Running Down a Dream

At the dawn of the 1970s, a young Florida band had plausible dreams of making it big. “We were better than anyone else,” recalls their bassist, TOM PETTY, of his doomed first band, MUDCRUTCH. Now, though, he has reunited this mix of Heartbreakers and guitar teachers for a long-awaited turn in the spotlight. Uncut meets a reborn Mudcrutch in New York, and explores with them the lost hinterland of a rock superstar.

- Jaan Uhelszki

Tom Petty Came to success in a very roundabout way. During his induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in Newyork in early June, Petty explains that, even today – having spent the best part of three decades refining back-to-basics american rock – he still considers himself to be an outsider. “I’m sorta the rock’n’roll white trash section of the show,” he deadpans from the podium of the Marriott Marquis Ballroom. Tonight, Petty is in illustrious company. His fellow inductees include Lionel Richie, Elvis Costello, Nile Rodgers and posthumously, Marvin Gaye. Petty is suitably dressed for the occasion, sporting a military-cut black tuxedo, a black silk shirt and a thin purple cravat. He is inaugurated by his friend Roger McGuinn and although the tone of the event is light and celebratory, Petty’s acceptance speech shares several hard truths about the nature of his craft. “Writing a song for a rock band – you’d better bring a really good song, because they don’t take it well if it’s not,” he says in a slow, laconic drawl. “Many times I’ve gone back to the drawing board.

“If no-one ever wrote another song, we’d be fine,” he continues. “There’s plenty of songs. But I still do it. I love it, it’s a gift. Everybody can do it, but everybody can’t do it good.”

But which band exactly is Petty talking about here? The Heartbreakers, perhaps; his longserving sidemen on 13 studio albums? or alternatively, is he referring to Mudcrutch – the proto-Heartbreakers outfit formed in Gainesville, Florida in 1970? In the event, Petty decides to honour both of his bands by playing “angel Dream (No 4)”, a Heartbreakers’ deep cut, and a Mudcrutch track, “I Forgive It all”.