(Credits: Songwriters Hall of Fame)
Wed 4 February 2026 21:15, UK
Tom Petty never really had a choice when he first decided to become a rock and roll star.
He wasn’t sure where his life was going to take him, but when he heard the sounds of everyone from Elvis Presley to Bob Dylan to The Byrds, he knew that he needed to follow in the footsteps of those same musicians who set his world on fire. He wanted to make his dreams a reality, but even he could be surprised when some bands went well beyond anything he could have ever hoped for.
Then again, Petty would have been the first to say that he wasn’t trying to write deep songs every single time he wrote music. He was a brilliant poet whenever he sang a love song, but songs like ‘Girl on LSD’ aren’t exactly about looking for some hidden meaning that no one else has touched on. He was more than happy to write whatever came into his head, but people often forget how powerful his stream of consciousness could be if it hit him at just the right moment.
The heartland rocker wasn’t ever trying to understand where all that magic was coming from, but the idea of him writing ‘Wildflowers’ in the time it takes for most people to play the song is absolutely unreal. Only a few people on Earth are blessed with having that musical sixth sense whenever they pick up their instrument, but that also came from Petty having a few good friends helping him out along the way.
Not everyone gets the opportunity to get a few pointers from someone like Bob Dylan, but getting the chance to write with him in the late 1980s was already a sign of him turning into an elder statesman of rock and roll. He may not have been all that starstruck by too many people, but even the most laid-back artists in the world had to be pinching themselves if they had the chance to work with someone like George Harrison.
After all, this was the same guy that Petty saw on the Ed Sullivan Show back when he was a kid. Elvis Presley may have seemed too big of a dream for him, but in The Beatles, he saw a model that he could work from. He could have a band of his own and play rock and roll for the rest of his life, but even after having hits like ‘Free Fallin’ and ‘I Won’t Back Down’, Petty remembered The Beatles’ songs being almost too good for anyone to ever hope to play like.
The afterglow of working with Harrison may have worn off by then, but Petty could take you back to that day when he gave his Beatle friend a Century Award at the Billboard Music Awards, saying, “I’ve been asked to give a few thoughts on George, which is fair enough because he’s given me so many thoughts. George Harrison makes me think of the fabulous Beatles arriving like a vision to an entire generation. Girls screaming and music better than you can dream of coming out of every radio.”
But even with all those accolades, Harrison seemed to be the one member of the band constantly downplaying his role as an icon. He didn’t want to be looked at like some god, and while there are so many musicians that can only hope to have the same kind of musical intuition that he did back in the day, a lot of what Harrison did was second nature rather than something he had to think too much about.
Petty could do his best to try and capture that same feeling in his music, but even if he had a fair bit of masterpieces under his belt, he wasn’t going to hold a candle to what his favourite band did. Because when you think about it, The Beatles are to rock and roll and pop what Bob Dylan is to folk music. Their influence is felt every single time a young kid picks up a guitar, but there’s no way that anyone is ever going to come up with tunes as good as they did.
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