(Credits: Far Out / The Bigger Picture)
Fri 3 April 2026 2:00, UK
In 1974, Tom Petty knew it was time.
All the stories of the greats seem to begin with a watershed moment like this, like Bob Dylan moving to New York, Leonard Cohen choosing to leave Hydra, or Joni Mitchell deciding to head to Laurel Canyon, and for Petty, the story began in Florida. That’s where his entire foundation was, as the musician was born and raised in Gainesville, and stayed there until he hit his 20s, as it was where he first gained a passion for music, where he learnt the guitar, and formed his first bands.
It was where his first proper band, Mudcrutch, thought they might make it. Forming in Petty’s hometown in 1970, this was the first unit he was properly serious about, as they gained a solid local following and were writing their own tunes. As far as lineups go, it was a strong one, although Petty, along with Mike Campbell, were all in their infancy as artists. Everything they were doing was a real first; it was all baby steps, and so naturally, it wasn’t their strongest work.
But they were getting there, and Petty had full faith that they would get there, so by 1974, that faith was so strong that a bold decision was made: the band would move to Los Angeles, which was the watershed moment. While we’d all love to see a world where art is decentralised away from expensive big cities, it has always been the case that the worlds of art and music buzz around a bustling town, and in the 1970s, nowhere was buzzier than LA, the city that had become the spiritual home of rock.Â
In the 1960s, that home had been more broken up, as London was big, so was New York, so were smaller towns like San Francisco. Counterculture seemed to allow it all to be more divided into different scenes, but by the mid-’70s, when rock was the mainstream, Los Angeles had taken over as it felt like every band had settled there.
The industry had settled there too, and as Petty was itching to level up, he decided them himself, and his band, needed to finally make the move. It would have been much easier to fly, but in the grand tradition of the On The Road mindset, they packed up a car instead.
There’s something so romantic about it. Petty, Campbell, and the rest of the current lineup of Mudcrutch packed up their instruments and a few other possessions and piled into someone’s car to head off on a huge 2400-mile journey. It would take over 34 hours, basically taking them from one side of the country to the other, but for the most part, it was one long open highway, Interstate 10, connecting California to Florida, through everything from deserts to coastal towns.Â
When they got there, Mudcrutch would have one more year until they broke up, but after that, Petty himself would make it happen with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, the 1976 breakout record from his new group.
You can already hear the song, can’t you? You can almost hear the intro to ‘Free Fallin’ playing even though the song wouldn’t come about until years later, but that classic American road trip spirit that would eventually make Tom Petty an icon seemed to be born right here, on this bold journey where he took a bet on his future.
