The Musician That Made Tom Petty Walk Out on His Crowd and Bob Dylan: “I Went Into a Rage”

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers go hand in hand. His backing band is just as much a part of his iconography as he is. While one might be forgiven for thinking there was a clear hierarchy between frontman and the rest of the musicians on stage, one Heartbreaker tried to challenge that authority—in front of Bob Dylan, nonetheless.

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The Heartbreaker That Made Tom Petty Walk Off Stage

Petty and the Heartbreakers were tapped by Dylan in the ’80s to play a slew of shows. By this point, the band was experiencing some rifts. Notably, there was an ongoing clash between Petty and drummer, Stan Lynch.

The drummer was often at odds with Petty, and this tension intensified when the group began touring with Dylan. Reportedly, Lynch began shirking his duties in the band, making Petty worry about how Dylan was perceiving them.

“I Went Into a Rage”

There was one show in particular that was the last straw for Petty. One on-stage insult from Lynch was enough to have him walking off in “a rage.”

“I don’t even know what it was about anymore,” Petty once said. “I looked at him for some reason, and he took his drumsticks in one hand and just shot me the bird. I don’t know what it was, but something about it made me so mad. I went into a rage, just pushed my guitar off, walked from the stage, shut myself in the dressing room.”

While it wasn’t the finest moment on this iconic tour, it didn’t hurt Petty’s standing with The Bard. They later joined forces in the Traveling Wilburys, putting this mess with Lynch behind them.

In the 1990s, Lynch was notably left out of the Heartbreakers lineup, marking the end of his tenure with the band. Both Lynch and Petty have taken responsibility for the ways they clashed as musicians.

“Sometimes it’s tough; it’s not a democracy,” Lynch once said, acknowledging the struggles within his band. “Great rock’n’roll is not usually made by democracy – that’s the truth. It’s usually somebody who has the seed of an idea that he’s gonna protect.”

Despite their differences, Petty and Lynch created some timeless tracks together, which hopefully made all the tough times worthwhile in the end.

(Photo By Rick Diamond/Getty Images)