Tom Petty’s Bandmate Said Petty Rubbed People the Wrong Way: ‘Tom Pisses People Off’

Tom Petty spent decades as a celebrated musician, but one of his bandmates said his personality may have prevented the band from finding even earlier success. According to Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell, Petty rubbed many people the wrong way. Petty himself described himself similarly. Campbell pointed to a specific altercation that showcased Petty’s prickly personality. 

The Heartbreakers singer said he wasn’t always a pleasant person to be around

According to Petty, he was once a “pretty unpleasant guy to be around” (via The Petty Archives). During a meeting, he pulled out a knife and started cleaning his boot to show that he meant business. He was quick to jump into a fight, even with his band. He explained that as a young man, he held onto a lot of anger from his childhood.

“I did go through a lot of my life with a short fuse where I could erupt into a serious rage,” he told Uncut. “I think that was a product of my childhood, when I had some serious abuse.”

As he aged, though, Petty said he was able to let go of some of this anger.

“I started to learn and retrace what had happened to me and why I was that way,” he said. “It became quite clear to me why. And once you know why something is happening, you know how to fix it. Now I don’t lose my temper and, God, it’s a lot better life.”

Tom Petty’s bandmate said Petty rubbed people the wrong way

Before he learned to do this, Petty’s short fuse could wear on people. Campbell wondered if this impacted the band’s success.

“Maybe the reason it’s taken us so long to succeed is that Tom pisses people off,” Campbell told Circus in 1981, per The Petty Archives. “For as long as I’ve known him he’s bugged people in authority. In the Mudcrutch [Petty and Campbell’s previous band] days, it was the disc jockeys. Tom always rubs them wrong.”

He pointed to an example of this.

“Once, we were playing really well at a festival in Florida,” Campbell said. “The band coming on next, who had an album out, got the promoter to pull the plug on us in mid-song. Tom ran backstage; he wanted to know who’d done it.”

Petty had no tolerance for this type of disrespect. Luckily, this situation didn’t go poorly for him. 

“It was a guy who looked like he played on the Florida Gators football team — six feet four, two hundred pounds,” Campbell said. “Tom, who’s a wiry, skinny little guy, put his finger on the bruiser’s chest. He poked him like a woodpecker. ‘You goddamn son of a b****!’ he said. ‘Don’t you ever pull the plug on my band.’ The guy could have crushed Tom, but he was so taken aback that he just backed off. Tom’s been like that for as long as I’ve known him.”

Tom Petty’s bandmate said he was a good leader

Though Campbell wondered if Petty’s behavior negatively impacted the band, he thought highly of Petty. He explained that he functioned well as a bandleader.

“He’s got a very powerful opinion, and he’s usually right,” Campbell told Canoe in 2010, per The Petty Archives. “But he’s a great boss, a great leader, a great force. It’s like having Bob Dylan and Keith Richards in one guy.”

Campbell believed this was why the band had stayed together for so long. 

“He’s stern when he needs to be, but he’s also democratic,” he explained. “And we’ve been together this long, so obviously it works out well.”