I wanted to do another A Look Back post. These are a little tougher because I’m not currently reading the book, so it’s not as fresh; however, it also provides an opportunity to reflect on a book I’ve previously read. I read Petty: The Biography by Warren Zanes earlier this year, when it was given to me by a friend. This is the first music biography I have ever read, and, Tom Petty being my favorite musician of all time, it seemed fitting to start with him. I have been to multiple Petty shows, and saw one of his last concerts in Seattle during summer 2017. I had also watched some Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers documentaries before reading this book, so I was surprised by the amount that I still didn’t know. For instance, I knew Petty’s father had been abusive during his childhood, but didn’t know much of the background information.

“In so many ways,” he continues, “My father was like a man hiding out in plain view, afraid of being found out. I think there was a lot of theater in his life, a lot of masks, a lot of acting. But I sure didn’t know this then. I just thought he was an asshole. It would take me years to get past what he did to me in order to understand the situation… I didn’t think about what it meant to be a Native American, what it meant to be a kid who grew up in a shack with his Indian mother and his white father, suddenly in a college town, just as America was moving full speed ahead into the glorious fifties. That’s quite a scene, really.”

-Petty pg. 15

I find it interesting that Tom really examined his father’s life more closely as he got older, and some of the motivations for the anger he had witnessed. Tom was obviously closer with his mother, but that, too, was not perfect. I was sad to read that he did not attend his mother’s funeral.

“…And I didn’t go to the funeral. My brother told me, ‘You come here and it’s going to be a zoo. The whole town’s already gearing up for when you’re going to arrive. They all think you’re coming.’ So I said, ‘Well, then I’m not going to let this be about me. I can’t deal with that.’ But the truth is that I’ve always felt conflicted about whether I should have gone or not. I think it’s hard for anyone to understand, to see what an extreme position I would have been in. They were absolutely crazy in Gainesville.”

-Petty pg. 158

It is clear that Petty felt very close to his mother, so that he didn’t feel comfortable attending her funeral, I think is really unfortunate. There is definitely a good side to fame, but there is clearly a terrible side as well.

Concerning the music side of the book, I never realized what a music scene Gainesville, Florida was during this time. Don Felder and Bernie Leadon of the Eagles both lived there for a while and were in a band together (Maundy Quintet) prior to the Eagles. Also, I knew Jimmy Iovine had worked with both Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty, but I was unaware of the following Springsteen connection to the Heartbreakers:

…Petty started thinking a lot about a conversation he’d had with Bruce Springsteen. Springsteen had voiced his own frustrations with the opening slot… “He told me he’d been through that,” Petty says, “and decided he wasn’t going to do it anymore, was only going to play to people who wanted to see him. And if he couldn’t fill the hall, so be it. His band could make an impression with a club audience, then come back and play a bigger room. I thought, ‘That’s a damn good idea.’…

-Petty pg 132

I found it interesting that Tom Petty got the idea to refuse to be an opening act from Bruce. They each got to a point in their respective careers where they realized that, if they were willing to do it, they would always be opening for someone else. They needed to lay down the gauntlet a bit, and just trust that the smaller venues would lead to larger ones.

This is a biography I really enjoyed reading. I hope others find this A Look Back post helpful. If you enjoy music biographies, or just want to learn more about Tom Petty, you should give this a shot. If anyone wants to recommend another good one, please do so in the comment section below.