Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers- Damn the Torpedoes 45th Anniversary
“We did over two hundred takes on ‘Refugee’. We never thought that we had ‘Refugee’ as well as it should be. I hope I never have to go through that again!” exclaimed the late Tom Petty to me in my classic rock interview marking the forty-fifth anniversary of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ breakthrough third album in October 1979, Damn the Torpedoes. “The Heartbreakers were always arrogant enough to write albums in the studio. They never were a very cost-conscious bunch.”
“Damn the Torpedoes was an important album for me in a lot of (songwriting) ways because it opened up what I was doing,” Tom Petty revealed. “I’m very proud of the Heartbreakers. They haven’t gotten too honky over the years. They’re a real rock’n’roll group, and they don’t do beer ads. They just wanna play rock’n’roll music. We don’t have our eyes on The Movies or anything,” Tom laughs heartily. “We just want to make rock records and play rock’n’roll shows. It’s just such a simple thing. We’ve always been a simple unit. We’re not simple people, necessarily,” Petty cautioned. “Maybe simple-minded,” he chuckled, “but we’re just a band. We write songs and try to play ’em. It’s harder than it sounds.”
The backstory behind Damn the Torpedoes is a modern day pulp fiction thriller complete with intrigue, heroes, villains, intimidation, brawling, and courtroom drama. The Gainsville Gator revealed the personal battles that Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers had to fight just so that we could enjoy one of the most important rock albums of the last forty-five years. -Redbeard
