I met Tom Petty just before the release of his debut album. He was visiting San Francisco from Gainesville and the record company couldn't drum anyone else to meet him but my friend Michael and I. They were lucky. His album came out and it died a brutal death-- everywhere but in San Francisco. It was a smash on KSAN, where I worked. We got our listeners to sign petitions begging his label's executives to re-release it. They did. The first gold record I ever got was from Tom, although it was for his second album. This is the song that broke him, at least on my station-- at a time when he was thought of as part of the new wave thing. (The first live show I ever saw him do was opening for Blondie at the Whiskey in L.A.)