On October 6, 2024 I was invited to the Laemmle Royal Theatre in West L.A. by the Tom Petty Estate, Cameron Crowe and Tribeca to the world premiere screening of the 80's documentary of Tom Petty: Heartbreakers Beach Party. It’s exclusively in cinemas via Trafalgar Releasing on October 17th and 20th.
It's director Crowe's first film that only aired once on MTV in 1983. The long-thought lost 16 mm reels have been fully restored with 20 additional minutes of archival footage starring Petty and his bandmates Mike Campbell, Benmont Tench, Stan Lynch and Howie Epstein. It has in-depth interviews, live performances and access to the group in 1982-1983 as they finish, tour and promote their Long After Dark album, that Tom co-produced with Jimmy Iovine.
The night featured an inside look at the film, including a panel conversation between Tom's daughter Adria Petty, Academy Award winning film director Cameron Crowe and Heartbreakers (Mike Campbell, Benmont Tench, Ron Blair) led by Justin Richmond (of Broken Record Podcast with Rick Rubin). Family, friends, fans and past collaborators of Tom's came together to celebrate the legendary rocker—Tom’s granddaughter Everly, his widow Dana, Heartbreaker Scott Thurston, Luke Wilson, Cary Elwes, Susanna Hoffs, Chris Stills, Alan “Bugs” Weidel, Paul Zollo, Jim Scott, Joel Bernstein, Rain Phoenix, Vicki Peterson, Matt Pinfield—included.
"Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers leaned into the making of the film with a kind of hilarious music-filled honesty that still feels fresh forty years later,” said Crowe. “I’m so happy we're bringing it back in all its reckless glory. The fact that it was yanked from MTV after one airing at two a.m. [in 1983] just shows that it was indeed an outlandish feast for fans in all the best ways.”
In 1972 I met Cameron in San Diego when he was a 16-year-old high school student, and writing for “The San Diego Door.” I was a student at San Diego State University. During 1969 Crowe’s mentor Lester Bangs attended SDSU.
Cameron’s segment of Tom Petty singing and stumming an acoustic version of "(Marie's the Name) His Latest Flame” in Heartbreakers Beach Party really captured the promise of Tom’s childhood dream that became a reality.
"(Marie's the Name) His Latest Flame” is a song written by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, recorded by Elvis Presley in 1961. It was first cut by Del Shannon on the album Runaway with Del Shannon, which was released in June 1961. Petty met Presley on his Follow That Dream film set in Ocala, Florida, as an 11-years-old.
Watching this documentary was a very personal experience. I’m glimpsed in the film footage.
In 1976 I first encountered Tom and the band at the Shelter Records office on Hollywood Blvd. Label co-owner and producer Denny Cordell had arranged a photo session with Andee Cohen. I had interviewed Dwight Twilley and Phil Seymour. Phil would sing a background vocal on “Breakdown,” the first single by Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers.
I saw the group debut at the Whisky A Go Go in 1977 with Blondie. Around that time, I hosted a party for Carl Perkins at the Jet Records office in Century City. Tom rushed over to meet one of his Sun Records’ heroes.
During 1978, as West Coast Director of A&R for MCA Records, now UMe, I made the initial suggestion of engineer-turned-producer Jimmy Iovine to work with Tom on Damn the Torpedoes to Petty’s manager, Tony Dimitrides.
Jimmy had seen Petty and Co. in New York City at the Bottm Line club and told me he wanted to be Tom’s producer. I flew to New York and met Jimmy at his apartment. We also had a follow up discussion at the Sunset Marquis Hotel in West Hollywood.
Tom liked Jimmy’s previous work as an engineer with John Lennon, and his production of “Because the Night” Iovine did with Patti Smith. The Petty and Iovine sonic results are heard on screen in Heartbreakers Beach Party.
During 1980 I suggested Tom and Del Shannon record together. I subsequently received an Organic Catalyst credit on the Petty-produced Shannon album Drop Down and Get Me, with the Heartbreakers as studio collaborators. I also helped assemble Del’s touring band which included guitarist Steven Hufstetter and bass player Howie Epstein, who would replace Ron Blair in the Heartbreakers.
In 1989, Tom and the Heartbreakers recorded the song “Runnin’ Down A Dream,” co-written by Mike Campbell, Petty and Jeff Lynne. It was an acknowledgement to Tom’s musical roots and Del Shannon, containing the lyric “me and Del were singin’ ‘Little Runaway.’”
Though rarely reported, in 2014 Tom wrote the lengthy Foreword to my book Turn Up The Radio! Rock, Pop and Roll in Los Angeles 1956-1972.
This decade I’ve been co-producing and co-writing a documentary Del Shannon-The Runaway for Stars North. Interview subjects include Del’s family members, his best friend and manager Dan Bourgoise, Tim Rice, Bruce Springsteen, Bruce Robb, Andy Paley, Brian Hyland, Mike Campbell, Benmont Tench, Peter Asher, Seymour Stein, and Bobby Hart.
"Today, with the amount of money people spend going to a concert, they should get their money's worth,” Tom stressed to me in a 1980 interview for the now defunct Melody Maker.
“We need the feedback of the audience. You should be able to leave your conscious mind. I used to go listen at the black churches and it was amazing to watch the energy build until there was some kind of pop. From there it went upward, like a jet taking off.
"I'm not interested in being a household word. I'm interested in making good records. I just really want to write good songs. Is that asking too much?"
