By John Sinkevics
The Grand Rapids Press
His new album, "The Last DJ," won't even come out
until October.
His veteran band must break in a new bass player
who's really the old bass player, though he hasn't
played with the guys in 20 years or so.
But Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers are
hitting the road again anyway, kicking off a
much-anticipated summer tour in Grand Rapids for
the second time in three years.
"The traditional way of doing it is to go out
on tour and promote a new record," quipped Jim
Lenahan, Petty's set and lighting designer for the
past 28 years.
"We discovered last summer (on a one-month, sold-
out tour) that when you're Tom Petty, that's not
necessary for people to want to come out and see you.
I told him last summer, 'You've kind of reached
the place where you can play anytime you want to
play and people will come.' "
Maybe that's because Petty and company --
who play Grand Rapids' Van Andel Arena on Thursday
to begin a 32-date tour -- have become much-beloved
rock music icons on the strength of standards such
as "American Girl," "Refugee," "Mary Jane's Last
Dance" and "Free Fallin'."
And having an American institution choose to start its tour again in Grand Rapids has some folks buzzing.
"It's a good building, a good audience and good people to work with," said Barbara Skydell, Petty's New York agent, who contacted Van Andel Arena to book the opening show just three years after the band launched its 1999 summer tour here.
"We had a really good experience in Grand Rapids, very positive. The building is terrific, and the audience is terrific, so we said, 'Hey, we want to repeat that experience.' "
Grand Rapids' Midwest location makes it "a good place to kick off a tour," Skydell added. "You can go to a lot of places from there, so it makes sense for all those reasons."
Arena manager Rich MacKeigan said landing the first stop was "very much agent, management and artist driven. It is intentional that they're starting here."
That type of decision doesn't go unnoticed, he said.
"People are aware of it in the entertainment industry," he said. "If an artist like Tom Petty chooses to start his tour here not once but twice, they say that he obviously had a good experience here. Tom Petty is an absolute professional who has toured for a number of years."
Even though there's no new album to promote, Lenahan said band members apparently "got bored with the studio and wanted to play" a summer tour.
Petty and band members Mike Campbell (guitar), Benmont
Tench (keyboards) and Ron Blair (bass) plan to arrive in
Grand Rapids a day ahead of the first show for
rehearsals and lighting run-throughs at the arena,
Lenahan and MacKeigan confirmed.
The band has been rehearsing in Los Angeles, with Lenahan preparing a new stage setup and programming the show's computerized lighting system.
"Right now, they're just trying to figure out how to do the old songs with the new guy (Blair)," Lenahan said in a telephone interview from Los Angeles earlier this month.
Blair, the Heartbreakers' original bass player, quit the band in 1982 and was replaced by Howie Epstein. He rejoined the group earlier this year after the Heartbreakers announced they had parted ways with Epstein "because of his ongoing personal problems."
(Epstein and his companion, Carlene Carter, stepdaughter of country music singer Johnny Cash, were arrested last year in a vehicle that reportedly was stolen and contained a small amount of heroin. However, Epstein wasn't charged, and charges against Carter eventually were dismissed.)
With or without Epstein, Petty and his cohorts have established themselves as true American roots-rock heroes, which hasn't escaped the attention of critics and fans across the globe.
British music critic Adam Sweeting once described Petty and his band as being "among the last surviving American classics" because similarly influential groups such as the Byrds and the Band no longer are around. Indeed, the band was a first-ballot inductee into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in March.
"I called him (Petty) and I said, 'I always knew you were going to get in, but it was pretty impressive that you got in on your first year of eligibility,' " Lenahan said of the induction.
And while the band's last studio album, "Echo," wasn't a runaway commercial success, the 1999 tour to promote it ranked among the year's 15 top-selling tours, according to Pollstar, the music industry's concert tracker.
Lenahan said Petty's new stage setup would feature "pretty clean lines" with "fabric panels stretched across it to give surfaces to throw lighting on" -- in other words, a streamlined look.
"It's still taking shape, but it's evolving into something pretty nice," said Lenahan, who attended high school with Petty in Florida.
As for the set list, Lenahan speculated the boys would focus on many of their biggest hits, though they've been playing some new material from the upcoming album in rehearsals.
"Like any band, there are certain songs that are probably going to be in the show," he said. "There's a pretty good chance he's going to play 'Free Fallin' ' in there somewhere.
"But anything could change with this guy," Lenahan said. "If he doesn't feel like playing it that night, he won't play it. You've got to be thinking on your feet."
Nothing Petty
Tom Petty News - June 2002
