Petty's schoolboy band was called the Sundowners, later changed to the Epics. By 1970, the Epics had evolved into Mudcrutch. After recording a demo tape in the living room of Mudcrutch member Benmont Tench, the band drove west to Los Angeles to find fame and fortune. Within a week of arriving in Los Angeles, Mudcrutch had offers of several record deals. They signed with Shelter Records in the Spring of 1974 and set out to record an album. After the disappointing release of their first Shelter single, "Depot Street," the efforts to finish the album dragged along and Mudcrutch eventually disbanded.
Petty later reunited with two of the former Mudcrutch members, guitarist Mike Campbell and keyboardist Benmont Tench, in a demo session. The trio met up with two other musicians who also hailed from Gainesville, bassist Ron Blair and drummer Stan Lynch, and a famous quintet was born. They called themselves Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers kicked the musical doldrums of the mid-70s in the face with their 1976 self-titled debut album. It featured a stripped-down-but-accomplished brand of rock that blended jumpy rhythm & blues rhythms, ringing guitars and keyboards, over which Petty grabbed listeners by their throats with his disarmingly blunt lyrics and extremely direct vocal style.
Still, it took America a full year to catch up to the album. "Breakdown" became a Top 40 hit in 1977 after word filtered back that Petty was creating a firestorm over in England. By the end of the pivotal U.K. trek, the band was headlining the very same venues where they played as an opening act weeks earlier.
1978's follow-up, You're Gonna Get It!, proved the debut album's intensity was no fluke. Marking the band's first gold album, it featured the singles "Listen To Her Heart" and "I Need To Know." Throughout the band's history, Tom Petty has demonstrated that he "won't back down" from the principles in which he believes. While recording 1979's Damn The Torpedoes, Petty tried to renegotiate his contract when MCA purchased ABC Records (for which Petty recorded). Petty held fast to his principles for a long nine months -- he believed artists should own their songwriting copyrights -- and it drove him to bankruptcy even though he ultimately triumphed. It was a struggle that earned much attention, helping other artists in their own battles to hold onto their copyrights. The turbulence surrounding Damn The Torpedoes did little to stifle the album's success, and it counts among the greatest rock records of the 1970s. Featuring the songs "Don't Do Me Like That," "Refugee" and "Here Comes My Girl," it became triple-platinum and brought Petty superstardom and arena headlining status.
In 1981 Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers released the album Hard Promises amidst a new controversy. Petty resisted having the album released at a higher "superstar product" price for customers. After threatening to withhold the LP, MCA released the album at the lower price Petty wanted. The original lineup of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers changed in 1982 when bassist Ron Blair left the band. Howie Epstein, a bass player who had been working with Del Shannon, joined the group and made his debut with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers at a concert in Santa Cruz, California on September 1, 1982 playing bass and singing backing vocals.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers continued to gather momentum throughout the 80's with critically acclaimed albums like Long After Dark (1982), Southern Accents (1985) and the double live set Pack Up The Plantation - Live! (1985) (which had a companion long form home video). Southern Accents produced Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' first video award, the MTV Video Music Award for Best Special Effects for "Don't Come Around Here No More." Throughout this period of success, there continued to be unusual twists and turns. Frustrated during the mixing process for Southern Accents, Petty broke his left hand after punching it through a wall. In 1987, Petty brushed with a tire company which ultimately withdrew a Tom Petty soundalike song from a TV commercial. 1987 also saw the release of Let Me Up (I've Had Enough), which featured "Jammin' Me," co-written by Bob Dylan, with whom they teamed up for a historic world tour in 1986 and 1987.
In 1988 Tom Petty joined Bob Dylan, Jeff Lynne, George Harrison and Roy Orbison to record as the Traveling Wilburys. The Wilburys released two platinum albums, The Traveling Wilburys (1988) and Volume Three (1990). Petty received a Grammy Award in 1989 for Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal for his work with the Wilburys. Tom Petty made his solo debut in 1989 with Full Moon Fever, which he co-produced with fellow Wilbury Jeff Lynne and Heartbreaker Mike Campbell. Full Moon Fever remained in Billboard's Top Ten album chart for over 34 weeks and earned triple-platinum status, along the way spawning such hits as "I Won't Back Down," "Running Down A Dream" and "Free Fallin'." Continuing to stand up for his principles, Petty threatened not to play at a 1989 concert in New Jersey when authorities refused to allow Greenpeace to set up information booths in the lobby. Petty didn't back down, but the authorities did, and the gig went on. In 1990 Petty was acknowledged for his songwriting abilities when he received an ASCAP songwriter award for "Free Fallin'."
Tom Petty received UCLA's George And Ira Gershwin Award For Lifetime Musical Achievement in April 1996. Previous recipients of the university's award include Ray Charles and Ella Fitzgerald. Petty was the first artist of the rock era to earn this distinction. In 1996, Tom Petty was also selected to receive his own star on the Walk of Fame in Hollywood (to be presented in 1997), an honor that not only acknowledges his musical achievements but his humanitarian involvement with such organizations as Greenpeace, the National Veteran's Foundation, USA Harvest, Rock And Wrap It Up and AmFAR (the American Foundation for AIDS Research).
In the Playback liner notes, Bill Flanagan noted: "Yet for all the respect and affection that comes his way, Petty has never been granted a free pass, he has never seemed to quite reach the place where his eccentricities will be automatically indulged. He has had to work very hard to stay on top. Along the way, he has built a body of work that seems more impressive with each new addition to it. He is the tortoise who finally wins the race while the hares are all relaxing and reading their press clippings."