Tom Petty
Tom Petty
Thomas Earl "Tom" Pettyis an American musician, singer, songwriter, multi instrumentalist and record producer. He is best known as the lead singer of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, but is also known as a member and co-founder of the late 1980s supergroup the Traveling Wilburys, and his early band Mudcrutch...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionRock Singer
Date of Birth20 October 1950
CityGainesville, FL
CountryUnited States of America
I really do love coming to this particular place.
I'm reaching there to try and find a theme. It's just a really nice collection of songs. I think it does have an underlying theme of time and what it does to you.
You've also got to rebound the basketball, and I think Hartley will be the biggest challenge we've faced this year.
I want to be successful. Not just money. Just making a successful record and a successful show. I could feel successful without selling a million records.
I'm not any happier anywhere than when I'm in the studio. I'm over the moon about it. It keeps me young, it keeps me feeling like I have some purpose.
The truth is that if you play on TV there is always a sponsor. There is no way around it. I've already passed on so much money I don't worry about it anymore.
I'm more interested in what I'm going to leave behind me than in making a big hit record. I've refined what I do for a long time. If getting better at it means it goes over the heads of those who only wanted to party, then so be it.
I didn't worry about my career ending, but there were days where I felt pretty beat up by it all and just pretty tired, because they didn't make it easy for me. And coming right off the last lawsuit, it was the last thing I wanted to get involved in. When it was over, we didn't really celebrate, we were just exhausted. I lost all interest in the record business and never wanted to do anything except hand in a record again.
I love the music. I'm never, ever tired of playing it.
If 20,000 people start to sing, you tend to go along with it.
I think it's important to always offer something new.
I always tell my kids, "Find something that you love and within that you'll find some job that you can do and you'll always be happy. You'll go to a job that you want to go to."
I've always had a great love for the blues.
If I'd had to work at Taco Bell I'd have still been out at night trying to play music.