![\"Tom](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Tom-Petty-Singer-Guitarist-1980s-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
(Credits: Far Out \/ The Bigger Picture)<\/p>\n
Mon 16 March 2026 20:03, UK <\/p>\n
\u201cThe energy that came with the British Invasion was the difference,\u201d Tom Petty<\/a> once said, \u201cthese guys brought the guitar to the fore.\u201d That music was the making of him.<\/p>\n There is no such thing as a self-made man. Even those who defy the odds to become respected innovators in their artistic field started out somewhere, inspired by someone and given a chance by someone. In the case of Petty, the golden-haired Florida-born artist, his bright future in music manifested in the late 1950s and early \u201960s when he encountered the work of Elvis Presley and, later, The Beatles. <\/p>\n At just ten years old, Petty met Elvis Presley face to face in a defining moment of his childhood. In the summer of 1961, his uncle worked on the set of Presley\u2019s movie Follow That Dream in Ocala and invited him to watch the shoot. Petty was taken aback by the experience and knew from then on that he wanted to be a star. <\/p>\n Just a few months before his death in 2017, Petty accepted an honour from MusiCares. In his speech, Petty noted the debt he owed to The Beatles for keeping the spirit of rock \u2018n\u2019 roll alive. He explained that the first wave of rock \u2018n\u2019 roll in the 1950s made the American government \u201cvery nervous\u201d, especially the Republicans. <\/p>\n Reconciling the revolutionary spirit of the rock \u2018n\u2019 roll movement, Petty reckoned, \u201cThey put Elvis in the army, they put Chuck Berry in jail,\u201d he said. \u201cThings calmed down for a couple of years, but it was too late; the music had reached England, and they remembered it.\u201d Then came a movement that they couldn\u2019t stop.<\/p>\n In 1964, when Petty was an impressionable 13-year-old, he saw The Beatles\u2019 first performance on The Ed Sullivan Show<\/a>. The appearance has since gone down in history as a pivotal moment in the British invasion of the US charts and the beginning of a cultural revolution in the West. The brief performance inspired Petty to form his first teenage rock band. \u201cYou get your friends, and you\u2019re a self-contained unit.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n He continued, \u201cIt looked like so much fun. It was something I identified with,\u201d he reflected. \u201cI had been a big fan of Elvis. But I really saw in the Beatles that here\u2019s something I could do. I knew I could do it.\u201d<\/p>\n Before joining The Epics, which would morph into Petty\u2019s first notable formative project, Mudcrutch, Petty played with a band called The Sundowners. Remarkably, when he formed the group with a couple of classmates, he had yet to attend his first rock concert. \u201cThe first concert I went to was in 1965. I was in this little band, the Sundowners, and the drummer\u2019s mom drove us to this show in Jacksonville, about 75 miles away,\u201d he told Rolling Stone in 2009.<\/p>\n In some parts of the US, rock \u2018n\u2019 roll gigs were still relatively scarce in the mid-1960s, leaving fans with long journeys to see the stars. Fortunately, Petty and his bandmates chose a night with an \u201cincredible\u201d lineup of contemporary heroes. \u201cThe show opener was The Premiers, who did \u2018Farmer John\u2019,\u201d Petty began to list enthusiastically. \u201cThen Del Shannon came out and Lesley Gore, both backed by The Premiers. Then the Shangri-Las rolled out Mary Weiss and Sam the Sham, and The Pharaohs hit the stage with \u2018Wooly Bully\u2019 and those turbans.\u201d<\/p>\n The record that changed it all for Tom Petty<\/p>\n Within the first half an hour, Petty had seen some of the contemporary greats, but the best was still yet to come. \u201cThere was an intermission, and The Zombies came out and fried my brain,\u201d an awed Petty continued. \u201cThe singer, Colin Blunstone, had such an ethereal voice; it was spooky.\u201d At the time, the British invasion band had just released their eponymous debut album and had a significant hit with \u2018She\u2019s Not There\u2019. <\/p>\n During their performance, The Zombies played the early single \u2018I Want You Back Again\u2019, which became one of Petty\u2019s favourites. After the gig, he tracked down the single and learned how to play it on his first guitar. Many years later, he began to weave the song into his live repertoire with The Heartbreakers and became one of many musicians behind The Zombies\u2019 return to the spotlight. <\/p>\n From that moment on, Petty would always assert that the band changed him with their deeply affecting sound. This was the British \u201cdifference\u201d he spoke of. It enlivened his all-American ears, and he wanted more of it. With that in mind, he always ranked \u2018She\u2019s Not There\u2019 among his favourite rock \u2018n\u2019 roll songs, explaining, \u201cThat piano break was over our head at the time, but so right. Colin Blunstone\u2019s voice was a sound I had never heard. I thought if a zombie sang, that\u2019s how he would sound.\u201d That certainly wasn\u2019t what you were going to get \u201coff the Shirelles\u201d.<\/p>\n All the same, following their debut album, The Zombies entered a dry spell, releasing only a scattering of singles through the mid-1960s. They eventually regrouped to record an ambitious follow-up album, Odyssey and Oracle. In 1967, they previewed the album with the lead single \u2018Care of Cell 44\u2019<\/a>, which failed to make much of an impact on either side of the Atlantic.<\/p>\n With very little hope for the album\u2019s commercial performance, The Zombies disbanded to focus on various collaborations and solo projects. Little did they know, but in conjunction with the hit single \u2018Time of the Season\u2019, Odyssey and Oracle would receive a warm reception upon its arrival in 1968. Their weirdness had made them stand out in the States. \u2018What was this music and what kind of creature bore it\u2019, was a question not only being asked by Petty.<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/The-Zombies-Far-Out-Magazine-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a>Credit: Alamy<\/p>\n