guitar guy toms river

Turning Back the Clock

Tom Leadon and Randall Marsh-two of the original members of Mudcrutch with Tom Petty, Mike Campbell and later Benmont Trench-the band's reunion has been nothing less than a dream. And while the three other members have minced countless sold-out amphitheater and arenas under their belts, not to mention the previous Super Bowl break show as The Heartbreakers, it is clear Mudcrutch has been revitalizing. We caught up with Campbell, Leadon and Marsh to hear how it went halfway through their first tour for over 30 years.

What was it like hearing the idea of Mudcrutch reunion not from Tom Petty, but from Peter Bogdanovich?

Empty Leadon: Peter had come to Brentwood, TN where I teach music to interview me [for the documentary film Runnin 'Down a Dream]. He asked me if I had any Mudcrutch pictures, so I took him into my room and he said, "Aww, we've seen all these already. You know, Tom mentioned to me the other day that he thought to have a Mudcrutch reunion. "I must say that his words shot through me like a bolt of relief. … I have practiced every day for years because I am a musician, but I always had faith that some day I could do something and get my music out there. I said to Peter to tell Tom I was up to it. It was a seven or eight months before I heard from Tom. I'm still just living a dream here. I feel better than if I won the lottery.

Randall Marsh: I was flabbergasted. I just assumed that they had been working on the film and maybe had a few beers and Peter misinterpreted some nostalgic idea. So I did not take it seriously.

Leadon: When he called me, I drove home from the supermarket, and he said, "Hey, it's your old pal Tom Petty," and I thought: "No … really?" I thought it was one of my friends jerking my chain. He said it again and I said again: "No … really?" I could not hear him very well, so I pulled my truck over to the side of the road and we talked for about an hour and it was just fantastic.

I did not think we would do an entire record, I do not think any of us did. Tom said he had an equipment warehouse and he had set up some tape recording equipment and I thought, "Well, maybe we will do some demos, and maybe something down the line will come out of it. "I was still very tense. I thought we would get together in two or three days, and just have fun, play some music and then go home. When I received the following call from Tom over the next few months, I found out that he was blocking the two weeks' time, he had one of the best engineers in the industry and I think it is starting to sound really good. I asked him about the airline spending, and he said, "Yes, there will probably be a record deal along the line. "And I think of myself, record deal! And we had not even played a note.

Has you ever expect, after this long-three decades, to make this happen?

Mike Campbell: It was out of the blue. I was pleasantly surprised when he called me and asked me what I thought. I thought: "It would be really fun to do." I was also surprised that with The Heartbreakers and all the other activities we have time-We'd just done the Super Bowl, and we had to create a summer tour and I was impressed that Tom was so keen to do it, that he wanted to find time to squeeze this in. Of course Tom did not do this project, and this is something he really wanted to do.

It seems like Mudcrutch offer you all an opportunity to be free of expectations, both from fans and label executives.

Campbell: It's so liberating to do a project, there has baggage with it, no expectations. On a certain level is compared to Heartbreakers, but it is a completely separate band, distinct style. It is still the same songwriter and singer, but in this band Tom plays bass and creates a completely different feeling and different view of how the music seems to float. It's really exciting to go out on stage and plays no hits for me Ben [Benmont Trench] and Tom, this is a true revelation. And still have it goes over as well as it has, the audience will just nuts, it's real eye-opener for the three of us we can go out on stage with our original band, playing songs they never heard before, and have it really work.

What was the first reunion show like the Malibu?

Campbell: It was a different type of pressure than, say, Super Bowl or some big concerts because they are right up in front of you, and you present the music they've never heard before. It was a really nice challenge, and it was and still is, very exciting to get up and play with our old friends. We were pleasantly surprised that people really seemed to respond to chemical and honesty about what we were presenting.

Leadon: I had the jitters a little bit. I remember driving over there in the car with Tom and Randall and it was just a magical thing, driving along the water to a concert and have the place sold out. I felt like at my age, here I am 55 years old, played guitar for 45 of them and played in a lot of bands, and it was the most unique band I was ever in these were the guys I grew up with, so in a sense it was I came-out party. It just felt like it was time.

Marsh: I kept telling myself, you take away fame and celebrity, it's just another gig, just another band. But before we went on, I was about to wet my pants. [laughs] These guys are so good as pros, I will not let anyone down.

"Crystal River" seems to be something special, something a little different than the rest of the tunes.

Campbell: This song was from the first day we got together, and Tom was just written it. He just showed us the chords. We came to use the room and get used to playing together again as it did stretch a bit, because we were discovering our sound. When we play that song live, it is one of the highlights of the show. It looks as if the audience is in on the joke, these guys are really enjoying it, and it is fresh. And although I have not heard this song before, there is something magical is that they really connect with. Every night, it does not have the element of "We will go into this direction and see where it lands. "It is very exciting because the Heartbreakers not do much.

The song represents all the elements that were Mudcrutch. Mudcrutch had two worlds that came together. A world was Tom Leadon and Tom Petty, who was deeply immersed in the country rock as Buffalo Springfield, The Byrds' country stuff, or The Flying Burrito Brothers. Randall and I were really versed in long improvisations, Grateful Deadish-type feel. These two worlds are well represented in the song. I am a little country swing and feel in verse, but the instrumental part tends to take a few liberties, stretch out and get back to. These two worlds together is basically what the Mudcrutch sound.

Is this band sound like the original Mudcrutch?

Campbell: The key here is it is very true to the original Mudcrutch. The Mudcrutch, which got signed to Shelter records and set a couple of singles was another Mudcrutch: Tom Leadon had left, Randall Marsh had left, and a few other guys came in and we got a little away from the original sound. This band is the original lineup and inspiration on what the band was all about. It sounds like we did back in the day. When we recorded the album, we have made a point of recording it live without headphones, live vocals, live solos. It is very, very true.

Leadon: What is different though, is that 30 some years later, we have all been a game, some of us famous, some of us are not so famous. We have all been working with our music, and I feel we are all much better players, singers and writers than we were. When we started Mudcrutch, I was not even 18 yet and by the time I was 20 I had left band. We had something special, it just never had a chance to fully develop. This is something that is as satisfactory as his project. For me it feels like a chance to see what could have been.

Did you go back and listen to the original material when you were all together?

Campbell: It is another thing that is interesting: Even though we have the same sound and chemistry that we had back in the day, perhaps 80 percent of the songs are freshly written.

Has there been any thought to reverse it, or you let it go?

Campbell: We would like to leave it alone and move forward with newer songs. We had a couple of covers on the item that was older, as we used to do back in the day as "Six Days on the Road" and "Lover on the Bayou." There is a song on the album, which we brought back from the old days, we never actually registered, but used to play on our show, Tom Leadon wrote, "Queen of the Go Go Girls. "

Leadon: Now that we are much more mature, better players, and Tom was always a good writer, but now he's a great writer, we come in and do the best song that we currently have and it will not be a song we wrote 35 years ago. Most of the others are completely new songs, and it is because Tom is to write better now than he did then. He thought about some of the old songs, he thought, "Nah, it's the sound of guys learning to play and write."

One of the bands that Mudcrutch get compared to a batch of Flying Burrito Brothers and Gram Parsons. I'm curious to hear your respective takes on Parsons.

Campbell: I've always thought he was a genius, brilliant and very soulful singer and I've always loved his records. It was actually Tom Leadon and Tom Petty, who turned me on to him. I loved his whole trip.

Leadon: Tom and I first heard him, like many people, on Sweetheart of the Rodeo, and we were really into it and we actually used to cover some of the tunes he did as "empty bottle, Broken Heart." We were hip to the fact that he and Chris Hillman started The Flying Brothers. Hillman was no, as my older brother Bernie had been in a band with as teenagers in San Diego before The Byrds, called the Scottsville Squirrel Barkers. Chris was the biggest guy who inspired my brother to move to LA to try and do it. So we began to listen to the first Flying Burrito album and we just loved it. We did Flying Burrito covers, and no one in Florida had to do something. They did not understand why these long-haired rock musicians would be to play this truck-stop country music. We just loved it. Gram, for me, was one who inspired me to sing more than just a few harmony parts I used to do. … So much, Tom Petty and the reason I came into the country, my brother's influence. We will get these items from the West Coast and the general public did not know about it and [my brother] joined The Flying Burrito Brothers, which was our favorite band. I was just thrilled. He made a couple of plates with them.

When I moved to LA in '73, I was the first to leave Mudcrutch and I lived with my brother, I met Gram in some nightclubs with Clarence White and people like it. He was just my hero. Bernie played on his latest album, Grievous Angel, and took me to meetings, so I got to hang out with Gram and I got to meet Emmylou [Harris] and they became close friends. It was just such a tragedy when he died. I saw the destructive side of him also. I hung out with him enough to see. I felt that he was a genius, but a poor genius. He was a wonderful person. … Ultimately, he did not take care of himself, he destroyed himself and … it is not a good thing he did there. We could still have Gram today if he did not do it … I just do not understand why people do such things to themselves, but we are lucky we had him when we did. His vision of bringing together rock, country, gospel and R & B of this cosmic American music that he was talking about, it really hit a lot of the music that came after it.

Mike, what is it like playing with Tom on bass after so much time and work with the other Tom on guitar? Do you sense that it can make the Heartbreakers 'Dynamic fresh in some ways?

Campbell: Tom played bass back in the day with Mudcrutch, when I met him, he was the bass player, and he was always much on bass. All those years with The Heartbreakers, he played guitar, he is also great at. He writes his songs on guitar. I know Tom was really keen to play bass again, and I know he practiced really hard for this project because he wanted to make sure that he could carry his end. I think playing bass and making this record live, I think it was an eye-opener for Tom to sing live and play bass, it really connected with him, how he started the band. I think it's freed him and got him to enjoy music in a way that he has for many years. I hope some of that energy and awakening will spillover to the stuff we do in the future.

What does the future of Mudcrutch?

Campbell: The whole project started as a whim and then it was a record, and now it's been a few gigs. Every step has been so fun and so positive and received so well, I can see no reason not to continue. It's just a matter of finding time to do it. We are so happy as a musician can play these gigs. Something this fun you could not just put it down and not maintained. About the Author

Written by Mike Greenhaus* **Childhood Addictions:* Tuna and Chocolate Milk *Fun Phish Fact:* It took me 45 shows to hear “Fee” *Genetic Jamband Bobble:* My bouncy walk resembles my disheveled dance step *Genuine Jamband Geekster:* I’ve seen a concert in all five of New York’s boroughs (even Staten Island!). Visit www.relix.com for more information.

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