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"Tom Petty called the Rolling Stones &amp;quot;my punk music&amp;quot; during an interview with CBC, crediting the British rockers with convincing him &amp;#x2014; and thousands of other aspiring American musicians at the time &amp;#x2014; that they could make rock and roll music. &amp;quot;They were grittier [than the Beatles]; it was rawer,&amp;quot; Petty recalled. &amp;quot;They were playing blues in this really energetic kind of raw way, but it wasn&amp;apos;t complicated. There wasn&amp;apos;t a lot of beautiful harmony involved.&amp;quot;\r\n&amp;apos;Rolling Stone&amp;apos; Readers Pick the 10 best Tom Petty Songs\r\nPetty touched on the Stones while speaking about his early musical influences and how attainable they made playing in a rock and roll band seem. Calling Elvis Presley the &amp;quot;American dream,&amp;quot; Petty didn&amp;apos;t believe he, or anyone else, could ever recreate or live up to what Presley had achieved. It was the Beatles who started to make things seem a bit more realistic.\r\n&amp;quot;These people look like they&amp;apos;re self-contained,&amp;quot; Petty said of his initial impressions of the Fab Four. &amp;quot;They&amp;apos;re making music that they wrote themselves and their music is all their own. They&amp;apos;re playing it, they look like they&amp;apos;re really good friends and they&amp;apos;re having a lot of fun &amp;#x2014; and I&amp;apos;ll bet they&amp;apos;re not worried about bread, either. Of course, they were so absolutely genius even in &amp;apos;64 that it seemed really hard to ever reach that kind of musicianship.&amp;quot; But with the Stones, Petty said, &amp;quot;It was like, &amp;apos;That can be done.&amp;apos;&amp;quot;\r\nIn a different segment, Petty touched on the world of popular music today, noting the ineffable nature of what he called &amp;quot;plastic computer music&amp;quot; &amp;#x2014; though, he mentioned, &amp;quot;Nothing was any worse than corporate rock.&amp;quot; And at the end of the day, Petty added, what matters most to the listener is not how it&amp;apos;s made, &amp;quot;but what they&amp;apos;re hearing.&amp;quot;\r\nAs far as achieving that rock star dream in 2014, Petty said he thought fame seemed more fleeting and temporary these days in the age of reality singing shows. &amp;quot;If they had tried to offer my generation someone that had won a game show, it would&amp;apos;ve been hysterical, you would&amp;apos;ve been laughed out of the room,&amp;quot; Petty said. &amp;quot;We were suspicious of people that had hit records, it was that different a time.&amp;quot;\r\nAs for his own music, Petty and the Heartbreakers are prepping for the July 29th release of&amp;#xA0;Hypnotic Eye, their first full-length since 2010&amp;apos;s Mojo. The band has been working on the record for nearly three years at Petty&amp;apos;s home studio in Malibu, and at their Los Angeles rehearsal space, the Clubhouse. You can hear a handful of album cuts now, including&amp;#xA0;&amp;quot;American Dream Plan B,&amp;quot; &amp;quot;U Get Me High&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;Red River.&amp;quot;\r\nFollowing the album&amp;apos;s release, Petty and the Heartbreakers will hit the road for a&amp;#xA0;massive American arena tour, starting August 3rd in San Diego. The trek also includes headlining sets at the&amp;#xA0;Outside Lands Festival&amp;#xA0;in San Francisco and at the&amp;#xA0;Lockn&amp;apos; Festival&amp;#xA0;in the Blue Ridge mountains in Central Virginia."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/tom-petty-rolling-stones-were-my-punk-music-20140717>