In 1977 Jon Scott was working in promotion for MCA Records. He was all-in, spreading the word on a young artist called Johnny Cougar. But the record company saw this as a waste of time and resources and relieved Scott of his services. (Cougar, of course, continues to record and perform to this day as John Mellencamp.)
Scott eventually was hired by ABC Records, where he found an untitled white-label promo album in the closet of his new office. The music he heard on that album stirred him. Scott found out the LP had been released eight months earlier and was dead in the water as far as the record company was concerned. It was Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers’ debut album
Subtitled My Rock ‘n’ Roll Adventures with Tom Petty, Scott’s book is the story of not only his ear for talent but also his tenacity. His boss at ABC gave him six weeks to break the album with airplay across major radio markets. The rest is history. A kindred Southerner, Scott became part of Petty’s trusted inner circle and remained there until the singer’s untimely death in 2017. Filled with anecdotes and first-person accounts of Petty’s career in evolution, the book also offers an insider view of how the music industry, radio and record companies functioned four decades ago.
