Tom Petty on fame

In this clip from his feature interview with Jian at Woodshed Recording in Malibu, California, Tom Petty muses on the changing face of fame in the modern world. You can see Jian's interview with Tom on The National this Thursday night, and hear it on Thursday morning on Q on CBC Radio 1.
Q is your daily dose of arts, culture and entertainment. Join host, Jian Ghomeshi, as he engages today's top artists, critics and phenoms in conversation.
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[@Danimal300zx]

Tom at 63 years old looks so badass. I've been a lifetime fan of his body of work. One of the greats and should be referred to in the same sentence as Bob Dylan, Neil Young and the late great Johnny Cash.

[@johnmiraglia2661]

Amen to all that, brother.

[@screwyootube1]

That's some legendary company. I would wholeheartedly agree! :)

[@genereynolds3296]

My favorite playlist of all time: Bob, Neil, Tom & Cash

[@mr.smithgnrsmith7808]

Tom has more talent than Dylan/Young combined….an equal to Cash

[@betpow]

the coolest guy in rock?...so talented too

[@emilesauve3876]

''We were suspicious of people who had hit records...it was that different'' That struk me

[@surfrunnerd8457]

I was a musician trying to get discovered years ago and a friend on the inside of the record business told me the staggering amount of money it took to successfully launch a new artist. The money would be paid out across the country - big towns, small towns to program managers and disc jockeys to get songs played on the air. The record companies would pick and choose who they wanted to launch into stardom. They could make a star out of almost anyone if they wanted to. Can't, write? No problem - ghost writers. Can't play an instrument well? No problem. Madonna, for example, had no musical ability whatsoever. Even then, though, some people would slip through the system somehow and make it on their own through real talent, like Tom Petty who started out on a small label. Or the Doors earlier. A lot of people don't know but the Doors were signed by Columbia Records first but Columbia chose not to support or promote the band.

[@mikemcardle7466]

He understood corporate music vs real music...IMHO :-)

[@richj011]

"Tom Petty's Buried Treasure" is a really cool station on Sirius that he dj's. I've been turned on to a whole different side to music with Rock Rhythm & Blues. Interestingly he says he'll never play Jethro Tull! Cheers to that!

[@danvandermeulen9337]

I love his line about if someone would have won a singing show to get famous, they would have been laughed out of the room. So true.... days are gone where bands become famous based on their own effort, talent, and hard work. Now networks and corporations decide who they want famous. The obvious example is Super Bowl halftime shows....no more Petty, U2, Springsteen, the Who......the garbage the last few years is laughable.

[@chuckcaldwell474]

Dan Vandermeulen , Amen to that

[@elvicare35]

I still don't get the Springsteen "craze"??!!!!!!

[@Jeanettedi]

TRUE!

[@robertdunkes3499]

I was standing at a bus stop in Baltimore City the night of his concert at the first mariner arena, and everybody at the stop had nothing but love for Tom. Black white it didn't matter, people asked how he looked, how he was doing it was unreal.

[@reider0608]

He sure looks pretty laid back and sleepy and breezy lol liked his style Rest In Peace Tom Petty

[@johnbowen35]

Tom is cool by nature, what ya see is what ya get. He did what he did best. Miss you bro everyday

[@robertdunkes3499]

My Man, My rock and Roll dude. Why? you were one of the last ones. Did they do you in? I am devastated. I have no words.

[@markuspritsch7810]

Music was a religion to him

[@joebudden4021]

That's regrettable

[@jamiethornton6101]

Fact. There is at minimal one Tom Petty song EVERYONE loves. Maybe not the same one, but i've never met anyone that says; I HATE TOM PETTY.

[@robertdunkes3499]

jamie thornton Absolutely.

[@screwyootube1]

I have, but they are usually someone who hasn't REALLY listened to him. Then there's the douchebags that hate him because they enjoy pissing people off. Those are the people I steer clear of. :)

[@stevemcqueen1096]

I don't want to meet anyone that hates T.P.

[@Erockspencer86]

Facts

[@psychedelicearth1239]

I wasn’t a fan at all until I took the time to listen to him speak, and listen deeper than just a few radio hits. Same with a lot of bands I now love, goes to show you can’t judge a band by one song, book by one page, person by one action or attribute, etc. (:

[@erick938]

RIP to a legend

[@keithb3178]

he earned his fame

[@Qwazier3]

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM PETTY!!!! Awesome. Looking forward to all of this interview.

[@Kn1ghtMayor]

Always loved last dance Mary Jane.

[@tankhalffull]

Beyond famous..., Tom is a legend...

[@oiaiofoster4775]

I Love This Man!!!!!!

[@TheVideoVolcano]

Truth. Nothing less than the truth.

[@PolyphonicPress]

Please post the rest of this interview!

[@QwithTomPower]

We'll be posting the full interview (in two parts) on Thursday, once it's aired on The National. Cheers!

[@PolyphonicPress]

Q with Jian Ghomeshi Awesome! Looking forward to seeing it!

[@green323turbo]

Jian's a woman punching piece of shit.

[@gregmcdermott3285]

Tom was obviously a beautiful person

[@lorenzoclement2013]

Awesome Kool guy,I feel him on the game show talent

[@carolfidler5505]

Tom was different and such a great person. ❤️💔

[@1022rebelreddog]

tom is right , that did not strike me. that was the way it was in the world of music , hit records etc. it was a different but i know what he was saying. I get it he said it . they use the word artist and I don't even know the name of the person now a day.

[@peterklutinoty244]

Thursday. Thursday? Huh. Thurssssday will it ever get here?

[@Stewieboy1995]

exactly Tom. it's plastic music. good wording. most music now is garbage and lacks a good feel when you listen to a song and a song that is catchy and fun to listen to.

[@chattycathy8089]

That's soooo true.. we grew up with the best music!!

[@davethomson3834]

Tom is why the green should be legal. lol

[@screwyootube1]

Slowly, but surely... We're gettin' there. Sad that he didn't live to see it.

[@bradyjamesofficial]

Woah.

[@steveduckworth9494]

R.I.P. Tom

[@renjay3743]

There's a band from the UK who still run around that started up in the mid 80's who called themselves 'Pop will eat itself'. They weren't wrong.

[@MrBeugh]

Tom Petty was the real deal who lived the words of also very real Iggy Pop "Phony rock-n-roll is a crime."

[@marksc1929]

...the definition of cool ...not perfect , as he would admit.....but cool...

[@robertdunkes3499]

Mark C By definition, cool is imperfect perfection.

[@kevinc.8869]

Somehow 7 people didn't like what Tom said.

[@whozyomamma7627]

Sweet Dreams

[@timothylines3867]

tom, like some of us,remenber, peter lemmon jello,tube that shit up.florida also.

[@2lostbikes]

"If they would've tried to offer my generation music by someone who won a game show, it would've been hysterical." You mean like how Cheryl Lynn went on the Gong Show in 1976 and went on to score a record contract and multiple #1 hits with her awful disco music? The same year Tom released his first album with the Heartbreakers, mind you.

[@DL-ty4cu]

Exactly. The only real change, which has effected everything is the rate of transfer of information in the industry, and the kindof 'leveling of the playing field' in terms of marketing platforms. Before the internet the industry was probably a bit more tribalist, because one group was less aware of those outside immediate contact. Nowadays it's been diffused dramatically, breaking down the idea of 'fame' as an achievement, and becoming more of a force of nature. Then again, wtf do i know.

[@PolyphonicPress]

I think he was talking more about when he was a teenager in the 60s.

[@june21stgem]

You literally just named one person...... dozens of these people get bogus record deals from these types of shows yearly, around the world... Petty knows more about music than you know about breathing.. Yes Im tired as hell and that's the best I could come up with..

[@2lostbikes]

There's a lot more of these bogus record deals going on now, very true, but I didn't like the way he framed it with pure incredulity, like it would *never* happen to his generation, when in fact, it did. It was just one point out of a larger context of historical revisionism that I picked up from him. Tom rolled with a cool crowd, and I have no doubt they rejected crass commercialization of music, but he's making a comparison to the broader consumer culture of today. In the 60's and 70's: there were record deals from game shows, there were flash-in-the-pan artists that people forgot after a few weeks, there were embarrassing attempts to use music as a marketing ploy. And in 21st century US/Canada: there are punks, metalheads, and other non-conformists that reject all the "Idol" TV shows and marketing ploys. EDIT: Dan Lane, you hit the nail on the head pointing out that today, these things are just accelerated and more widely available. Excellent interview as always, Q, even if I don't agree with the artists sometimes.

[@Grendelmonster8u]

I agree with 2lostbikes, and Tom wasn't thinking it out or asked to flesh that out. I've watched him on lots of music documentaries and he has good things to say, but never think a musician knows more about you or whomever. You don't know what other people know. I've listened to a lot of musicians be dead wrong, or their memories fail them, or they weren't into a type of music so they don't really know that genre. Some of their fans know their band history better than them. If it's about technical stuff like playing the guitar, how to record music, record contracts, well yeah. There are musicologists who could make tons of musicians look very superficial. Just saying. There were talent contests--in fact, Johnny Winter in the 60s got the biggest record contract after they had won one. Some were like the Battle of the Bands today. Talent contests got singers like Gladys Knight on the radio at 8 years old. It wasn't as widespread as today with all these multi-million dollar TV shows, but it did happen, though more gradually. The difference today is that these TV shows are BIG business. And from what I've read American Idol has a lot of fakeness both in the voting and who the producers know they want. Idol has to be in cahoots with record companies who are eyeing these contestants because look how fast the record deals get done. In the past you didn't get a several million people audience to feel out an artist before doing the contract. It's a huge marketing plus for them. That Susan Boyle woman in the British contest won and put out a Christmas album that sold millions of copies. Wha? The Beatles played in a dungeon club before they got to that point, or Tom Petty for that matter played for several years before they really made it big. Talk about easy money. The other thing Tom says that doesn't make sense to me is that he said they were suspicious of hit records. How so? The first album he said he bought, the e, was a hit record, as was the Beatles and other artists he liked. I think if an interviewer really knows about the artist, past interviews, knows 60s history, they would be able to say to Tom, "Can you explain a little more of what you mean, because you've said in the past that you liked artists who had hit records." The Marvelettes were very commercial. Maybe he simply meant that, say, telling me Beyonce has a hit record doesn't necessarily mean much. Yeah, I'd be suspicious as much as someone reporting that X movie made $200 million over the weekend. Every decade has that issue. Seems nitpicky, but when things are said so briefly it makes you wonder and think, and that's a good thing. I think a lot of interviews are lame and boring, and some interviewers/writers are clueless and ask dumb questions. Not necessarily this one.

[@RosePetal17]

I can already tell from that juicy little morsel, it is an amazing interview!!!!

[@actlloyd]

"Would you ask Tom Petty that question??" ;) Sorry.

[@june21stgem]

I'm not a fan of how this guy is conducting the interview.. It will be a great interview either way..

[@danethomsen3030]

then you have no clue about real music

[@june21stgem]

I disagree with what Petty says though.. The audience doesn't care about the recording process.. I do.. Most people don't, but some do..

[@kkirk1531]

I love Tom.. But I agree with you there and I thought the same thing.

[@johnmiraglia2661]

You just said it yourself, "most people don't." You reiterated his point, really.

[@stockloc]

John Miraglia Didn't you listen to the interview? He didn't say most people, he said june21stgem.

[@tompettyandhisheartbreakin128]

Tom Petty>Rock

[@c.rothschild260]

Sorry Kelly Clarkson.

[@danethomsen3030]

one of the only artists to ever have any REAL TALENT!! hearing that he was dead was worse than hearing a family member was dead

[@danc3693]

That says more about you and your family than how great a Petty was.

[@dansaver8247]

Never heard of this character.

[@MrPENGTINGZ]

Dan Saver Never heard of Tom Petty? His career lasted nearly 40 years

[@ramonachimeno1969]

i love tom petty i was going to marry him but i was too sick to go with him

[@mr.smithgnrsmith7808]

THE best to ever play rock n roll….REAL rock n roll

[@johns.6133]

Loved his music. Tom smoked tobacco to death. That's what killed him.

[@robertdunkes3499]

John S. Yeah, he loved those ciggs

[@p0llenp0ny]

People who don't smoke die of heart attacks every day.

[@screwyootube1]

Sorry, but that's not true. Perhaps it would've killed him eventually, but that's NOT what killed him. He self-medicated to deal with a fractured hip, to finish a tour. He was taking some very powerful painkillers that eventually caused his vital organs to shut down. He literally "worked himself" to death. I loved the man - He was/is one of my favorite artists. But this was incredibly stupid. He should've dropped everything to take care of himself. He should not have died. Smoking had nothing to do with it.

[@rtfirefly0]

He also had emphysema, so smoking did have something to do with it. He was a workaholic who was dealing with multiple painful health problems as well as age. His hip was fully broken by the time of his death according to the autopsy. I imagine he didn't want to disappoint himself, the band and the fans, but it is a shame he didn't postpone or shorten the tour to rest.

[@danc3693]

Heroin might’ve taken a few miles off him as well. There were a few lifestyle things that likely contributed.

[@Pfsif]

BS!

[@michellegallaher2568]

Funny he seems to not realize his fame or influence 🤔

[@jadedoptimist6364]

There is a part of this interview that was edited on where Tom says that there are people who do things to her what they want and they don't care who they hurt. The interviewed says that the new album is a dig to the 1% elites. Now we know what really happened to our Mr. Petty, he didn't play the satanic game and they made sure he wouldn't talk anymore. The complete interview does not allow comments on " The National" KZbin channel. RIP Tom Petty. I am going to get that album. There aren't many good guys in the music industry that hasn't sold their soul to the devil.

[@934johno]

He looked 75 that's whatdrugs will doto you he was addicted to heroin

[@screwyootube1]

He had kicked it about 10-15 years earlier.

[@danc3693]

75?? That a gross exaggeration.