(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still)
Wed 14 January 2026 18:00, UK
There are countless artists who can only hope to have the kind of lucky breaks that Tom Petty did throughout his career.
Maybe it was because of how genuine he could be, but it’s shocking to think of all the classic rockers that wanted to be his friend, whether that was jamming on and off again with Bob Dylan or getting the chance to help Johnny Cash make his final masterpieces. That simply doesn’t happen to a by-the-numbers rock and roll star, but Petty had a keen ear for the kind of musicians who went above and beyond anything that the rest of his friends were doing.
But a lot of what Petty could do involved him acting on instinct. There are countless songs in his catalogue that he admitted having no idea what they were about, and yet when you listen to them, you get some of the most complex character portraits anyone has ever written. These were the songs that could give Springsteen a run for his money, but Petty was looking more at the whole package when it came to writing his tunes.
After all, some of the greatest tunes in his catalogue often revolved around him trying to make the best catchy single as well, and while the deep cuts still sounded great, there’s no mistaking ‘Refugee’ or ‘Breakdown’ for anyone else whenever it comes on the radio. That instinct led him to many great places, but part of any musician’s longevity often revolves around keeping his ears open for what the next new thing is.
It may not have worked out for the best all the time like bringing in synthesisers on ‘You Got Lucky’ or trying on his soul chops on ‘Make It Better’, but when he heard what Jeff Lynne was doing with ELO, he was immediately inspired. The way that he was using chords sounded absolutely crushing, and when listening to a song like ‘Change of Heart’, the skeleton of the song is practically lifted directly from ELO’s ‘Do Ya’ in a few places.
He knew he wanted to work with Lynne in some capacity, but when Full Moon Fever, he got a little more than he bargained for. This was the kind of partnership that he had only dreamed of, and after making great tunes on his own and with Mike Campbell, hearing him put together ‘Free Fallin’ and ‘Learning to Fly’ with the help of Lynne was the kind of musical match made in heaven in many respects.
And when Petty paid tribute to Lynne when he got his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, he counted the ELO frontman among the finest musicians he had ever seen, saying, “[He is] the best overall musician I’ve ever met. [He is also] the single greatest record producer I’ve ever encountered. Let’s put it this way, it says a lot when The Beatles get back together and George Martin can’t make it, they get Jeff Lynne.”
But, really, working with The Beatles meant a lot more to Lynne than it did to any of the surviving members of the Fab Four. He was a lifelong Beatles enthusiast, and the idea of stepping behind the producer’s chair to help bring those John Lennon demos to life again was the perfect coda for the band’s career together.
It’s a lot easier for Petty to say something like that among friends, but what Lynne did for every musician that he worked with was about much more than friendly banter. He may have been the other younger brother of the Traveling Wilburys in many respects, but there’s hardly anything that he ever made that had too many dents in it. Everything had to be perfect, and those records are about as close to spotless as anyone could get.
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