Tom Leadon ( ; September 16, 1952 – March 22, 2023) was an American musician. He was one of the founding members of
Tom Petty
Thomas Earl Petty (October 20, 1950October 2, 2017) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician. He was the leader and frontman of the Rock music, rock bands Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Mudcrutch and a member of the late 1980s sup ...
's original band,
Mudcrutch, and remained its guitarist following its revival in 2007. He was the brother of
Bernie Leadon, the former banjoist and guitarist of the
Eagles
Eagle is the common name for the golden eagle, bald eagle, and other birds of prey in the family of the Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of Genus, genera, some of which are closely related. True eagles comprise the genus ''Aquila ( ...
.
Biography
In high school, Leadon was a member of the Epics in
Gainesville, Florida
Gainesville is the county seat of Alachua County, Florida, United States, and the most populous city in North Central Florida, with a population of 145,212 in 2022. It is the principal city of the Gainesville metropolitan area, Florida, Gainesv ...
, where he met Petty. Leadon was the lead
guitarist
A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselve ...
and Petty played
bass
Bass or Basses may refer to:
Fish
* Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species
Wood
* Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree
Music
* Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...
. Soon after forming Mudcrutch, with Randall Marsh on drums, the group added a second lead guitarist, Mike Campbell. Leadon and Campbell shared lead guitar solos during Mudcrutch's live shows in and around Gainesville, and also on their recording of "Up in Mississippi".
Leadon left Mudcrutch in 1972
and moved to
Los Angeles
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
, following in the footsteps of his older brother Bernie, who had recently formed the Eagles with
Randy Meisner,
Glenn Frey
Glenn Lewis Frey (; November 6, 1948 – January 18, 2016) was an American musician. He was a founding member of the rock band Eagles, for whom he was the co-lead singer and frontman, roles he came to share with fellow member Don Henley, with ...
, and
Don Henley. Leadon also played bass in
Linda Ronstadt
Linda Maria Ronstadt (born July 15, 1946) is an American singer who has performed and recorded in diverse genres including rock, country, light opera, the Great American Songbook, and Latin music.
Ronstadt has earned 11 Grammy Awards, three A ...
's band, and in 1976 joined the country-rock band
Silver
Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...
, which had a
top 40
In the music industry, the Top 40 is a list of the 40 currently most popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "To ...
hit the same year with "Wham-Bam".
In 1975, the Eagles recorded one of Leadon's original songs, "Hollywood Waltz", and released it on their ''
One of These Nights'' LP. The final version of the song is credited to Tom Leadon, Bernie Leadon, Frey, and Henley. Later that year
Buck Owens
Alvis Edgar "Buck" Owens Jr. (August 12, 1929 – March 25, 2006) was an American musician, singer, and songwriter. He was the frontman for The Buckaroos, which had 21 No. 1 hits on the ''Billboard'' country music chart. He pioneered what came ...
released his own version.
Leadon later became a guitar teacher in
Nashville
Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...
.
In 2007, Petty reformed Mudcrutch, which had broken up in 1975. The band recorded a
self-titled debut album in 2008. Recording personnel included original band members: Petty, Leadon,
Mike Campbell, and Randall Marsh. Also in this version of Mudcrutch was
Benmont Tench
Benjamin Montmorency "Benmont" Tench III (born September 7, 1953) is an American musician and singer, and a founding member of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
Early years
Tench was born in Gainesville, Florida, the second child of Benjamin M ...
, who had been originally brought into the band when Leadon left in 1972.
The band went on to continue being intermittently active with touring, and recording a live album and a follow-up to their debut with ''
Mudcrutch 2'', in 2016. Petty died in 2017, bringing Mudcrutch's operations to a close.
In a biography, ''Conversations with Tom Petty'', Petty credits Leadon with inspiring him to move to L.A. to try to make it as a musician.
Leadon died on March 22, 2023, at the age of 70.
Tom Leadon, Mudcrutch Co-Founder, Dead at 70
/ref>
References
1952 births
2023 deaths
Guitarists from Florida
Guitarists from Minnesota
Mudcrutch members
20th-century American guitarists
People from Rosemount, Minnesota
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