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Credit: Far Out \/ YouTube Still<\/p>\n
Mon 11 May 2026 20:30, UK <\/p>\n
Tom Petty<\/a> never got into the music industry just as a one-time fling. <\/p>\n He knew that rock and roll was going to be his salvation away from some of the biggest struggles in his life, and even if he couldn\u2019t change what was happening around him, he could always find refuge in picking up a guitar and letting his feelings out that way, rather than trying to make the same poppy hits that everyone wanted to hear. He played by his own rules half the time, but that means that he found friends in bands that also played by their own rules.\u00a0<\/p>\n Petty was already responsible for helping kickstart the heartland rock genre when he began, but even compared to his peers, there was something separating him from the likes of Bruce Springsteen.<\/a> \u2018The Boss\u2019 was writing about his own town and the simple lives that he saw in New Jersey, but Petty was a lot more concerned with the simple aspects of life. Everyone falls in and out of love, and everyone has had people who have tried to screw them around, and nearly half of his discography is all about trying to make sense of those feelings.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t all that complicated, but that no-bullshit attitude that he had towards everything made him a hero to some of his idols. As far as George Harrison was concerned, Petty was telling it like it was<\/a> the same way that he was in his songs, and it wasn\u2019t out of the question for him to pop in during one of his gigs and hang out with the other legends like Roger McGuinn and Bob Dylan behind the scenes.<\/p>\n They were all a part of some strange rock and roll family to a certain degree, but making The Traveling Wilburys was the kind of idea that seemed too crazy to work<\/a>. Every member of the band had their own careers to worry about, but when Harrison needed one more B-side for his single, getting all of them under one roof for the song \u2018Handle With Care\u2019 seemed like one of those magical moments that no one could have predicted.<\/p>\n Everyone was having so much fun performing together, so since everyone was available for a few weeks, the only logical thing was to whip together a few more tunes. There were no expectations, and every member was more than up for having some fun in the studio, but even after Roy Orbison passed away<\/a>, Petty felt that the kind of magic that they had together was never going to be long-term.<\/p>\n He already needed to go back to the Heartbreakers, but after making their second record, Petty was happy to have made tunes that made everyone happy, saying<\/a>, \u201cIt probably seems like things that were that special just don\u2019t go on and on. I\u2019m just glad that the work that we did holds up. It still warms my heart to hear it, and I think it makes a lot of people happy, and that\u2019s the nicest part of it.\u201d <\/p>\n Further reading: From The Vault<\/strong><\/p>\n However, because Harrison had retired from the road and only saved his performances for special occasions, the idea of going on a massive tour and performing live was out of the question, yet when you look at the surviving members playing those songs over the years, you can still feel that sense of excitement whenever Petty would throw one of the tunes into his setlist or jam with Jeff Lynne whenever he had the chance.<\/p>\n The Wilburys definitely had the chance to make more music if they wanted to, but the core aspect was to make sure that everyone had fun, for they were a band that was built on instinct, so if any of it started to become too much of a job whenever they went out together, it would never have worked.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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