Hey, I dig Tom Petty. His music pretty much goes with all that great Valley rock, California sound I grew up with.

I found this interview at an online music retailer promoting his latest album "The Last DJ".

I decided to post part of it here so ya'lls can be inspired to teach the babies about searching for meaningful music, musicianship and integrity instead of the latest Hip Hop dance moves.

Here goes:

Is this triumph of mediocrity bothering you more now than it did, say 5 or 10 years ago?

TOM PETTY: It always kind of bothered me, but I think that I'm a little bit more shocked now by how far it's gone. Even just in music. You feel sorry for the audience, because the audience can only pick from what they're offered. I really love music; I love being in a rock-and-roll band, and I do think it's worth speaking up for, if only to let the audience know that you can really have better than you're accepting. But, one hopes that it will get better. We're going through change, and I'm not afraid of change. I think change is good.

Are there new bands that excite you, though?

There is a lot of great music; you've just gotta do a lot more work to find it. I think the White Stripes are kind of exciting and fresh. I mean, I don't know too many new bands that really have a track record. They only seem to get one record anymore. The [industry] doesn't seem to want to take the time to nurture them through a second or third one. I kind of miss that, too.

I think it has something to do with radio. We were lucky enough to come in as the last ones through the door on the great "classic rock" period. But I think radio started to change after that, and these people came in called "music programmers" that do all this research and base everything that's played on that. They take the power away from the disc jockey himself. When the radio reverted to stripped play lists and then started to just play oldies, it became hard for these groups to develop a relationship with the audience, like we had coming up.


More than the criticisms, the new album seems to carry a nostalgia of sorts for days gone by.

You're right. Just in general. Just for when everybody wasn't so mean. But overall, by the end of the record, I wanted it to be hopeful. I don't think there's much to be gained by just bitching. That's so boring to go, "Well, it was a lot better when I was young." It was, by the way [laughs], but it's really neither here nor there. We're not there now; we're here, and it's better to try and make now better.

So how do you feel about rock and roll these days?

I'm worried about rock and roll, in general, when I see people singing for the Gap and putting their songs in these awful commercials. Maybe it doesn't bother them or maybe they need the money or something. I don't know. I guess that the audience has gotten so complacent they don't even notice it anymore. So now you see these artists going, "Well, if the audience doesn't notice, I'm going for the dough." But I notice. [Laughs] I mean, I turn down a lot of money, all the time, to do that. And it fascinates me that nobody really gives a shit. But I'm not writing any songs to sell products. I really want them taken on a different level than that.

"I don't think the music industry is much different than it ever was, except that it's bigger and more blatantly grotesque."

Every time you turn on the TV now, there's another one, though. "London Calling" just appeared in a Jaguar ad.

Well, now they try and feed you this stuff like, "This is the only way to try to get our music heard." Or, "This is the only way to have a hit record." But I'll tell you what -- if you want a hit record that bad, you should probably be doing something else. That's what's tearing it all down. These people who will do anything to have a hit record. They'll lose all dignity completely. I have constant rows with management, because I guess I'm not of that nature that I'll just do any fuckin' thing to have a hit record. I think it demeans the music, and I think it demeans this whole genre of music. I think it hurts everybody. It's just we, as the audience, should care more about the music than that. We should have a little more reverence than that.

(Interview by David Peisner)




ooo
[This message was edited Wed Oct 2 21:25:32 PDT 2002 by FlyingCloudPassenger]

""London Calling" in a Jaguar ad. " WTF? The Clash were anti capitalist, if Strummer & Jones are behind this, it's quite pathetic.