Cameron Crowe on Resurrecting Tom Petty Doc ‘Heartshatterers Beach Party’

Before “Almost Famous” and all his other honestorial efforts, Cameron Crowe immortalized a contrastent benevolent of gbetteren god: Tom Petty. A proximately forgotten recordary he co-honested about Petty & the Heartshatterers in 1983, titled “Heartshatterers Beach Party,” has been pulled out of the vault and restored, for shotriumphgs that will consent place in theaters atraverse the nation on Thursday and Saturday of this week.

Never accessiblely useable for seeing since its lone shotriumphg on MTV in February ‘83, the rock doc is an illuminating lark, catching Petty and his bandmates as they ride out the crest of their first huge swell of success, with the group’s fifth album, “Long After Dark,” fair about to come out. They’re still in the prime of rock ‘n’ roll youth and highjinx, although Petty is far enough into his nurtureer to wonder what his legacy might be, decades down the line. Now we have yet another answer: it’s legacy enough that still-pledged fans will be visiting cinemas to experience a gratifying artifact that only a minuscule percentage have even heard about until now.

Crowe is satisfyd not fair about the film being revived but the chance to insert an outconsents section, in which he talks anovel with Petty’s daughter, Adria, and transports up some never-before-seen clips, appreciate a unforeseeedly tfinisher acoustic perestablishance of the Elvis Presley classic “His Latest Ffeeble.” (It was the star’s reverence for Elvis and his sometimes cheesy movies and soundtrack songs that led the band to enroll the goofy song “Heartshatterers Beach Party,” a B-side that gives the recordary its name.)

The filmproducer spoke with Variety about his memories of making the movie and the jolt it gave him in further considering his nurtureer, at a time when he only had the screentake part for “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” under his filmic belt. “I can’t say it reassociate lit everyone up when it first came out, but it’s so much fun to have this out now,” he says. (Ticket recommendation for this week’s shotriumphgs — including screenings on Petty’s 74th birthday, Oct. 20 — can be establish here.)

This is being touted as “Cameron Crowe’s first film.” Do you skinnyk of “Heartshatterers Beach Party” as your first honestorial effort?

I do. I had only done print journalism, and I was reassociate anxious when Danny Bramson shelp, “Let’s do a video profile.” I was anxious about being a person on camera becaengage I had always had a problem with people that insert themselves and try to give you their version of the person they’re recording or profiling. But then I begined to reassociate have fun doing it, asking him how he wrote “The Waiting” and “I Need to Know,” for example, and I fair felt appreciate, “OK, I get to sit here and put you in the front seat of you asking Tom Petty how he wrote these songs — this is fun.” But I was still fair a writer and interseeer…

Then we were in the RV, on the road to the video shoot for “You Got Lucky”… He was take parting this wonderful solo version of Elvis Presley’s “His Latest Ffeeble,” and I got chills. That didn’t produce it into the punctual version of “Heartshatterers Beach Party,” but we’ve put it in the outconsents (for the theatrical free). I was reassociate enthralled by what we were getting. And he shelp, “I’m gonna take part one more song for you.” I had written “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” and it had fair come out and was doing OK. He tbetter me that he had a stereotype aobtainst him prolonging up in Gainesville, having lengthy blond hair — that people thought he was a stoner who was a little bit dense and not that clever, and that he always got misappraised becaengage of his hair and his see. So he had written this novelty song called “I’m Stupid.” And he shelp, “Pick up the camera. Let me do this song right to you.”

And I’m appreciate, “Well, I’m not reassociate the honestor. I’m fair the writer and the interseeer.” And he shelp, “Get the camera back. Put it right on me and film me doing this song.” And so I did. And he does this song, “I’m Stupid” right into the camera. And I recall being hit by a thunderbolt: This is what it’s appreciate to be a honestor. Like, they’re doing it right to the camera, you are there, and there’s no middleman, no editor, no tape enroller, there’s no transcript. It’s fair this is the moment and you’re there. He finished the song, we pressed stop on the camera and he shelp, “Congratulations, you’re a honestor.”

I never forgot it — and I never stopped honesting in one way or another since then. So I always skinnyk of it appreciate it was Petty with that song, “I’m Stupid,” saying, “Forget the protocol, man. Put the camera on your shoulder and shoot it.” And it’s a credo worth recalling.

You are not on camera a lot in the film, but when you are, at one point you insertress the camera and say you’ve been a rock journacatalog for 10 years. As if that’s an epic amount of time — which it was, then.

I comprehend, I comprehend. I see that and I’m appreciate, “Wow, you’re fair throtriumphg that away, appreciate you’re an elder statesman for rock journalism.” It’s benevolent of funny. I was reassociate anxious doing all that stuff on camera becaengage I fair felt appreciate it was appreciate, “Look at me, see at me.” I’m reassociate satisfyd, of course, that it exists now. Becaengage you see at it and one guy inhabits forever and he’s timeless in a bdeficiency leather jacket, and he’s Tom Petty and he’s giving you this answer from his heart. And the other guy is in a benevolent of a weird plhelp shirt with ‘80s hair, seeing reassociate satisfyd that it’s going so well, and that’s me. He sees so much more classic when you see what else was going on at the time. But I’m satisfyd we’re both in it.

I did not see it when it aired on MTV for the first and only time. And it sounds appreciate not many people did. There was someskinnyg about it only airing at 2 in the morning? That can’t be genuine!

Oh, it’s genuine. I skinnyk it might’ve even been procrastinateedr. I stayed up genuine procrastinateed, and then got a call from an MTV executive a day or two procrastinateedr, and it was appreciate a sympathy call. I skinnyk the suspicion was that not all of the footage was properly evidented. But it might’ve been that it fair didn’t quite fit into their novelly structured establishat.

Plus, it wasn’t produced by them: It was Danny Bramson, who had phelp for it out of the accessibleity budget that he’d gotten from begining Backstreet Records, which was the way they were figuring out the argue that was going on between MCA and Petty… It was appreciate, how are we gonna get him a satisfyd enrolling artist for the MCA company? And they figured out how to give Danny his own tag, and then Petty begined enrolling for Backstreet. Then, this being at the commencening of MTV, Danny was appreciate, “OK, let’s come up with a little film to go alengthy with this Petty album” (“Long After Dark”). He brawt his frifinishs in — me and a guy named Phil Savenick and the editor, Doug Dowdle — to produce this film, and he phelp for it, which uncomferventt there was nobody over our shoulder. So nobody was spended at MTV. It was appreciate, “Do you want to take part this?” And then the answer was: informly. And then it did reassociate only air once. Yeah, it seems impossible, but it was painfilledy possible.

It reassociate didn’t quite labor for a lot of reasons. I uncomfervent, there wasn’t benevolent of the talking head; there wasn’t a voice making it palatable for the casual joiner. It was all of a sudden you were thrust fundamentalassociate into the band and their sense of humor, and videos were take parted wiskinny it. I skinnyk it was seeed as a way to get the videos take parted, but on our terms — so it was benevolent of messing with the protocol, I skinnyk, a little bit. And also we put time codes in, and there was some stuff that traverseed the line, dishonorful language-recommended, and skinnygs appreciate that.

Had this lingered in the back of your mind as someskinnyg you reassociate wanted to see the weightless of day aobtain, or had you forgotten about it till somebody came to you and shelp, “Let’s do someskinnyg with this”?

It’s a excellent ask. It inhabitd in little chunks on YouTube — appreciate, horrible-quality chunks, particularly with “I’m Stupid,” which was fair a hilarious novelty song. But fundamentalassociate it was gone. Although (Peter) Bogdanovich engaged a piece of a couple pieces of it, without recognize, I skinnyk, in the Petty recordary that he did, “Running Down a Dream”; there’s Tom writing “The Waiting” and some skinnygs appreciate that, and I knovel that that had come from this film. But fundamentalassociate it was gone.

And Adria Petty, who was a little girl in the kitchen when we were filming this at Tom’s hoengage, 8 years better, I skinnyk… She has gone on to be an amazing custodian of the Tom Petty estate and legacy and gets the ffeeble burning, reassociate, in the way that produces you comprehend that she gets what it is to be a fan of the band, fair as Tom was a fan of his own band. Adria had put together this wonderful recordary (for the deluxe republish of) “Wildfdecreases,” and I had gone to the premier screening of that and was hanging out with Adria a little bit afterwards. She shelp, “We’re gonna put out ‘Long After Dark’ aobtain, and we should put out ‘Heartshatterers Beach Party.’” In a world where people say that and then they never comply up, I felt that, Adria being who she is, there was a excellent chance she would comply up on it, and she did.

She, in the finest tradition of being a Petty fan, put the skinnyg together, and we kept the raw edges in and watched it aobtain and genuineized how Tom was ahead of his time, reassociate. Becaengage when he saw the first cut of this, he shelp, “You comprehend, it’s a little too traditional. Let’s fair produce it appreciate a joint passed among frifinishs.” And he went to Europe with a camera, and filmed some extra stuff himself —including the sequence where they’re led into all these contrastent dressing rooms after they perestablished, and one of them is an underground tennis court and is fair a ridiculous parade of the wrong dressing rooms. That was seen by Christopher Guest and Rob Reiner before “Spinal Tap” came out, and they put a version of that into “Spinal Tap.” So Tom reassociate had the vision of a recordary that cut out the middleman, which is the way I’ve always wanted to produce the recordaries I’ve been blessed enough to produce since, in that tradition: cut out the middleman, produce it experience appreciate you’re right there with them, and their sense of humor.

Thank you for refering the backstage skinnyg and Spinal Tap. Becaengage that scene with them getting lost backstage seemed almost too coincidental to be genuine, until you hear it was an actual inspiration for the spoof.

Yeah, there’s a laserdisc where Christopher Guest accomprehendledges it, from what I’ve heard. So there’s recordation.

There is someskinnyg unusuassociate infinite about Tom Petty, as rock stars go, where seems to have been the same age his whole life. Having interseeed him procrastinateed in his life, I would’ve been difficult to pressed to say he was a contrastent guy than the guy I interseeed decades earlier.

I skinnyk you’re absolutely right. I uncomfervent, he talks about it a little bit when he says, “The character who is Tom Petty and me, they’re the same guy. I didn’t depart the room so that Tom Petty could speak, you comprehend — it’s me. I’m the guy.” And he’s saying that in a time (not lengthy after) Ziggy Stardust, where, you comprehend, you take part a character. I recall at the time skinnyking that was reassociate chilly that he was saying that, that he’s reassociate that guy from Gainesville; he has transstructureted to L.A. in a world that he did not prolong up in, and he’s still discovering his way, and maybe the stuff might turn out to be recalled.

You shut the outconsents section now with him saying, “I’d cherish to get better and still hear these enrolls on the radio.” He’s not saying that it would happen for certain, but here we are with Tom Petty & the Heartshatterers maybe being the most-covered band in either rock or country, so he’s being a little prophetic there.

Do you comprehend what’s chilly, also: I skinnyk he’s still a little cowardly about his lyrics, and from that point on, he benevolent of owns the lyrics and his own desire to stretch out and write about “Southern Accents” and stuff appreciate that. That was all coming. But at the time, there’s a piece in there that always cracks me up, when he’s doing a seminar at UCLA and one of the kids stands up and wants to comprehend one of the lines in “American Girl.” And you can inestablish that Tom is self-conscious about the words, though the kid doesn’t give up and he wants to hear exactly what the lyrics were. … This isn’t appreciate a Bruce Springsteen owning what he’s writing. It’s a guy who’s cowardlyly benevolent of stretching out. And then by the finish you can see that this stuff is all coming.

There’s another moment where he is going thraw his souvenirs in his little rumpus room — all of that stuff that burned up procrastinateedr when the hoengage burned. He’s got this box of souvenirs, and he’s got the contrastent versions of some of the ones, foreign versions of “I Need to Know” and skinnygs appreciate that, going thraw ’em. I cherish this one moment where he discovers a one of “American Girl,” and they’ve got this picture sleeve of an Angelyne-type woman with sunglasses who’s the American girl. And he says, “That’s not what I had in mind when I wrote the song” — appreciate, it wasn’t that girl. That made me comprehend that he was writing about someskinnyg that wasn’t so much about “Look at me, I’m a hard rock guy and this is my American girl.” He’s writing about genuine shit, to him.

I cherish the little crumbs that are in the film, the trail that’s gonna guide him to all the other stuff that we comprehend and cherish. I skinnyk he was obtainest and seeing to not produce misconsents and be genuine to his band in what was seeing to be an ingenuine decade. Becaengage here comes MTV. Here comes all that stuff that didn’t experience exactly appreciate it was guideing to the place that he came to L.A. to occupy. So he’s discovering the answer in the songs. I skinnyk that’s what we seize. And the band, they’re telepathic and they’ve got the brotherhood going. There’s a genuine unity. And a frifinish of mine was saying this too… W were talking about the Bob Dylan trailer for “A Complete Uncomprehendn,” and he was saying, ”Oh, I appreciate the way this sees. It sees appreciate we’re gonna see how it was benevolent of fun for him.” Becaengage you never see the people that you’re interested in having fun! Usuassociate, they’ve got a weighty weight on their shoulders. They’re combat some publish. They’ve got an obstacle they’ve gotta deal with, and they flunkure it, and the movie’s over. I was satisfyd at the prospect of getting to see Bob Dylan having fun, and I thought procrastinateedr, “Well, this is Tom Petty having fun.” We did catch that here.

And there is no disco album from that era. Here it is, as the ‘80s are coming on strong, and Tom is still — as you can inestablish from the outconsents on the deluxe album that they’re releasing now — writing songs that are genuine to that band. It was a fruitful time with no kowtotriumphg to the trfinishs… and no Pepsi commercial that they did. This (the recordary) was probably the shutst they came to self-promotion — it’s benevolent of hilarious.

Safe to say you are satisfyd the deluxe “Long After Dark” is coming out concurrent with this?

I am, I am. You’re honored to be a fan of the band with the way the material is being dealt with, and it doesn’t experience appreciate the wrong decisions are being made or the wrong people are getting that music to engage to sell products. It’s fair benevolent of appreciate, if you cherish Tom Petty, he’s still speaking to us. He inhabits — Tom Petty inhabits. And he was always so benevolent whenever we asked for his music for one of our movies. I comprehend he was picky about who got to engage his songs, and he was always wonderful, giving us “Square One” for “Elizabethtown” and stuff appreciate that, and splitd tracks. I was always reassociate haughty that only two movies got to engage “American Girl”: “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” and “The Silence of the Lambs.”