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Formed in Gainesville, FL, in 1970,
Mudcrutch were essentially a precursor to
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, with a then 17-year-old
Tom Petty on bass,
Mike Campbell and
Tom Leadon (the brother of ex-
Eagle Bernie Leadon) on guitars,
Benmont Tench on keyboards, and
Randall Marsh on drums. Popular on the Florida bar circuit,
Mudcrutch relocated to L.A. in 1974 and was offered a recording contract from
Leon Russell and
Denny Cordell's Shelter Records, but the band splintered before any significant recording was completed, although
Petty remained under contract to Shelter as a solo artist. In time, the band drifted back together, this time with
Petty and
Campbell on guitars,
Tench on keyboards, and a rhythm section of
Ron Blair on bass and
Stan Lynch on drums. Calling themselves
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, they assumed
Petty's solo contract with Shelter Records and released the self-titled
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers LP on the label in 1976. The rest, as they say, is history. In the summer of 2007,
Petty,
Campbell,
Tench,
Leadon, and
Marsh reunited as
Mudcrutch and recorded an album, the self-titled
Mudcrutch, which was released a year later in 2008 on Reprise Records. The band followed the album with a limited tour. The EP
Mudcrutch Extended Play Live was also released in 2008, featuring four songs done in concert performance.
Mudcrutch reconvened in 2015 to begin work on a second album. The resulting
2 appeared in May of 2016. ~ Steve Leggett