What Adria Petty learned from her father

Adria Petty says her father, Tom Petty, used music to help raise her and stepped in when he thought she was heading down the wrong path. This article explores how their shared listening shaped her work curating the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers archive.

• Music lessons: Tom Petty introduced Adria to records and discussed the songs, lyrics and musicians with her.
• Records chosen: He responded to her interest in Aerosmith’s Pump by giving her albums by Jimi Hendrix Experience and Bob Dylan.
• Archive work: Adria Petty helps manage Tom Petty’s catalog and curate archival releases through Petty Legacy LLC.
• Origins set: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ Origins 1971-78 brings together remastered albums, live performances and early recordings.

Adria Petty, the oldest daughter of the late Tom Petty, says that “my dad used music to raise me.” Tom Petty also intervened when he felt his daughter was on the wrong path.

Adria describes their listening sessions as a kind of father-daughter master class. “My dad would always walk in the room and throw a CD on the bed, a piece of vinyl on the bed, ‘Tell me what you think of this,’” says Petty, who helped curate the new Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ Origins 1971-78, in an interview with UCR.

Read More: Every Tom Petty Album Closing Song Ranked

“We would sit down after I listened to it a lot and discuss it, and I would listen to every record with my liner notes out, look at all the lyrics, look at who played on it, look at everything the artist intended, and then talk about it with him.”

Petty recalls that they shared a lasting love of music and often discussed what made a piece of music good. Her father and daughter did not always agree, however: “There were a lot of things I liked in my teens that he was really upset by,” Petty says.

One example was Aerosmith’s Pump. When Adria listened to “Janie’s Got a Gun,” Tom Petty felt he needed to intervene and bought her records by the Jimi Hendrix Experience and Bob Dylan, including Highway 61 Revisited. Petty says he wanted her to hear what he considered essential music.

How did Tom Petty’s record recommendations shape Adria’s archive work?

Tom Petty’s approach to listening helped inform Adria’s work selecting and presenting his recordings. She now serves as a principal of Petty Legacy LLC, which she established with her sister Annakim and stepmother Dana Petty in 2019 to manage Tom Petty’s catalog and copyrights.

Petty Legacy LLC manages Tom Petty’s catalog and copyrights, while Adria Petty has helped curate and co-produce archival releases.

Those projects include An American Treasure in 2018, The Best of Everything in 2019, Wildflowers & All the Rest in 2020 and Live at the Fillmore 1997 in 2022, along with other releases.

What is included in Origins 1971-78?

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ Origins 1971-78 celebrates the band’s first two albums and the path that led to them. Adria worked on the box set with longtime engineer Ryan Ulyate and managers Will Botwin and Scott Greer.

Origins 1971-78 includes remastered versions of the band’s first album and 1978’s You’re Gonna Get It!, with extended versions of several tracks and live audio and video performances.

The box set’s centerpiece is No Sleep Til L.A., a selection of early recordings by Tom Petty, Mudcrutch and the Heartbreakers. Some tracks are new mixes of songs previously included on the 1995 compilation Playback.

The set also includes The Cut Out Bin, an EP of five songs Tom Petty recorded on his own before joining the Heartbreakers. No Sleep Til L.A. is also available separately on vinyl and CD.

How does No Sleep Til L.A. connect the Whisky and the Troubadour?

Adria Petty sequenced No Sleep Til L.A. around two Los Angeles venues: the Whisky A Go Go and the Troubadour. Side A leans toward new wave and punk, while Side B takes a country-rock direction associated with the Troubadour.

Side A reflects the Whisky’s new wave and punk edge, while Side B shifts to a country-rock, Laurel Canyon and Troubadour atmosphere.

“We sequenced No Sleep…thinking two things,” Petty says. “One side is the Troubadour, the other side the Whisky (A Go Go). So Side A is the Whisky, a little more New Wave edge, punk. Then we go into a country-rock, Laurel Canyon, Troubadour vibe on side two.”

How were the unreleased recordings selected?

The unreleased recordings came from a much larger group of songs that Ryan Ulyate found in the vaults. Adria says she is confident about choosing which recordings her father would have wanted released and which should remain unheard.

Adria Petty says she selects archival material with the quality of the recordings in mind and does not want listeners to encounter songs she considers unsuitable for release.

The surviving Heartbreakers, particularly Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench, were also consulted on Origins. Tench praised Adria’s curation and said he appreciated being consulted and heard during the process.

“Adria has been wonderful with curating the estate; I think she’s doing a fantastic job, as is (Ulyate), just terrific,” Tench tells UCR. “They’re pretty much hitting it out of the park, and I appreciate the fact I’m consulted and I’m heard…and I’m glad people are getting to hear how we got to what we sounded like on those first two records.”