So of course he's gonna stick his head up from behind the car with a court jester's hat on and missing teeth. [laughs]. You have left the Del Fuegos. Well, if your ego gets in the way and that's what's dominating your thinkingThat would be so sad! Among the acts that Tom Petty took with him on the tour for his 1987 album, Let Me Up (Ive Had Enough), was the Del Fuegos, a Boston-based roots-rock band with ties to the New York hardcore scene. Stan: Tom had basically told me I wasnt the right drummer for him anymore. Ok, here's another attempt to post my Stan Lynch interview. And theres plenty more as Zanes, granted full access, reports on the creation of not just Pettys biggest records, Damn the Torpedoes, and Full Moon Fever, but his less appreciated gems, including 1999s Echo. Zanes is more than a fan: In 1987, his band, the Del Fuegos, opened gigs for their hero. Stanley Joseph "Stan" Lynch (born May 21, 1955) is an American musician, songwriter and record producer. 79.6 KB Views: 141. A series of writing projects followed, which lead to Petty asking Zanes to write the biography. Now, everybody has a CD. There sat the fantastic coffee. Sometimes I would hear stuff and it was just so sad. You stumble upon George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, and Petty in Pettys office, jamming. Again, in his own way. Yet, you've actually taken better care of yourself and remained healthier mentally and physically than many of your contemporaries.For me it was always - I really wanted to live! Attachments. I'm interested in rock music, literature, cinema, and doing research in Cultural Studies. Last night, after a day of interviews, he sat alone in his hotel room, pensive and moody, until sunrise. During his tenure as a Heartbreaker, Lynch became intimately familiar with both the ups and the downs of working in a rock band. The 100 Greatest TV Shows of All Time, In some small ways, the experience mirrored a very difficult time in Lynchs career with the Heartbreakers when Petty cut 1989s Full Moon Fever as a solo album and asked the band to learn the songs and tour it with him. So that was the perspective I had immediately. There are so many records out there now that it's harder to stand out.Yeah, right, it's like, everybody's super-talented and everybody's a genius and everybody's signed, and I don't care! So I think nowadays it's so much by rote, your first album can sell a million records, and it's no big deal - they'll still drop you [laughs]. I watched really depressing people get more depressed. In the warts-and-all film, Lynchs multi-faceted role as steady drummer/class clown/cheerleader/ball breaker/whipping boy was discussed at some length, though his side of the story was represented mostly through older interviews. And it reverberated for years, some people never got over it. You just have to be man enough to hear it, rather than keep trying to change it. And that's what it's supposed to do, so she did her job. And some bands that have been together for 10 minutes, it's 10 minutes too long, and some bands that have been together for 20 years are just right. So I wanted to put the drums down. I said, How do you digest two albums worth of material? They went, Thats Wednesday for me. Bissonette was going, You chart them out. Stan and I had some personal conflicts with family here and there, he says. Lynch isnt looking for thespotlight anymore, though, according to his interview last week. Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any suggestions. ', I dont give a shit what were playing, adds Lynch. Stan Lynch is really an overlooked player in rock. The presence of a Beatle is a thick presence. Stan Lynch Net Worth. I really tried to put on the school tie, man, I tried like hell for the last five years. Ive known him since I was 15. We got beyond it. I think he was invested in being caught in that cycle in part because there was so much movement in it all that the trouble from his past was kept at bay. I've been extremely curious about what's gonna happen if? I couldn't get over it, I always was much more lighthearted about it - even in the darkest days of my drug frenzy, which lasted a full month [laughter]. If you listen to the old records, Stan and I are pushing, were locked, and lot of times were driving the songs. To me, it was like, "Who gives a fuck? In light of your experience of being in a band for so long, what advice would you give to band leaders to help the chemistry; what do you think is the best possible way to bring out everybody's creativity in a band situation?The truth of the matter is the best bands, including the Beatles and the Stones and the Who, have a core of creative fire to them that needs to be nurtured before the other people need to be nurtured. That is what I thought rock'n'roll was. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakershad been off the road for nearly a year when the 1994 Bridge School Benefit came around. Andrew Witmer I didnt talk to the Bogdanovich people, Lynch says. So I think that if you're flat, if you've hit a point where you just don't know where the hell to turn, that's usually somebody's way of saying, "Man, you need a bro.". This is a great joke I heard somebody say to me: it was somebody who's very successful who was producing records for somebody who was lesser knowna record that was probably never gonna sell, but it was a cool record. And Im a guy that always wanted to be in a band. I kneeled down, took her hand, and I went, Its going to be OK. I think its a bit of healing and closure for people to revisit that feeling and revisit Tom in a positive way., Playing Pettys music night after night has also given Lynch the opportunity to grieve for his friend. But if you changed you'd be compromising what you've been all about. He's like, cool looking, great bass playing, beautiful soul nothing burned him! Ive thought about having different singers up there doing the songs, but why? I didnt want to find out anything that would compromise the mans dignity, Zanes said. It was like, "Well that'sinteresting Stan, what are you gonna do to support yourself?" I didnt need to be that way. But you follow your gut on that one. A fun chat with my old friend and original drummer with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, the great Stan Lynch. I went and I gave Tom and his family a copy of an Ann Peebles record. I'm not overly celebrated; I feel like I was given just the right amount of notoriety that I could handle. He didnt like the record. When he released that safety valve out. Stephen Lynch Science & Engineering Assoc, Chemistry. [laughter] That's a totally appropriate description of my career at times! Longtime Petty manager Tony Dimitriades fired Lynch on the phone shortly after the show, and the drummer didnt say a word to Petty until the group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002. All rights reserved. Saying, These are the things that feel incredibly good, that cant be duplicated. www.moderndrummer.com "You're never fired, you're just not asked to do the next thing". Its become a very special moment and the crowd picked up on the love between us.. "The coolest thing about this is that I get to put a bookend on a really, really long book of life," says Stan Lynch, second from left, of reuniting with Mike Campbell, third from left. Stan was the lone extrovert in this band of introverts. Most people collaborate, and sometimes I've been in collaborations where the person is basically just using me as a sounding board, and that's all that's required. Last week, Stan Lynch was interviewed at the Matheson Museum in Gainesville, Florida. Man, we used to have a joke in the first band I was in, which was: lower your goals and succeed! There are a lot of producers and labels that actually do that.I'm sure they do! Any book about the fifty-two-year-old Lynch would surely be an entertaining, fairly hilarious read. He then joined Eagles for 'Hell Freezes Over' and went on tour with. There are things I could have handled better, specifically with Mike. And he died soon after. -Liberty DeVitto Hewitt2 Senior Member Sep 15, 2020 #2 His parts fit those TP songs so well. Zanes spoke by telephone about Petty.. I have the slang and the cadence and the understanding of how those songs are supposed to be translated. [laughter] And the trick is to stay out of your own way, and to stay out of everybody else's way. Hi! I've always been that guy, you know like the Roadrunner cartoon, like "What if I go ahead and blow this up, what'll happen?" So it's like, my life feels more cartoonish to me than dour and dark. Then today, as soon as his tour bus hit Philadelphia, it all began again with three more. I didnt need to be that way. 2023 Rolling Stone, LLC. But if its all of us without Tom, theres this big hole in the room. God bless 'em! Moral dilemmas, relationships, parenting and more. I sat down at the drums and I didnt know whether to cry or barf. And its a new life. I mean I'd say thatjoy and curiosity have overwhelmed stagnation and bitterness. Guitar Saved Me!: Jeff Beck Looks Back in Never-Before-Heard Interview Audio Its because hes trying to succeed at something that his own family failed at, sometimes dramatically. And I wonder if you have any idea what the core values are that have helped you to stay sane, and also to grow as a person as you've gotten older and avoid becoming stagnant or bitter.Well I have those days.stagnant and bitter, that would describe several weeks of the year. Stan Lynch joined Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in 1974 when Petty's piano player Benmont Tench recruited him. Within twenty-four hours, I was talking to Don and he said, Man, what are you doing? And certainly in Pettys life, it was a big deal when he and George Harrison came together. So - that's okay! (For a detailed account of this saga, check out Warren Zanes definitive book Petty: The Biography. When I heard what happened, it put me right down on my knees, literally. So you spend so much energy worrying about itif I knew at 20 that, hell, I was gonna be okay, and be sitting in front of the fire at 45God, I could have saved myself so many gray hairs and brain blowouts, you know! It's two immovable objects that hit each other at 100 miles an hour, what is gonna happen? I tried being late to rehearsals like everybody elseI tried to act disinterestedbut it all backfired on me! Oh yeah, that one never changed. And I think among American rock-and-roll bands, theyre the very best. The 50 Worst Decisions in Music History And drummers tend to be, the big loud rock drummers tend to be that way in personality. ', When he heard about Pettys death in 2017, Lynch says he was shocked, but not completely surprised. He makes a big noise wherever he goes. ', But when he went to speak, he found himself tentatively agreeing to the plan. He takes a Sharpie and signs it for me for every Beatle and hands it back to me. And so I have regrets, but they dont hold me back. Are you up for it?, Lynchs first instinct was to decline the offer. It has a special vibe when its just the two of you. And so we started closing the show with it. I grabbed him and told him what I needed to tell him. Oh, my my, oh, hell yes, did Lynch serve those songs well. He had signed with Zildjian by the time of this MD interview, but he used Paiste 2002s on Damn The Torpedoes. Christ, you're kidding! If you're actually really good, and they don't get it, you can actually believe that you're wrong and they're right. Ive seen enough that I know that I dont need to see much more Bigger isnt better.. Otherwise it can becomeit's just fetishism, it's just "This is my personal fantasy"of what everyone will love. We got together and played at that and talked and were friendly, Petty said in 2007. Its like a part of my life Ive actuallyI wont say forgotten, because I actually still dream about it. Just go! Unless there's other people that recognize it, that go, "Oh, he's in a cycle.". Stan Lynch - Modern Drummer Magazine Features Stan Lynch It's been thirty years since he recorded with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. [laughs], But I'll bet you're glad you stayed that way.I think it's the only wayto thine own self be true [laughs]. When we got back together for the Bridge School Benefit it was just misery. I told my editor about Pettys heroin addiction in the 90s. 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