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Don Felder Remembers Tom Petty as a Friend, Student & 'Fearless' Performer
Tom Petty photographed on April 28, 1985
The former Eagles guitarist looks back on growing up with Petty in Gainesville, Florida.
Among the late Tom Petty's many Gainesville, Florida, buddies, Don Felder holds a special distinction.
Four years Petty's senior, the former Eagles
guitarist was the one he went to when he wanted to learn to play
guitar. Felder showed him some of what he knew, starting Petty on a path
to a style that blended Merseybeat and Byrds-y
jangle, R&B and rockabilly rhythms and even the occasional moment
of shredding. Mike Campbell may be the Heartbreakers' not-so-secret
six-string weapon, but Petty certainly covered a few bases himself.
Following
Petty's death on Monday, Felder shared the following statement: "It is
with a shattered heart that I write this post. Tommy's passing feels
like I've lost a little brother. Growing up together in Gainesville and
seeing one of my students blossom as an incredibly gifted musician and
songwriter has been one of my most fulfilling experiences in this life.
It was obvious very early on in his career that his talent, magnetism
and charisma were a very special gift that few souls in this world are
given. He has given this world so many wonderful memories and touched
millions with his magic. Gone far too soon. May he rest in peace knowing
how much he is loved and appreciated by all of us that are left
behind."
Over the years, meanwhile, Felder has talked at length about those
early days in Gainesville and about how Petty became his most famous
guitar student. Speaking with Billboard last year,
Felder remembered that truly special time spent in a special place with a
certain long haired kid who would go on to become one of rock's
greatest artists. Read his comments in full below.
"I had
taught myself pretty much how to play guitar, how to read music. There
was no 'music school' in Gainesville in those years, and I spent so much
time at the music store after school. I would sit there and play every
guitar I could get and I would polish guitars and finally they gave me a
job there, teaching. So everyone they sold guitars to for Christmas,
these kids would come in with sore fingers and crying, 'I want to learn
how to play guitar,' and I'd teach 'em. I would make 10 bucks an hour. I
didn't get paid cash; I had credit on the account there that I'd build
up so when I finally had enough money I could get new cords or guitar
strings or an amp or whatever I needed to continue with my career.
Tom
Petty came in one day, gosh, he must've been 12 or 13. He had been
playing bass in a band called the Epics that I knew as the Rucker
Brothers Band and he wanted to play guitar. They had these two guitar
players who both just flailed artlessly on the electric guitar and Tommy
was playing bass and singing and fronting the band and he really didn't
want to be the singing bass player, so I started teaching him to play
and went over to his house a couple of times and hung out and heard him
play and went over to two or three of the Rucker Brothers' shows 'cause
it was a bit of a train wreck. I kind of helped put them together in the
sense that one of them would play rhythm and one of them would play
lead while Tommy was playing bass and just help sort through their band
to help these kids put their garage band together.
And Tom was just absolutely fearless onstage. I remember standing
in the audience at one of his early shows when he was about 14 and
there were these girls going, 'Oh my god, he's so great! He's so great!'
and Tommy was flipping his long blonde hair and shaking it. And I was
listening to him sing and going, 'Are you listening to the same guy?
He's OK...' But he just had such charisma and such a power and energy on
stage that he sold you on what he was doing. And in those days he was
playing covers, he wasn't even writing his own songs yet. But he had a
fearless approach to his delivery of what he was doing on stage and
everybody bought it.
He went on to be a really great
songwriter, in my opinion. I think a lot of that just really deep
commitment to what he's doing, whether it's writing a song or making a
record or on stage really comes through when you hear his music. There's
no sense of reticence in his lyrics or his vocal performance or his
delivery on stage. It's very powerful.
I really don't know if it was something in the water or something we were smoking at the time, but between the Allman Brothers, Petty, [Stephen] Stills, Bernie [Leadon],
myself, an unusual number of people came out of that small little north
central Florida town that went on to become platinum-selling recording
artists and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees. The closest thing I
can draw it to is the same sort of phenomenon that happened at Motown or
around Memphis or in Nashville, where in certain areas there were so
many people that kind of influenced each other or developed a similar
style and that same group of people went on to stay involved in music
because of that love and excitement in music. The challenge of having a
musical career can be really overpowering for most people. It takes a
certain personal commitment to what you're doing to really suffer
through the years of hard work and aguish and or reward and no
recognition and no pay to finally get to a point where you have success.
But the real reward of doing it is the joy you get out of doing it and
that's what all of us had."
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