Tom Petty Gets Deep In Rolling Stone

Tom Petty chatted with Rolling Stone to mark the release of The Live Anthology, a multi-CD boxed set covering 30 years of road work with his band the Heartbreakers.

In the issue he chats about his new album and gets deep about growing up with a violent father saying he still has nightmares.

On how the time he spent working on Live Anthology affected the new record he’s making with the Heartbreakers:  “It may have had some influence. We’re trying to catch it all live, just use the five or six instruments at most. And I’ve gotten the guitars up front. I’ve gotten the best out of Mike [Campbell] that I’ve ever gotten out of him.

It’s blues-based. Some of the tunes are longer, more jam-y kind of music. A couple of tracks really sound like the Allman Brothers — not the songs but the atmosphere of the band.”

On always integrating the band:  “I never felt comfortable having to take all the light. I was always in bands. So from the get-go, I was determined that this not be a backing-band kind of thing. I’m in the band. I’m a member of the band. And I don’t want it any other way. Just before the Heartbreakers, I did a couple of sessions. I had really good musicians.”

On his father physically and verbally abused him because he assumed he was gay since he was interested in the arts instead of sports: “[My father] was scary and violent.  He beat the living hell out of me, and there was constant verbal abuse.

Looking back on it, he probably was disappointed that I was so drawn to the arts. He probably thought I was gay.  I wasn’t interested in sports. I didn’t know the names of any baseball players. I liked films and books and records.”

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