Here's another side of the man...
The debt recording artists owe to Tom Petty, who wouldn’t back down
http://www.denverpost.com/2017/10/1...tists-owe-to-tom-petty-who-wouldnt-back-down/
Petty was the first mainstream rock star to file for bankruptcy expressly to get out of a contract with his record label.
And because he was the first, MCA had to make sure he didn’t succeed.
“As soon as they thought my action might set an industry precedent,” Petty explained, “they rolled out the big guns.”
So began
one of the most epic games of chicken in music-business history.
In the end, Petty reconciled with MCA, signing a deal with an artist-friendly label under the MCA umbrella, and the rest is Billboard chart history.
The Heartbreakers’ next album, “Damn The Torpedoes,” went triple platinum, unleashing two of Petty’s most omnipresent songs on the radio, “Don’t Do Me Like That” and “Refugee.” (“Somewhere, somehow, somebody must’ve kicked you around some,” he sings in the latter.)
In all, Petty released some 68 singles, a record 28 of which became mainstream-rock top 10s.
In standing up to MCA, Petty demonstrated the premise that an artist with fans has leverage.
He used that leverage over and over.
He did it in 1981, when MCA tried to sell the band’s fourth album for a dollar more than the standard.
And he did it in the late 1990s, when he capped his concert ticket prices at $50.