Original Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers drummer Stan Lynch recently chatted with American Songwriter about his new band, The Speaker Wars, which released their self-titled debut album in May 2025.
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Lynch also took time to reminisce about the historic tours Petty and The Heartbreakers did with Bob Dylan in 1986 and 1987. Tom and his group not only opened for the folk-rock legend on those treks but were Dylan’s backing band, too.
Lynch called the experience “the high point of my drumming,” adding that it “never got better after that.”
Stan noted that the 1987 tour was particularly memorable because Byrds singer/guitarist Roger McGuinn was part of the bill.
“[The Heartbreakers] were kind of the house band for McGuinn … and for Dylan,” Lynch recalled. “And so, like, I had a three-hour set list from hell, man.”
That being said, Stan maintained, “[Y]ou didn’t need to practice these songs. You knew ’em. These songs are burned into you, man.”
Talking more about his experience collaborating with Dylan, Lynch said, “I became a rabid Bob Dylan fan as a result of having played with him. Like, the man is courageous, he’s funny, he’s whimsical … It was great.”
More on Why Lynch Loved Performing with Dylan
Stan also said he enjoyed the unpredictable nature of playing live with Dylan.
“I mean, to me, the best rock and roll [is] … you fly without a net,” he maintained. “Like, there’s no safety in good rock and roll. It’s chaos. And Bob has that. It’s natural for him. The chaos comes naturally. He doesn’t need to pull the pin on a hand grenade. It’s pre-pulled. … It’s going off all around him, ’cause everybody’s reacting and overreacting to him, and there’s this sort of general panic when he walks into a room.”
Lynch also pointed out that he, Petty, and the rest of the band “knew how fortunate we were to be … cherrypicked for this job [as Dylan’s backing group].”
Stan shared that Petty and the Heartbreakers would play their set “with this incredible [abandon]” before Dylan would hit the stage.”
He continued, “[T]hen Bob would come on, and there was a set list, but [it] didn’t mean s—, ’cause he’d just start songs, [and you wouldn’t] know what you’re doing. It’s wonderful. I loved it! I loved every second of it. I never wanted it to end.”
Lynch added about his experience with Dylan, “I love the guy as a man, I love him as a musician, love him as a guy in the band. You know, he’s a great band leader.”
Lynch on the Aftermath of Touring with Dylan
Stan admitted that after the tours for Dylan, he lost a bit of his enthusiasm for playing with The Heartbreakers.
“[T]o me, it went kind of downhill for me after that, as the drummer and being a guy in a band,” he explained. “I won’t say it went off a cliff, but on a graph it was like, ‘Oh, s—,’ you know.”
Lynch parted ways with Petty and The Heartbreakers in 1994, after 18 years with the band. He went on to enjoy further success as a songwriter, producer, and session drummer. Stan was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with the group in 2002.
More About the Tours with Bob Dylan
Petty and the Heartbreakers’ 1986 outing with Dylan was called the True Confessions Tour. It began with a series of shows in New Zealand, Australia, and Japan, kicking off February 5 in Wellington, New Zealand, and running through a March 10 concert in Tokyo.
That was followed by a lengthy North American leg that was plotted out from a June 9 performance in San Diego through an August 6 performance in Paso Robles, California.
A concert video called Hard To Handle that was shot at two February 1986 concerts in Sydney, Australia, was released later that same year.
The 1987 trek with McGuinn opening was called the Temple in Flames Tour. It began with shows in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, Israel, on September 5 and 7, respectively, and then headed to Europe.
The European portion of the tour ran from a September 10 concert in Basel, Switzerland, through an October 14-17 stand in London.
(Photo by Regene Radniecki/Star Tribune via Getty Images)
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