You really can’t name many other bands that have the following of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
What started as another cool band in the mid 1970s — the heyday of the Ramones, the Allman Brothers Band and so many others — has emerged as perhaps one of the best of them all, certainly one that is widely loved by an ever-growing legion of fans that includes other musicians, such as Patterson Hood, co-founder of the Drive-By Truckers.
“Opening for Tom Petty — it’s super-cool,” Hood said of the opening gigs he and his band have done for Petty this summer. “We are all huge fans and every one of us are lifelong Tom Petty fans.”
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers had their breakthrough hit, “American Girl,” in the mid-1970s, and plenty of others — “Don’t Do Me Like That,” “Listen To Her Heart” — quickly followed and became radio staples. In fact, Hood was so taken with Petty’s song “Breakdown” that he used it as the name of the band he formed in high school.
Now the band is touring behind its latest album, “Mojo,” but still giving the fans plenty of classics in its two-hour-plus shows.
Hood arguably has had one of the best seats in the house for many of Petty’s shows this summer and said the shows are always filled to capacity and packed with feel-good vibes.
“When we started playing, the [arenas] are usually half-full, and by the end of the set there are [often] 15,000 people,” he said. “I feel like there are hard-core fans in the audience … but the majority have heard from us. It’s all good, and [Petty and his group] have been wonderful to us.”
Perhaps that’s because despite all the success and awards, Petty and his music have remained virtually unchanged — “organic” is how musicians phrase it — through the decades. As one critic at the Denver Post phrased it, “Does Tom Petty ever write a bad song?”
To read the reviews and judge the fan reaction, the answer seems obvious. Consider these lines by Jim Harrington of the Oakland Tribune:
“Halfway through the encore of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ concert on Saturday at Oracle Arena, the 59-year-old bandleader closed his eyes and spoke to the crowd mid-song.
” ‘I thought to myself,’ he uttered during the group’s oft-played cover of Van Morrison’s “Mystic Eyes,” ‘wouldn’t it be great if, for just one moment, everything was all right.’ ”
“Petty has made a career out of providing those kinds of moments for his fans.
“Those moments tend to last three to four minutes and have names like ‘American Girl,’ ‘Listen to Her Heart’ and ‘I Need to Know.’ They regularly triumph over his listeners’ worldly cares and, indeed, make everything temporarily feel all right.”
