We both soon realized that the book should contain more, however. I had interviewed Tom several times in the past, and have found him to be one of the warmest and most likeable of music’s superstars. The original impetus for the book was to talk in depth and length about Petty’s music. “I think it might be the best thing I’ve ever done,” he said, later asking me to change the sentence to read in the book, “I think it might be one of the best things I’ve ever done.” It starts with the slinky funk of “Turn This Car Around” and proceeds through a string of strong song, including “Down South,” a masterful return to Petty’s past in Florida, and “Square One,” which is tenderly painted by two acoustic guitars and is one of the most sweetly haunting songs Petty has written in years. It’s a great album, matching and maybe even surpassing the level of Petty’s previous work. Petty proudly played the album for me during one of these joyful Saturdays, at very loud volume (because “I’m partially deaf,” he said with a smile) in his home studio in Malibu, Calif.
#TOM PETTY SQUARE ONE FULL#
The new music was made differently than in the past: It’s a solo album called Highway Companion and is the product of only three musicians-Tom (who plays guitar, keyboards and, remarkably, drums on the album), Jeff Lynne (who was a Travelin’ Wilbury with Petty, and also the producer of the magical Full Moon Fever album) and Heartbreaker Mike Campbell (who plays fluid slide guitar throughout the album). Petty is happily married to the ebullient Dana Petty, happy being the father of three children and happily making new music (as well as playing old favorites on the road with The Heartbreakers, one of the greatest rock and roll bands of all time). He’s a happy man for a number of reasons, as I learned while interviewing him in a succession of Saturday afternoons through interviews connected and preserved in our book, Conversations with Tom Petty (Omnibus Books).
If the old proverb “God loves the happy man” is true, Tom Petty is definitely divinely beloved.
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