A guitarist and founding member of Tom Petty’s first band, Mudcrutch, Tom Leadon has passed away at the age of 70 years old. His brother, Mark Leadon posted to Facebook, “It is with great sadness, but profound love and gratitude for his life, that the family of Tom Leadon … announce his passing on March 22, 2023, peacefully of natural causes.”
While Heartbreakers guitarist and Mudcrutch co-founder Mike Campbell posted to Twitter, “Tom Leadon was my deepest guitar soul brother, we spent countless hours playing acoustic guitars and teaching each other things, A kinder soul never walked the earth. I will always miss his spirit and generosity. Sleep peacefully, my old friend.”
Leadon was born in Rosemount, Minnesota, but moved to San Diego at the age of four. They then moved again in 1964 to Gainesville, Florida, Petty’s hometown. There Leadon and Petty met in th elocal band the Epics. With Leadon later saying that, “I was fascinated with Petty, he always fascinated me, I thought he was very entertaining and very talented in his own way, I started hanging around with the Epics and would work the lights for them, and after a couple months they asked me to join, and Tom told me later he was pushing for that. He felt he needed a good musician, someone who could really play guitar, and I was only 14.”
The Epics eventually transformed into Mudcrutch with Leadon and Campbell on guitar, Petty on bass, drummer Randall Marsh and singer Jim Lenehan. They released one locally sold single, “Up In Mississippi,” with a B-side of “Cause Is Understood” in 1971. Leadon decided to leave the band in 1972 and moved to California, where him and his brother Bernie formed Eagles.
Leadon also played for Linda Ronstadt and in 1975 Eagles include done of his tracks, “Hollywood Waltz,” on One of These Nights. With Leadon later saying, “It helped a lot and was a real education in the music business, I learned about publishing and how people can rip off your publishing, and I didn’t get all the money I was supposed to get but I did get a lot of it. I’m grateful to my brother for that.”
Back in 1976, Leadon was part of the band Silver, and in 2007 made his way back to reuniting with Mudcrutch and recording two albums, Mudcrutch (2008) and Mudcrutch 2 (2016), with both making the Top 10.
On top of that, Leadon was a guitar teacher in Nashville and played with his band t he Bayjacks. After the death of Petty, in 2017, Leadon released a tribute to Petty titled, “My Best Old Friend.”
Leadon once stated, “We grew up in San Diego, but there was more of a music scene in Gainesville, more of a band scene, It was a rich culture for music. At the time I didn’t realize it as much … but Gainesville was a really special place to be. “
His brother Mark added on Facebook, “Tom had a friendly and outgoing personality and sharp wit, He was a great and very funny storyteller. Tom loved his family, close friends and all of the Mudcrutch, Tom Petty and Bayjacks fans. He enjoyed meeting and talking with all of you. Thank you for helping to make his last years great ones. He was greatly loved and will be greatly missed.”
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