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The Heartbreakers were heartwarmers Wednesday night in Nashville, reuniting the original members of Tom Petty’s band together on a stage for the first time in 24 years, with an assist in the frontman position from country
superstar Chris Stapleton. The following morning, the original four sat on a stage at the AmericanaFest conference and revealed some of the thoughts going through their heads as the reunion many bet would ever happen finally went down.
The world of Petty fans had had a serious case of FOMO throughout the day Wednesday as word got out that Stapleton would join OG Heartbreakers Mike Campbell, Benmont Tench, Stan Lynch and Ron Blair on the stage of the Ryman Auditorium to kick off the Americana Honors & Awards show. The reality was more satisfying as the reunion mini-set went on beyond the song or two that fans imagined. It amounted to three straight numbers — “American Girl,” “Breakdown” and “You Wreck Me” — all played at a volume earsplitting enough it’s a wonder the Ryman’s famed stained windows remained intact. As a bonus, to fully un-break the Heartbreakers’ circle, Lynch stepped aside from the drums for the final number to let lat his successor, Steve Ferrone, step in for the finale, and 21st-century utility man Scott Thurston popped in as well.
The consensus was strong: In the unlikely event this crew were to go on tour together, they would save the world, at the very most, or fill stadiums with happy customers, at the least.
At Thursday’s panel, titled “Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers: 50 Years,” the discussion was kept mostly to the origins of the band in the 1970s, with no mention of any possible future. But moderator Mark Felsot did begin the conversation by asking the four original members how they felt about the previous night’s proceedings.
“Well, it was emotional, and fun, and a thrill to play with Chris Stapleton,” said Campbell, speaking first. He said the country vocal powerhouse “was hilarious. He forgot to sing the first line of the first song, ‘American Girl.’ We were looking at him going…?” he said, suggesting a questioning glance around the stage. “And he came in like ‘–American Girl!'” Whether viewing in person at the Ryman over the livestream, fans definitely noticed, and did not hold it against him, given the firepower that followed, and perhaps some empathy with what Stapleton might have been going through.
Said Campbell, “I said [afterward, to Stapleton] ‘What happened? He said, ‘I was so completely enthralled listening to you guys, i forgot to sing.”
At the reunion performance, Campbell had told the audience that this was their first time playing together since 2017, when Petty died. But on the panel, Tench pointed out that “we have not played together with Stan since 2002,” when Lynch played drums with the group at their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted after parting ways with Petty in the ’90s. This reignited a chemistry that was long-awaited, since some members of the group had stayed in closer contact with Lynch over the years than Petty. Added Tench, “What was so special was to cut into those songs with the original cats that all made it together 50 years ago.”
So what was Lynch thinking, being the original member who’d gone without performing with his brothers the longest? (Blair left the group before Lynch, but came back in the 2000s.)
“I’ll let you know next week,” said Lynch. “I’m still processing it. it’s emotional; it’s musical. Part of me is, i want to do a good job for these guys. i have a lot of respect for them, so my main thing is, I want to do right. So I’ll process the experience probably next week when i get home. But my first reaction to the whole thing was, yeah, this is a really good band. I’m proud to be in it. I love these guys, and i just want to do right.”
Blair, the bassist, had an admission to make: “Unlike Stan, I don’t mind being raw once in a while. I kinda messed up ‘Breakdown’ last night. But I played the next song really good… Two out of three ain’t bad.”
Blair said Steve Ferrone “sent me a really great text,” about playing together as the rhythm section on the last of the three numbers. “He said, ‘Man, I, I love playing with you. You swing, you, rock.’ It was a pretty cool text.”
The moderator asked about how it felt resurrecting the original backing vocals that Blair and Lynch provided for the band in the early says.
“On my behalf, I would like to sincerely apologize to the audience,” said Blair, suggesting that he may not have been at his vocal best, while giving credit to Lynch for being in full force.
“You know, basically, I’m listening to Chris,” said Lynch, “and he’s your North Star, and he’s so strong, and he’s just a big presence. So you just sing along with him, and it just makes it more fun. You get an extra layer — I call it an extra layer of fat. You get like this nice feeling when you’re on stage and you get to sing. Just brings it all together for you.”
Felsot noticed a layer of humanistic intrigue happening at the end as different eras of the band collided, saying, “At the end, when you guys came out for a bow, and I watched you, Stan, you’re on one side with your mic, and then you walked behind the band all the way around to where Steve Ferrone was standing. And you gave him a big, giant bear hug. For me, that was an emotional moment.”
“Thank you for noticing,” said Lynch. “We barely know each other. I mean, we’d barely met. We actually spoke last night for the first time. And I felt like I wanted to know him, you know? And so that was just a natural reaction when you see somebody and you want to know them. For me, it’s visceral… You You just go, ‘Hey, man,’ and I put my hands up (for a hug). So I didn’t know if he would recoil! I really didn’t know the reaction. But, you know, there it was. It was cool.”
The night before, Adria Petty, Tom’s daughter, offered the transition from the performance to the award segment, praising everyone involved for an unforgettable moment on the long tail her father left behind.
“What an honor to be here,” Adria told the Ryman crowd. “I’m just a couple years older than Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers…. Thank you to Chris Stapleton for being a beautiful human being, uniting the band for this very special performance. i don’t know if i could have seen anyone play with the Heartbreakers and felt so much soul and trust in what they just did here tonight in this beautiful place… if my dad was here, there would be a thousand-watt smile on his face for this band right now.”
She continued, “After literally a lifetime around this band, I’m even more deeply convinced of the magic, the importance, and the responsibility of writing and creating music. Its gentle power that moves and educates and comforts masses of people at the same time. You guys are all doing this. And it [00:05:00] helps us recognize ourselves, our convictions, and it’s all in the music. When I say to you, ‘I know what’s right, I’ve got just one life,’ we all instantly feel the truth of our own power in that song. My dad approached his job with reverence for being a messenger worthy of the job, and I recognize that in so many musicians and nominees tonight who use their gifts and platforms to uplift and protect others.
“We’re here tonight, of course, for the beautiful world-class Heartbreakers, and we must celebrate the beautiful music they’ve given us all these years, and they continue to give. My dad loved every one of these men incredibly deeply, and through playing the music, had a connection with them words cannot explain. In 2009, Dad told David Fricke, ‘I never saw another band where I thought, “Wow, I wish I was in that band.” I always thought I was in the best band.'”
Of all the band members on stage, only Tench and Campbell spoke as part of the lifetime achievement acceptance speech, and the keyboardist kept it short, for his part. “This band means the world to me, and it means the world to me that it still means so much to y’all,” he said.
Campbell was more expansive in his thoughts, beginning with his noting the “synchronicity” of the honor coincidentally falling on Ron Blair’s birthday, and getting the crowd to sing for him.
“It’s been 50 years of clawing and scratching to the top, and thanks to Tom we got there,” Campbell said. “Speaking of Tom, Tom is here. It’s been 10 years [rounding up from the nine since Petty died], and we’re still grieving, and I’ll probably be grieving till the last day I live. But I’m OK, and we’re OK, and he’s OK — and the music’s alive, thanks to you.”
The guitarist got into the band’s lighter side with some trivia. “The Heartbreakers are a very unique band, and Tom knew it, and that’s why he grabbed onto us and kept us together for so many years,” he said. “We were not only musicians that understood each other, but we grew up in the same area in Florida, so we had that DNA, that brotherly connection, and I think that made us special. But as bands do, we all had nicknames. And forgive me, but I’m gonna share them with you now.
“Ron was known as Snake Man. And he got that because he used to, quote-unquote, ‘walk among them,’ meaning the crowd… Benmont is known as Mad Dog Genius. He is the true musician in the band. You know, he could get a little wound up, so he earned Mad Dog, but we mean that in the nicest way. Stan, we called him Miles Beyond, because he is miles beyond. His talent is miles beyond any other drummer, except for maybe Steve Ferrone, to a point… Scott Thurston, I don’t know how he got this name, but everybody started calling him Duck Head. And maybe because he was a utility man in his last couple of decades with the band. He played guitars and harmonies. He took his pants off. He did all kinds of things, and so he was called Duck Head. Ferrone is known as Tiger, for obvious reasons. And Tom’s nickname for a while — we had a lot of them, andI don’t know why, but we started calling him Pink Elvis. Don’t ask.
“Anyway, Tom was my best friend, and I wish he was here. He would’ve loved this, and so would Howie Epstein, who was in the band for a while. Of course, I have to mention all the people that have supported us and bought our music and bought our concert tickets for decades. We wouldn’t be here without you. And you treated us so good and inspired us and kept us going for a long time, so I must thank you all, in this room and out there wherever this goes…”
Despite trying — and largely succeeding — to keep up a jocular tone, Campbell grew openly emotional by the time his voice wavered when he got to the closing sentence of his speech. “The Heartbreakers and I are very proud to accept this award in Tom’s honor, and we’re thankful to all of you here tonight for making this happen. And to Tom: I miss rocking around with you.”
