In the interim, they changed A&R departments and a whole new group of people were in there. We played it for the record company and they said, 'Well, we don't hear any hits on here.' We were very despondent about the whole thing and we went back and recorded another track, a Byrds song called 'I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better,' thinking at the time that maybe they'll like this one. In a Songfacts interview with Campbell, he explained what happened when they brought the album to MCA Records: "We thought it was really good, we were real excited about it. As guitarist for the Heartbreakers, Campbell has written and produced many songs with Petty. Petty and Lynne worked on the album at Mike Campbell's house. This was the first single from Full Moon Fever, which was co-produced and co-written by Jeff Lynne. Goodrich wanted to use Petty's song "Mary's New Car" in a TV commercial, and when he wouldn't let them, their advertising agency commissioned a copycat song that the judge felt was too similar. As for motive, there was no direct connection made, but 11 days earlier, Petty won a lawsuit against the B.F. The arsonist was never caught, which made Petty's plight even more challenging. "I Won't Back Down" was his way of reclaiming his life and getting past the torment - he said that writing and recording the song had a calming effect on him. Petty felt grateful to be alive, but also traumatized - understandable considering someone had tried to kill him. It was on these drives that he came up with many of the songs for the album the fire was a huge influence, especially on this song. They escaped, but Petty was badly shaken and spent much of the next few months driving between hotel rooms and a rented house. Sometimes, the easiest way to say something is to just say it, and “I Won’t Back Down” speaks volumes.Before recording Full Moon Fever, an arsonist burned down Tom Petty's house while he was in it with his family and their housekeeper. The arrangement is straightforward, too, a rarity on an album filled with Jeff Lynne’s multi-layered production. Like many Tom Petty tunes, the lyrics are simple and direct. “I Won’t Back Down” became Tom Petty’s musical motto, a song that summed up everything he stood for in less than three minutes. The Heartbreakers were waging a few battles of their own, too, and drummer Stan Lynch was already planning his exit by the time Full Moon Fever rolled around. A few years before that, he waged a public battle with his own label, MCA Records, after the company tried to charge customers a higher sales price for his 1981 album Hard Promises. Several weeks before the house fire, he successfully sued a tire company for mimicking one of his songs, “Mary’s New Car,” in a TV commercial. Petty certainly knew a lot about resilience at the time. The song isn’t really about a house fire. Despite his personal connection to the lyrics, though, Petty turned “I Won’t Back Down” into an anthem for anyone struggling against some sort of oppression. “Gonna stand my ground / won’t be turned around,” goes a line in the first verse, which calls to mind the charred ground where his original home once stood. Full Moon Fever was the result of that collaboration, and “I Won’t Back Down” was the album’s first single.Ī defiant song about standing up to one’s enemies, “I Won’t Back Down” is directed at the person who set Petty’s house ablaze. When Petty started writing songs for a solo album later that year, he naturally went to Lynne for help. Petty and Lynne talked for a few minutes, reconnected during the Christmas holidays, and formed the Traveling Wilburys in early 1988. So I honked my horn, and he turned around, and we pulled over.” So I’m at the traffic light, and I look over to my left, and there’s Jeff Lynne, who I’d only just recently seen in England. “ was the only place open on Thanksgiving Day. “I was going to drive down to the Sav-On in Beverly Hills and buy a dozen ball mitts so everybody could play ball,” he tells author Paul Zollo in Conversations with Tom Petty. Deciding that a game of softball was the best way to blow off steam, Tom got into his car and went out in search of baseball mitts. The Pettys, who’d already spent half a year in someone else’s home, were getting restless. The house was still under construction by the time Thanksgiving rolled around. See an updated Behind The Song Meaning on Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down” He wasn’t going to back down to any firestarter. While his wife and daughter stayed at a friend’s place in Beverly Hills, Tom began rebuilding the house on the exact same plot of land, using his basement recording studio – one of the few rooms to survive the blaze – as the foundation. home in May 1987, burning most of the house to the ground.
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