Petty

Starred review from September 14, 2015
Zanes (Revolutions in Sound), a musician who toured with Tom Petty, narrates this balanced chronicle of Petty’s career with the detached delivery of a seasoned journalist combined with the intimacy of a friend bold enough to dig deep beneath the surface of his own musical hero. Petty’s humble Florida roots didn’t portend his eventual musical success. In fact, were it not for a series of unlikely events, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers wouldn’t exist today as rock ’n’ roll royalty, with more than 80 million records sold worldwide. Zanes recounts how Petty built the Heartbreakers from pieces of his previous band, Mudcrutch; declared bankruptcy; battled his record label in court; and confronted the 2003 death of Howie Epstein, the band’s longtime bass player. The author’s access to Petty, current and former bandmates (some quite feisty), family members, and famed producer Jimmy Iovine makes this required reading for fans. Furthermore, Zanes’s working knowledge of band dynamics, in conjunction with his crisp and concise writing, undeniably qualify him to tell this story of one of one of rock’s most reclusive superstars.

Starred review from September 1, 2015
A biography of a reticent musician that will allow even his biggest fans to see him with fresh eyes and hear him with fresh ears. Zanes (Revolutions in Sound: Warner Bros. Records: The First Fifty Years, 2009, etc.) plainly sympathizes with the plight of his subject, an artist who held his band together through decades, tensions, drug addictions, personnel shifts, and solo albums (that often fared better commercially than Petty's work with his long-standing and much acclaimed band, the Heartbreakers). The author's own band, the Del Fuegos, even toured with Petty's, so he's had personal experience from a couple of perspectives on "the point of the tour when one could hate the sound of the next man's breathing." But it was the author's book on Dusty Springfield that captured Petty's interest and apparently gained him access to nearly everyone who might present a well-rounded story of an artistically ambitious rocker, one who persevered despite considerable odds and adversity. Zanes also understands how talented musicians in a supporting role (that gives them a lesser financial share than their leader) might feel stifled serving his vision and betrayed by his solo projects and collaborations with outsiders. The narrative climaxes with Petty divorcing, falling in love, becoming addicted to heroin, mourning the deaths of parents and a band mate, isolated from the rest of the Heartbreakers, and suffering from clinical depression so severe he could hardly leave his bed. Zanes brings a depth and empathy to the narrative that never veers toward sensationalism. He also shows how and why Petty became George Harrison's closest friend, how the band found itself working with both Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash, and how Petty has found fulfillment within the delicate balances of his life. Though it attests to the artist's singularity, this incisive, illuminating biography also serves as an elegy to one of the golden eras of the classic rock band-of the days when "a band was everything, a shield and a shelter."

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October 15, 2015

You don't have to be a Tom Petty fan to know the songs--they have played anywhere and everywhere for nearly 40 years. "American Girl," "Don't Do Me Like That," "Freefallin'," "Last Dance with Mary Jane," and countless others are more than tunes--they're part of our everyday lives. So just who is Tom Petty? Despite his near-ubiquity on pop radio, little has been written about the man or his career. Thankfully, rock historian and musician Zanes, a former member of the Del Fuegos and friend of Petty's, helps correct this oversight with this significant addition to the rock biography genre that pulls together original research and extensive interviews with Petty, his bandmates in the Heartbreakers, and dozens of other friends, family, and associates to create a fresh picture of a unique performer. Zanes occasionally injects his own experiences in the rock world, adding color to Petty's story but never overtaking it. VERDICT Zanes brings a twist to the rock bio that is unexpected but warmly welcomed. [See Prepub Alert, 5/4/15.]--Brett Rohlwing, Milwaukee P.L.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2015
Here's a guy in an ideal position to write a rock biography: he's a musician himself and a writer, and he knows the guy whose life story he's telling. Zanes and Tom Petty aren't best buds, but they know each other well enough for Petty to share his memories with Zanes (a rarity among rock bios). That access is especially valuable here, as Petty is known for his private, even reclusive, nature: other than what fans know from his music, there's not much out there about the man himself. (For example, does anyone other than King of the Hill fans know that Petty was a regular for several seasons on that animated prime-time comedy?) For Petty fans who've wondered about the artist behind the music, this book functions like a door being thrown open on the singer's musical and personal lives. Expect eager readers from rock fans.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)