The Most Amazing Song Never Written
I read Tom Petty’s biography a few years back. I had been a fan since high school but reading the book gave me a greater appreciation for the music I’d been listening to for years. But if things had played out a little differently, none of it would have happened.
Petty and his band had built a following in their local hometown of Gainesville, Florida but they wanted more. They went west in search of a record deal. Upon arriving in L.A. they landed one almost immediately but the music fizzled and the band broke up. The label encouraged Petty to become a solo act but he never really cottoned to it.
Sometime later he caught up with his old bandmates and they reunited. Unfortunately, their debut self titled album, Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers failed to connect with an audience in America. Their story could have ended there. They were on track to be dropped by the label due to lackluster sales and little radio play. The album however began gaining traction in England. The Heartbreakers toured there and built a fanbase.
The album was rereleased in America and did a bit better but still not great. Their next album managed to make it into the Top 40 with a couple of singles. It was their third album, Damn the Torpedoes, where the band really took off. It sold nearly two million copies with hit singles “Don’t Do Me Like That”, “Here Comes My Girl”, “Even the Losers”, and “Refugee”.
It got me thinking, what if Petty and his band hadn’t reconnected after that breakup? That first album has “Breakdown”, and “American Girl” on it. What if that album hadn’t found an audience in England? We likely wouldn’t have all those hit songs that came after it.
Then it made me wonder about other bands that had setbacks and didn’t keep going. Bands that never made it. All the amazing songs that were never written. Whether you like Tom Petty or not isn’t the point. The point is, there are millions of people who do and if Petty hadn’t persisted, the world would be a little poorer for it.
It has taken me a long time to achieve clarity and focus in my own work. I absolutely have let setbacks derail me. But I don’t have any other timeline than my own. I can’t change what I did or didn’t do but I can choose what I do now.
If The Heartbreakers never made it big, “American Girl” would still be an amazing song. I hope that the first Woodland Hills book connects with audiences when it comes out. Maybe it’ll take three books, maybe more. I don’t really have much control over that. I can only do work that I hopefully am proud of and continue to create until I do connect.
If you are not where you want to be with your work, let this be your England. Your sign to keep going. You’ve got amazing music in you that’s just waiting to get out.
Favorite Thing I Drew This Month
I’m actually pretty happy with the last handful of pages I’ve drawn but it would be hard not to go with this spread. One of the few double-page spreads in Woodland. It will be interesting to see how this turns out in print. You’re seeing more here than you will in the book because of the bleed cut-off. Also, I drew JB and Niles further apart than I would have had this been a single page because they’ll both get pulled in towards the book spine.
Family Stuff
Grumpy Monkey has a new book out. If you don’t have little kids, you might not be familiar. It is a wildly popular children’s book series. We went to a reading by author and illustrator Suzanne and Max Lang at Once Upon A Time. The bookstore is in Montrose, just 20 minutes outside of L.A. It’s the country’s oldest children’s bookstore. It’s very cute and definitely worth checking out if you’re local.
The reading was fun. River sat in the front and seemed to enjoy it. Suzanne read and Max drew different animals the kids called out.
Thanks for reading!
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