Tom Petty battled with record companies throughout on a few different occasions in his career. On his 2002 album The Last DJ, he took on pretty much the entire music industry, and fans and critics weren’t quite sure what to make of the whole thing.
What inspired Petty to create the album? And how has the album held up over the years since its release? Let’s go back to the circumstances surrounding Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ impassioned tale of The Last DJ.
Radio Daze
Petty’s 1999 album Echo was made at a time when he was dealing with a divorce, and the darkness of that period in his life clearly bled into the material. By the time it came to record a follow-up, Petty was in a much better place, basking in time spent with his family and new wife Dana. He also enjoyed the recording experience, as he played bass on many of the tracks for the new album.
But that didn’t mean Petty was all smiles when it came to the state of the music business, and his dissatisfaction led to the creation of The Last DJ. He explained what first set him off in an interview with Paul Zollo as part of the book Conversations with Tom Petty:
“(The idea) came to me when I kept seeing these billboards for radio stations that said, ‘No Talk.’ And I thought, God, that’s sad. There’s no talk. They don’t tell you who that was (playing each song). And when I was growing up, there were disc jockeys that seemed like people you knew. And they actually did a show. And they played a great range of music. And radio was so magical and interesting. It played such a huge role in my life.”
Petty was also frustrated at the way certain young musicians were packaged to audiences based on looks and not necessarily their musical talent. He looked out at the landscape and saw that original artists were often toiling in obscurity, while what record companies pushed and what radio stations played was often bland and unchallenging.
It wasn’t the first time Petty devised a concept album. His 1985 record Southern Accents was originally meant to serve that purpose, but the artist lost the plot a bit during a tortuous recording process. But with The Last DJ, he did indeed write the songs based on an overriding story, one that was part romance, part character sketch of a rebel DJ, and part castigation of failings within the industry.
A Divisive DJ
Sales for The Last DJ didn’t quite match up to previous Petty albums, despite the concept angle getting a lot of publicity in the press. Some critics who had long been appreciative of Petty’s work took aim at the album as well. What was it about the record that seemed to frustrate some folks?
Well, if you’re judging it on a concept album basis, the story isn’t one that you can really follow too clearly over the course of it. Petty apparently had other songs written that would have filled in some gaps. But that could have been overcome if there had been Petty’s usual high percentage of killer songs on the album, but it never quite gets to that level.
Most of the diatribe-type songs aimed at the industry make for good points, but they don’t actually add up to enjoyable listening experiences. Some of the softer stuff, such as “Like a Diamond” and “Dreamville,” sounds lovely, but that material is somewhat jarringly slotted among the angrier songs. It’s only at the very end that The Last DJ hits its best stride with the one-two closing punch of “Have Love Will Travel” and “Can’t Stop the Sun,” two outstanding band performances that help the album go out on a triumphant note.
Maybe Petty’s strong feelings about the state of radio weren’t quite the foundation necessary to make The Last DJ a classic album. But it nothing else, it seems to have given him a great idea. Two years after the album came out, he started up his Buried Treasure radio show, one that proved Tom Petty was as entertaining and inspiring a DJ as any of the dying breed that he celebrated on the album.
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