I feel like I should say something this week because there’s no question that Petty was one of my top 5 influences. You can hear it in my vocals, you can see it in the structure of bridges in my songs—I see it all over the place. I adored his first five albums from start to finish (yes, even Long After Dark). The early-era Petty—feisty, fighting for his existence—was glorious.
In his last interview, he talked about being an artist. “It was about something much greater. It was about moving people…I really believed in rock-n-roll. I believed in it in its purest sense, its purest form.”
I hope some of the spirit of that quote comes through here on this site. I can safely say this site doesn’t exist without that man.