Tom Petty Accidentally Made His Record Label Report Him to the FBI

Tom Petty and his record label had a fraught relationship. Petty was a consistently successful musician who put out high-selling albums, but he felt that his label didn’t treat him as such. They fought about album pricing, titles, and contracts. His label even called the FBI because of Petty’s actions, but he wasn’t acting maliciously. Petty and his manager were updating the record executives about the change in his album’s title, and they believed they were receiving threats. 

Tom Petty | Michael Putland/Getty Images Tom Petty and his record label didn’t always get along

When Petty signed with his record label, he was young and didn’t fully understand the music industry. Because of this, he didn’t feel that the contract was favorable for his band. After he began to achieve success, he attempted to renegotiate his contract.

“I told all the lawyers that I had made a living a long time before I made records, and if I couldn’t get a fair deal, I just wouldn’t record anymore,” he told Rolling Stone in 1978. “I meant it. I was fed up. We were being treated like we were stupid. We are not stupid.”

At first, record executives didn’t want to give Petty what he wanted. So, he resorted to a new negotiation tactic.

“I took a switchblade out of my boot and started admiring the edge,” he said. “Then we made headway.”

Tom Petty sent letters to his record label, and they reported him to the FBI

When Petty and the Heartbreakers began working on their second album, they called it Terminal Romance because “it was a real rocky romance year.”. At the last minute, though, the band decided to rename the album. It became You’re Gonna Get It! just ahead of its 1978 release.

Rather than just telling his label about the title change, Petty and his manager, Tony Dimitriades, decided to put it in writing. They anonymously mailed pieces of paper with the words “You’re Gonna Get It!” written on them. With no context, it looked like a series of threats.

Several days later, Dimitriades called the label to see what they thought of the change. They informed him that they had called in the FBI to investigate the anonymous notes. 

The musician later signed with a different label

In the following years, Petty and his label continued to endure a rocky relationship. Things came to a head, though, when they rejected his debut solo album, Full Moon Fever. 

“When my record company rejected Full Moon Fever, I was hurt so bad,” he told Esquire. “I was pretty far along in my career at that point. I’d never had anything rejected; I’d never really even had a comment. So when that happened, it was really just a board to the forehead.”

He still believed in the album’s merit, as did those close to him. His friend George Harrison urged Petty to play one of the album’s songs, “Free Fallin’” at a dinner party. In attendance were executives from Warner Bros. Records.

They were so impressed with the song that they offered to secretly sign Petty. While he still had to put out a few more songs with his original label, he switched to Warner Bros. for the release of his 1994 album, Wildflowers.

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