In the past, we never really had that kind of spontaneity on record. When you start touring, you play songs in a certain way and then I start to feel like it's tough to really get lost in my playing.
Touring is a rough thing. You don't have any time to look around or stop and think if what you're doing is making you happy. The more you tour, the better the band gets, and you get caught up in a lot more things than just traveling.
I love when things can repeat and you can make things slightly different each time and just react to the music and react to the recording.
I tend to think about so many different things on a recording. I'll be trying to tune into what the drummer's doing, trying to keep everyone playing the groove and other things like making sure the piano's in a nice pocket.
I've never set out to do anything other than get better at guitar and record and have fun. I feel like the Jazzmaster's just your comrade on that journey. It can be really subtle, it can be angry, it can be chill. It can be anything.
There are so many great records that when you grow older, you're like, 'Oh man, this is the best record ever made.' And you're like, 'Oh it didn't get nominated or win a Grammy.' It's countless, how many amazing, classic American records haven't been knighted or whatever.
As he grew older, his material was just as relevant and just as exciting and the band's just as killer... It seems surreal that there's no more Tom Petty, in person.
All those crazy Impressionist painters in France were friends but they would write about how jealous and competitive they were. That's what makes good art.
It was definitely strange to come home and all of a sudden have to shift gears into creative mode. I kind of had to figure out what it was about music that made it exciting, and question what it was that made it worth sacrificing all the other parts of my life that weren't as satisfying.
I would spend about eight months on a song, leaving it alone and going back to it later on. I just kept layering things on, building them up in to epic songs. I let the songs evolve - it's really daunting.
The Heartbreakers were what you imagine being in a band would be like - best buddies and great players and guys who took it all really seriously.
I've seen people who like a certain song write on their Instagram what they think the lyrics are - which they aren't. I'm like, 'Oh, that's interesting - you can create your own adventure with some of these songs.' Which is really cool.
I mean, Philadelphia, if the Eagles were to win the Super Bowl, you kind of wonder how it'd change the city in some way. At the end of the day, as intense as Eagles fans are or as Philadelphia fans are, they really just love their team and they'll be happy either way. The Eagles have made Philadelphia proud.
I started guitar when I was like thirteen. I had a friend whose dad had an electric guitar. In sixth grade or seventh grade I went over and played it and immediately I was super excited by the whole thing.
With 'Under the Pressure,' I just found two chords I liked, and built it up, did like a ten-minute drum pattern.
In terms of tone and style, I've always been influenced by a lot of different players. I love Nick Drake, Mike Bloomfield and Sonic Boom. I like those three a lot!
I'd think the house was the source of great sadness or pressure. I knew it wasn't. I knew it was just where I lived. But I'd walk up the stairs and the second floor was just desolate. My old bedroom: empty. My old rehearsal room: empty. First floor studio: messy and empty. Middle room: broken gear everywhere.