Making a record? You've got to have the song, then you create a record. I think it's the same with a live performance. If the material is strong, you're already 90% there. I always tell young people it's all about the music, the songs. Work on the songs, work on the songs, work on the songs.
Interpretation
The essence of a great performance lies in the quality of the music and songs you create.
Tom Petty emphasizes that in both recording and performing music, the foundation is the quality of the songs themselves. He suggests that if the songs are strong, much of the work is already accomplished, advising young musicians to focus their efforts on honing their songwriting skills, as this is crucial for success in the music industry.
In practice
Using this quote as advice to aspiring musicians in a workshop.
When my record company rejected 'Full Moon Fever', I was hurt so bad. I was pretty far along in my career at that point. I'd never had anything rejected; I'd never really even had a comment. So when that happened, it was really just a board to the forehead. But then, finally, I picked myself up.
I developed a problem with authority. Any time that authority was what I interpreted as being unjust, I stood up to it, and that became my personality.
I don't know, my music has always just come from where the wind blew me. Like where I'm at during a particular moment in time.
Music really isn’t supposed to be perfect. It’s all about people relating to each other and doing something that’s really from the soul. It must come from the soul.
It's hard for me... If I don't have a project going, I don't feel like I'm connected to anything. I don't even think it's that healthy for me. I like to get out of bed and have a purpose.
I think for it to be hip to be idealistic is weird, you know? I mean, even all the best rebels to me, had some sense of hope in them.
Much as I adore the melodies, I choose a song for what it has to say.
If it's illegal to rock and roll, throw my ass in jail!
When one knows at an early age that their gift, talent and direction is musical, one tends to focus on that and let nothing interfere or impede the forward motion toward the end of that rainbow. And after 50-something years of rockin' out, you still realise there is no end to that distant rainbow until one's last sunset.
I say to string players in small chamber orchestras, 'it's always easy to become a passenger on the journey in sound, just adding volume to the whole. But if you play in an individual way, it makes the difference between good and great sound in an orchestra.'
People do dismiss ambient music, don't they? They call it 'easy listening,' as if to suggest that it should be hard to listen to.
It was all part of being a Beatle, really: just getting lugged around and thrust into rooms full of press men taking pictures and asking questions.
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