{"id":7910,"date":"2026-10-01T14:14:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T13:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/?p=7910"},"modified":"2026-10-01T14:14:00","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T13:14:00","slug":"shindig-issue-180-mudcrutch-tom-petty-the-heartbreakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/?p=7910","title":{"rendered":"Shindig! Issue #180 – Mudcrutch \/ Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fifty years ago, TOM PETTY & THE HEARTBREAKERS\u2019 self-titled debut album launched a long, spectacular career rooted in then-unfashionable mid-60s rock \u2019n\u2019 roll values. <\/strong><\/p>\n

On the eve of an early years box set,<\/em> TIM STEGALL corrals Heartbreakers Ron Blair, Stan Lynch and Benmont Tench in the first of our exclusive two-part deep dive.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThey didn\u2019t like it, especially in The Deep South. You could get your ass kicked if you were in the wrong spot\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

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“We recorded a lot of demos, but all they ever released was a cassette-mixed single that nobody was very happy with,” was Tom Petty\u2019s 1977 summary of Mudcrutch\u2019s Shelter contract, the single being the vaguely reggae-fied \u2018Depot Street\u2019. Then Shelter forced their dissolution, keeping only Petty under contract, putting him in the studio to track with the cream of LA session aces like Jim Keltner and Booker T & The MGs bassist Donald \u2018Duck\u2019 Dunn. \u201cI didn’t dig that at all,\u201d Petty groused to Dadomo, \u201cbecause good as they are, it wasn’t a band. So that never really got off the ground because I couldn’t really get behind it.”<\/p>\n

What happened next depends on whose memory you\u2019re standing in, which is itself the most interesting thing about it: three men who were all in the room that night still can\u2019t fully agree on it, five decades on.<\/p>\n

Benmont Tench claims it began with him owing a favour. \u201cI had a friend who was an assistant recording engineer at Village Recorders,\u201d he says. \u201cThey\u2019d let you have studio time during off-hours if you brought in friends to record. He pestered me while \u2013 I\u2019m lazy \u2013 and finally I gave in.\u201d Tench called Lynch, who brought Blair, his neighbour in Laurel Canyon and his \u201cfantasy bass player\u201d. Tench also called in Mike Campbell, with whom, per Lynch, he shares \u201cspecial DNA\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cBen\u2019s hands go to the exact right place on the keyboard,\u201d insists Lynch. \u201cMike\u2019s hands go to the fretboard at exactly the right place at the right time.\u201d<\/p>\n