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MYSTERIOUS: 2 | Mind Blowing Facts

“We all blamed each other, but we never doubted the song”: It took Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers more than 100 takes to nail one of their greatest songs – and it still ended up being “an albatross” around their necks

When Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers teamed up with a hotshot new producer for a 1979 classic, it nearly broke the band

Louder

“That’s all I had for weeks… People started banging on the wall – ‘Don’t play that anymore!’” Tom Petty wanted to turn a catchy riff into a much-needed hit. He didn't stop playing it until he did

Under pressure to follow up his multi-platinum breakthrough, Damn the Torpedoes, with another best-selling album, Petty wanted a lead single “that had a little lick from the beginning”. That lick proved to be a stubborn one

Guitar World

A Night At The Opera: 50 years on, Brian May and Roger Taylor on Queen's operatic masterpiece - only in the new issue of Classic Rock

Also in this issue: Heart, Scorpions, Eric Gales, Creeper, Tom Petty, UFO, David Bowie, Zakk Wylde, Devon Allman, Counting Crows and more

Louder

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Lucinda Williams: ‘My singing is better now than it was before my stroke’

The US singer-songwriter on whether she will pull her music from Spotify, her worst first date and why ‘being unique and original doesn’t always work in the record business’

The Guardian - AU

"King of the Hill" is the real America

Hank and Peggy Hill return to a changed nation that needs their common sense and good hearts

Salon

"The last thing I remember, Iwas playing at atopless bar and had aVolkswagen bus and a hundred bucks": What former Heartbreaker Stan Lynch did next

Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers’ drummer is back behind the kit for an album from his new Americana collective, The Speaker Wars

Louder

I’m no Ed Sheeran fan, but he’s right: when it comes to musical plagiarism, guilt is in the ear of the listener

Musical history is littered with cases like the failed $100m suit against the singer, and they risk stifling pop music, says music journalist Simon Price

The Guardian - UK

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“I said, ‘Rick, I’m playing one note, how the hell do I play less?’ He said, ‘I know you can do it’”: Tom Petty keyboard player Benmont Tench says that being produced by Rick Rubin on Johnny Cash’s American IV album was like solving a puzzle

“You need to simplify,” Rubin kept telling him

MusicRadar

"I remember thinking, This is ridiculous. Johnny finally said, 'This isn’t working'." Rick Rubin once tried to get Johnny Cash to record Robert Palmer's US number one single Addicted To Love

Johnny Cash's American Recordings sessions with producer Rick Rubin yielded some incredible music, but not everything worked

Louder

“It took me a few years to figure out that if you’re going to play Fender guitars, you play with Fender amps”: Ryan Hedgecock stuck to his own creative path, even when Lone Justice were torn apart

The country crossover pioneer’s desire to explore the “indigenous sound of LA” has never left him – and it’s bringing about a full-circle moment as he reactivates Parlor James and plans a hardcore cowpunk solo record

Guitar World

“He was a master of the cryptic instruction. He’d say, ‘This song, can you loosen its tie a little?’”: How The Strokes created the most influential rock song of the early 21st Century

It inspired The Killers, Arctic Monkeys and countless other bands

MusicRadar

“The way we played guitar, the way I voiced against Tom, we found it on American Girl. I thought, ‘This is us.’ Those two guitars helped make it happen”: Mike Campbell on how his lifelong musical connection with Tom Petty was forged in a matter of days

As he celebrates the release of his memoir, Heartbreaker, Tom Petty’s right-hand man and dear friend reflects on a career’s worth of enduring hits, and why he “never doubted the music”

Guitar World

The sacred duty of playing the hits

Founding members of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Benmont Tench and Mike Campbell, hold the notes of memory

Salon

“I had no inkling Tom would go so early. I always wondered who would go first. I’m still grieving”: Mike Campbell on life as Tom Petty’s right hand man and the highs and lows of being a Heartbreaker

The life and times of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell

Louder

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Guitar World

“Geffen thought we were too young to write our own songs. Bob Dylan wrote a song, Bruce Springsteen had a song”: Ryan Hedgecock on Lone Justice's brief but fierce ’80s run – and how Tom Petty and Mike Campbell ended up penning a song on their debut

The promising young band were the subject of a flurry of publicity after they were signed to Geffen, but a behind-the-scenes mismatch in vision led to the outfit's premature demise

Guitar World

“Tom listened to it and said, ‘It sounds kind of jazzy.’ I went back and changed the chorus, and that’s the version I played for Don”: Mike Campbell on writing The Boys of Summer with Don Henley – after Tom Petty passed on it

Campbell made an all-important change to the song before handing it over to Henley

Guitar World

“I play the double-neck and trade solos with Joe Walsh on Hotel California. It’s a bit terrifying, but it’s the greatest thing ever”: Chris Holt landed The Eagles without an audition – but his gigs with Mike Campbell and Don Henley might have helped

Former Don Henley sideman has a multi-amp rig when he plays with Mike Campbell, and a stipped down in-ears-only setup for the Sphere – but he always has 12 guitars standing by

TechRadar

Spotify streams of the latest Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer song increased by 182,000% just two hours after the trailer dropped

The song from the latest Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer has shot up in popularity on Spotify.

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Guitar World

“He mostly played bass. I had a ’64 Strat that I got for $200. Tom didn’t really have a good electric, so I let him use that one”: How Mike Campbell and Tom Petty developed their Heartbreakers sound – with the help of some choice early gear picks

Though Petty was in need of a decent electric, the two Heartbreakers quickly landed on a sound that would define their guitar partnership

Louder

"It could have been the end, but it became a new beginning": Fleetwood Mac and the game-changing arrival of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks - only in the new issue of Classic Rock

Also in this issue: Joe Walsh, Don Airey, Those Damn Crows, Pete Townshend, Lollapalooza 92, Luke Spiller, Mike Campbell, Yngwie Malmsteen, Samantha Fish and more

Guitar World

“It’s one of the most beautiful, living, breathing pieces of art – all the grime has just aged into the wood”: Margo Price on playing Willie Nelson’s Trigger, growing up with Gibson and bringing her signature J-45 to life

The country singer-songwriter on what she learned working with Mike Campbell and how playing drums influences her guitar style

What Hi-Fi?

Tom Petty, Motörhead, The Doors, plus some big surprises: we reveal 10 top music journalists’ most treasured vinyl records

10 of the world's top music journalists reveal their most cherished records as part of our Vinyl Week special event

Guitar World

“The ‘Destruct’ button really sets it apart from just about any other Tele”: Fender and Mike Campbell recreate the Red Dog – The Heartbreaker’s heavily modded 1972 Telecaster, which he played with Tom Petty and Fleetwood Mac

Campbell bought the Red Dog from one of his students, and used it across his career on some of his most notable works

Guitar World

“Walk Like an Egyptian was so silly. But solid players have asked, ‘What are you playing at the end?’” Vicki Peterson sees herself as “a bit of a hack player,” but she still made guitar-pop history with the Bangles – and guested with Tom Petty

She compares her work in The Bangles to what she’s doing now, lists the guitars she’d save from a house fire, and explains how she wound up with a Carvin in her collection

Louder

"It’s a thin line between child and genius." Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell reveals how a drum machine confused the hell out of Bob Dylan when he tried to write a hit single in the mid '80s

After seeing how Mike Campbell's input revitalised Don Henley, Bob Dylan fancied a slice of the action, but was thwarted by a uncooperative drum machine

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