was many things during his career – but never a sitting target. His gumption rose to the surface defiantly when he withheld his fourth album, , from label MCA, who wanted to put it into the shops at $9.98, a dollar higher than most records retailed for.
Petty threatened to rename the record , before the men in suits relented. That was in 1981. Four years earlier, only great reviews in the UK had convinced the label to persevere with his debut album .
The record had been released 12 months earlier, but the US only caught on to Petty with the re-release of previous flop single , which proved to be a slow-burner commercially. In 2002 Petty took the brave step of releasing a record ( ) which aimed stinging bile at what he saw as the homogenisation of the US’s network of independent radio stations. In interviews, too, he was never backward in coming forward; a music TV channel was blasted for removing ‘’n’roll’ from ‘rock’n’roll’, and promoting the likes of Latin chanteuse Shakira as ‘rock’ artists.
He may once have proclaimed himself “incredibly lazy”, but Petty kept many irons in the fire. Although the majority of the albums that bear his name were recorded with The Heartbreakers (and members usually played on albums credited solely to Petty), he’s also found time for movie and TV work ( ). There was his high-profile stint with the , that also included Roy Orbison, , and former stalwart Jeff Lynne.
That group released one standout record in , which .