. The singer-songwriter agreed and wrote an opening song, actually penning three from which Burns could choose. The director liked all of them so Petty came up with more. Suddenly it was an album.
``It's a good album and much better than if you go out and get the 15 popular acts of the day to give you something that they wouldn't put on their own album,'' Petty said, referring to most of the hit soundtracks on the market. ``That's how those [soundtracks] sound to me. It's really hard for people to understand [this] is a soundtrack album and there's only one act on it. They still don't get it.''
Fans, though, get a look at the past and future. ``California,'' ``Hung Up and Overdue'' and ``Hope You Never'' give a glimpse of what a great double album ``Wildflowers'' would have been had Petty not decided to cut it to one disc.
``We're pillaging that second disc now,'' Petty explained. ``Those songs worked nicely in the movie so I just used them.''
Petty acknowledges that there's a bit of his own drive for perfection and control in Burns.
``I never thought about that, but I suppose [it's true]. He was a writer first. He got into filmmaking because he didn't want to hand his stuff over to somebody and see some atrocious film made of it,'' Petty said. ``I think I would probably be that way if I were in that job. I wouldn't want to hand it over to somebody and watch them crucify it.''
Which is exactly what Petty has done with his hands-on work on videos and albums, winning awards along the way and trying to make sure no bad ones got made.
``Yeah, you really must or it's going to turn into something that's not you,'' he said.
If nothing else, Petty has done exactly what he wants through his career, be it fighting - seemingly constantly - with his record company or working with any musician he wanted.
The result has been the Petty the public knows through the hits - ``Don't Do Me Like That,'' ``Jammin' Me,'' ``You Don't Know How It Feels.''
Then there's the Petty the fans know by digging deeper for the songs that never make the radio - the heartbreaking ``Hard To Find a Friend,'' the tender ``You Can Still Change Your Mind,'' the bitter ``You Tell Me,'' the wistful, defeated ``It'll All Work Out,'' and the brilliant overlooked album ``Let Me Up (I've Had Enough).''
Indeed, Petty's versatility and musical restlessness have been there from the start, when '70s critics tagged his young band ``punk'' because they didn't know what else to call it.
``When we started this out, we certainly didn't do it thinking we were going to build a career on it,'' Petty said. ``Now they have schools you can go to to be a rock guitarist or singer or whatever. When we started out, it was exactly the opposite. It was throwing any hopes of a career out the window.''
In his hometown of Gainesville, Fla., Petty checked out bands at age 12, taking the plunge at 14. Members of the Eagles, the Allman Brothers, the Heartbreakers and others traded off in various area bands, honing their styles.
And those early jams were the start of a tradition of some of the best musicians in rock music hooking up with Petty, be it Bob Dylan, Stevie Nicks, George Harrison, Roy Orbison or Lenny Kravitz.
``I've read that about me - that I've worked with lots of famous people,'' Petty said. ``I guess I have, but I swear I've never sought one of them out. It was all by chance or coincidence that it happened. It was never `Oh, I think I'll do something with Roy Orbison.' I never work that way.''
Other members of the Heartbreakers have collaborated with everyone from Elvis Costello and Don Henley to the Wallflowers.
``I remember seeing Elvis Costello when he did his first gig in a little pub in England,'' Petty said. ``We've been around a long time. We just know these people.''
As for the Heartbreakers, ``they're just very talented people,'' Petty said. ``You don't think of them as that necessarily because we have so much history together and grew up together.''
The Dylan/Petty tour of the mid-'80s occurred after members of the Heartbreakers were hired to play on Dylan's album. That turned into a Farm Aid appearance, which turned into a two-year world tour.
Same with the Traveling Wilburys. Jeff Lynne had produced some ``Full Moon Fever'' sessions and stopped by with George Harrison to retrieve a guitar left at Petty's house. They went to Dylan's house to use his studio, and a band was born.
With the long history comes inevitable conflict. After years of being unhappy in his role, drummer Stan Lynch finally left the Heartbreakers in 1994 after successful collaborations with the Eagles and others. Keyboard player Benmont Tench is a tad peeved at Petty right now after Petty jokingly gave out Tench's home phone number on a radio show a few weeks back. (``I was wrong,'' Petty admitted).
Guitarist/collaborator Mike Campbell and bassist Howie Epstein are still close friends, though the Heartbreakers rarely hang together socially anymore. Petty didn't even know it was his friend Campbell playing on the new Wallflowers album until his manager pointed it out.
Working with Dylan taught Petty to deconstruct his own songs and look at music from a new angle. By his next solo tour he was reworking ``Here Comes My Girl'' and ``Listen to Her Heart'' as well as toying with new, unreleased material. That gave Petty a second wind, resulting in his huge hit ``Full Moon Fever.'' Now he's on a third leg of his career, with the understated ``Wildflowers'' and ``She's the One'' pushing new boundaries.
``Hopefully you get more and more winds,'' he said with a laugh. ``I don't want to slow down. I like to stay pretty busy. More and more I'm inspired by younger groups.''
He's a huge fan of Beck, Nine Inch Nails and Smashing Pumpkins.
``Those are the obvious ones. Billy Corgan is as good as anything that has ever come along. He'll be around a really long time,'' Petty said. ``To me it's big news if someone that good comes along - someone I can trust to be consistent.
``I loved Kurt Cobain. He was certainly as significant as Dylan to me or the Beatles in that there was no looking back after you heard that. You could only look forward,'' he continued. ``He singlehandedly just wiped that [junk] out. For the longest time it seemed to me that youth was really misguided about music and were sort of like sheep being led along by the music industry. The music that's coming from young people today is really significant and will be around a long time.''
He well understands the frustrations that new bands put up with in the music industry.
``It surprises me that I just don't quit show business,'' Petty said. ``It makes me ill, really, most of it. I love music. I don't really like anything else about it, you know?''
LENGTH: Long : 166 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Tom Petty and his band, ``The Heartbreakers,'' now areby CNBat the peak of their popularity.