I’m a big Tom Petty fan. I started liking his music way back in my teen years. I liked that he did things his own way, no mater what the money machine wanted. I liked that he didn’t shy away from a fight, with songs like, “I Won’t Back Down.” He was a hard worker, cranking out new music for more than 40 years. And I liked that he came from small-town, Gainesville, Fla., blue-collar roots. His life wasn’t easy. And I suppose we appreciate that in our heroes. Petty died a couple weeks ago, too young at age 66.
I was a little surprised that the news hurt my heart. But it did. Then I got excited about Petty all over again when I read his final interview, with Randy Lewis of the Los Angeles Times. It turns out Petty likened song writing to fishing. Here it is in his words:
“It’s kind of lonely work [writing songs],” he said, “because you just have to keep your pole in the water. I always had a little routine of going into whatever room I was using at the time to write in, and just stay in there till I felt like I got a bite.”
“I compare it to fishing: There’s either a fish in the boat or there’s not,” he said with a laugh. “Sometimes you come home and you didn’t catch anything and sometimes you caught a huge fish. But that was the work part of it to me. I just remember being excited when I had a song done, and I knew I had a song in my pocket.”
Rest in Peace brother.
You can read the full interview here.