Tom Petty’s Label Rejected ‘Full Moon Fever’ and Changed His Career Forever
After enjoying years of success with the Heartbreakers, Tom Petty decided to release a solo album, Full Moon Fever. He felt confident about the record and said that it allowed him a level of creative freedom he hadn’t experienced in a while. When he showed it to his label, though, they rejected it. Petty explained that the rejection was painful, but it also permanently changed the trajectory of his career.
Tom Petty felt very confident about ‘Full Moon Fever’
Petty began working on Full Moon Fever with his Traveling Wilburys’ bandmate Jeff Lynne. It was his first solo effort, and he said that working on it felt like a breath of fresh air.
“Full Moon Fever was about just having a little fun on my own, a break from the pressure of thinking about where the Heartbreakers should go next,” he said in the book Petty: The Biography by Warren Zanes. “It was a bit of a lark, really, done very quickly. But then, as we were making it, it felt so good to me. There was a looseness there that you can’t force. You can only hope that it comes around every now and then. And it did. I was so pleased.”
The album included the tracks “I Won’t Back Down,” “Runnin’ Down a Dream,” and “Free Fallin’.”
His label rejected the album
Petty’s label, MCA, wasn’t nearly as confident in the album as he was. They outright rejected it, which had never happened to Petty before.
“When my record company rejected Full Moon Fever, I was hurt so bad,” he told Esquire. “I was pretty far along in my career at that point. I’d never had anything rejected; I’d never really even had a comment. So when that happened, it was really just a board to the forehead.”
Soon after, Petty went to a dinner party at the chief of Warner Bros. Records, Mo Ostin’s house. George Harrison was also in attendance and encouraged Petty to play “Free Fallin'” for the party. They were so impressed with the song that Lenny Waronker, the Warner Bros. president, said he would sign Petty.
Petty contractually owed MCA a few more albums, but he agreed to secretly make a deal with Warner Bros. In 1994, he released his first album with the label, Wildflowers.
Tom Petty eventually released ‘Full Moon Fever’ with his label
Petty wasn’t willing to give up on Full Moon Fever.
“Finally I picked myself up,” he explained. “I said, ‘I’m not buying this, there’s nothing wrong, I really like this record.’ And then I waited awhile, until the top regime at the record company changed. And I came back and I played them the same record, and they were overjoyed. It turned out to be a huge hit.”
Their only request was that Petty add a few more songs to the album.
“They wanted me to add a couple of songs,” he said. “So that’s what I did. And they put it out. And it was a huge hit. It was kind of part two of this whole thing. We were rebirthed.”
