Credit: Ирина Лепнёва
Sat 1 August 2026 17:15, UK
Tom Petty didn’t really need to pick favourites when it came to his albums.
Every single one of them had been known for being varying degrees of solid throughout his career, and there was never a single moment where everyone could gawk in amazement at how bad it was like The Clash had with Cut the Crap or Metallica had on St Anger. Petty could always rely on his ear for songs to get him where he needed to go, but he felt that some of his favourite experiences ended up flying a bit under the radar for most fans.
Then again, it’s not like Petty was willing to switch things up too drastically whenever he made a record, either. There were a few times where he worked with a new producer to give him more perspective, and that did lead to him making songs that had strange instruments like an electric sitar in the mix on ‘Don’t Come Around Here No More’. But when you look at his track record, it would have been easy for Petty to tell you which were his low points when combing through his back catalogue.
He didn’t think that Let Me Up (I’ve Had Enough) was all that great when he first put it out, and when you look at some of the transitional albums throughout his career, he never seemed to look that favourably on records like Echo after going through his personal struggles behind the scenes. Those albums were hard for him to stomach, but the greatest part about them was about how he was able to pick himself up and move on.
And by the time that he entered the 2000s, he had felt untouchable for the first time in a while. There were still a handful of tunes that didn’t resonate with everyone on The Last DJ, but that didn’t seem to matter when he was playing the biggest shows of his career. He was the one onstage for one of Prince’s greatest guitar solos of all time, and that was the same decade that he appeared on the Super Bowl stage for the first time, so he was convinced that he could do anything that he wanted.
He had already gone back to working with Jeff Lynne on Highway Companion, but after releasing Runnin’ Down a Dream, Petty started to get a little bit nostalgic for his band Mudcrutch. The Florida natives were all looking to sign a record deal when they moved out to California in the early 1970s, and while only Petty, Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench made it to the Heartbreakers, Petty felt like the band deserved a greater shot at redemption when making their first proper debut record.
It was years after the fact and without any kind of major singles tied to it, but when looking back on the record, Petty felt like their debut they made could compete with anything the Heartbreakers ever did when talking about making their sophomore effort, saying, “Some of the most fun I have is those Mudcrutch sessions. It was just so much fun and I think that’s one of the better albums I was ever involved in. I’m hoping it’s something like that again. It’s kind of intimidating to have to follow it up.”
Further reading: From The Vault
Admittedly, the album isn’t exactly one of the biggest homeruns of Petty’s career for a reason, but you can definitely hear what he heard in it. This was the sound of a bunch of friends getting together and having a good time in the studio, and you can hear all of them starting to find their footing on the record, especially when they stretch things out on ‘Crystal River’ or pay tribute to their country and bluegrass roots on their versions of ‘Shady Grove’.
Most bands like this don’t get a second chance, but the two records they made together do give you a nice glimpse as to what Petty could have sounded like had he stuck with his original band. They were still cut out to be a great rock and roll outfit, but sometimes you need the right bit of magic and luck to get even the best bands over the line.
