The blues musician who beat Tom Petty

(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still)

Friday 25 October 2024 20:15 UK

One of the cardinal rules of being in a band is to have the courage not to back down from anyone. As intimidating as it can be trying to compete with the giants of the music industry, the greatest artists of all time are the ones who look at what the competition is doing and dare to ask themselves if they can do something even better. For someone who wrote a song called “I Won’t Back Down” though, Tom Petty he knew that one of the veterans of the blues scene absolutely wiped the floor with the Heartbreakers when they were at their peak.

Then again, being at that level of play doesn’t come sporadically. Most people can only hope to get that good over time, and by the 1990s the Heartbreakers had gone from being the garage rock act to a well-oiled machine, especially now that they had a powerhouse like Steve Ferrone behind the drums .

Maybe they made softer music wild flowers, but it didn’t matter as long as they still had fire in their game. A song like “Honey Bee” should be a standard blues rocker on paper, but as soon as Mike Campbell starts the song with that guitar, every listener is transported to a sweaty blues club where the music seems to seep into the walls . more people play.

While Petty worked hard with the band to get to that point, he got a little help from his work with Bob Dylan. The folk-rock superstar may have worked with the Heartbreakers to give him some interesting points in the 1980s, but as he began to transform his tracks in real time when performing live, everyone had to be put under their belt and be capable. to put a dime into a completely different style of song than what they started with.

This kind of improvisation can be learned, and yet it came so naturally when I was listening to John Lee Hooker play the blues. Unlike Muddy Waters and BB King trading licks with their respective bands, Hooker took his songs to another level, basically laying the groundwork that guitarists like Chuck Berry would eventually lay on back then when he sped up those songs for rock and roll.

Most artists would be humbled to work with someone like Hooker, but Petty seemed almost scared to work with him once he saw what he could do on stage with Dylan. saying“Bob came in and said, ‘Come on, come back.’ John Lee Hooker is here to play. Come on. Let’s play with John Lee Hooker. I’m back on stage. Then John Lee Hooker came out and kicked our ass. It was simply transcendental. I remember Bob coming through the back and telling us, “Don’t change chords with John Lee Hooker. He doesn’t change chords. And Bob fell. That was one night.”

Despite being shown what true greatness looks like on stage, Petty knew he had to do some serious blues homework if he wanted to see that level of playing. And listening to where he went later in his career, records like Mojo, he felt he was finally sinking into his role as the bluesman with whom he had shared the stage.

Because Petty didn’t want to be known as just a rock and roll troubadour, he had plans to become the best musician he could be, which meant taking on tracks from whatever style of music caught his ear.

Subscribe to the Far Out newsletter