“I Felt Stupid”: Tom Petty Always Regretted This Tour Choice

Tom Petty’s sixth studio album, Southern Accents, left him with more than a few commercial flops, a severely broken hand, and a controversial tour choice that the rock and roll icon always regretted. The Florida native’s concept album narrated life in the American South, and its lead single was “Don’t Come Around Here No More.”

Ultimately, the album was one of Petty’s least successful releases. But it wasn’t just poor critical reception that caused the “Won’t Back Down” singer to look back on the 1985 record in embarrassment. In a 2015 interview with Rolling Stone, Petty called his marketing decisions around the Southern Accents’ promotional tour “downright stupid.”

The Tour Decision Tom Petty Regretted Making

Tom Petty’s 1985 album Southern Accents was a concept album tribute to his southern roots. He based the stage design for the corresponding promotional tour around the album’s opening track, “Rebels.” Petty incorporated the confederate flag into the live show—a decision he would later regret and reprimand his audience for perpetuating.

During his 2015 conversation with Rolling Stone, Petty explained that “Rebels” was about a character “who talks about the traditions that have been handed down from family to family for so long that he almost feels guilty about the war. He still blames the North for the discomfort of his life, so my thought was the best way to illustrate this character was to use the Confederate flag.”

“The Confederate flag was the wallpaper of the South when I was a kid growing up in Gainesville, Florida,” Petty said. “I always knew it had to do with the Civil War. But the South had adopted it as its logo. I was pretty ignorant of what it actually meant. I just honestly didn’t give it much thought, though I should have. It was a downright stupid thing to do.”

The Rock Icon Responded To His Mistakes

Tom Petty told Rolling Stone that after the Southern Accents tour, he noticed more and more fans wearing Confederate flag clothing and accessories to his shows. “One night, someone threw one onstage. I stopped everything and gave a speech about it. I said, “Look, this was to illustrate a character. This is not who we are. Having gone through this, I would prefer it if no one would ever bring a Confederate flag to our shows again because this isn’t who we are.”

Petty said that the crowd responded in a mix of boos and cheers but that he didn’t notice Confederate paraphernalia after that. Still, he said, “It left me feeling stupid. That’s the word I can use. I felt stupid. If I had just been a little more observant about things going on around me, it wouldn’t have happened. I would never do anything to hurt someone.”

His use of Confederate imagery wasn’t the only tough lesson Petty had to swallow while working on Southern Accents. While mixing the opening track that prompted the rebel imagery in the first place, Petty got so upset that he punched a wall and broke his left hand. Surgeons had to place pins, wires, and screws in his hand to heal his extensive injuries.

Petty was also highly critical of the album’s B-side opener, “Make It Better (Forget About Me).” In the 2020 book Conversations with Tom Petty, he said, “I hate that song. It’s just trash. It was Dave [Stewart, producer] trying to get me to knock a song out. And I think that’s what it sounds like.”

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