Tom Petty heads home for inspiration
By Lisa Robinson
The Montreal Gazette - August 6, 1981
NEW YORK -- Even though superstar guitarist Tom Petty and his Heartbreakers spent give years working their way out of their Gainesville, Fla., hometown, they all plan to return to their roots this year -- at least for part of the year -- to live.
Petty will keep his home in Los Angeles, but plans to live several months a year where he came from, and try to do some new, productive work.
Although many Los Angeles-based musicians often move to New York City for a while in an attempt to give their music some added "urgency," Petty dismisses his idea as "romantic nonsense."
He says, "It's living in a garret transposed to being jostled on the streets and having lousy weather. New York rock 'n' roll superstars all travel in limousines, anyway." He adds, "Aggravation doesn't produce art."
Petty's new LP, Hard Promises, has already sold over a million copies in the three months since its release, but his new single, Woman In Live (the follow-up to The Waiting), has been surpassed in radio air play by the duet he wrote for, and sings with, Fleetwood Mac's Stevie Nicks -- Stop Dragging My Heart Around.
Certain shows on Petty's current three-and-a-half month tour of the United States and Canada will be recorded for a live album that he'll release in time for Christmas.
He and The Heartbreakers (MIke Campbell, Stan Lynch, Ben Tench and Ron Blair) will add some previously unrecorded songs to the set so that the album will contain new material.