Trail Stops

2202 NE 9th St, Gainesville, FL 32609

https://maps.app.goo.gl/kRg1K39fUZgvPqjq6 

    Robert Crawford was the eldest member of the Sundowners, the first band to which Tom Petty belonged. As such, he was the most seasoned musician. Keith Harben, Petty’s childhood friend from his neighborhood who served as the band manager, noted to me the influence that Crawford had on Petty as a musician. Because Crawford, who played guitar, was several years older than Petty, who played bass, and therefore more experienced instrumentally, he musically mentored Tom.

   “Robert Crawford was the most inspirational person in Tom’s life, musically,” Harben said.

    In a discussion thread on a Facebook group called Gainesville Rock History, which is administered by Marty Jourard, a seasoned Gainesville musician who went on to become a member of the Motels along with his brother, Jeff, Keith Harben and Marty Jourard both sung the praises of Robert Crawford. Harben wrote that Crawford was “the guy that really taught Tom Petty to play the guitar!” Jourard wrote about him: “He taught my brother how to play ‘Time Of The Season’ by the Zombies. Crawford was the guy.”

    Gary McMillan, who would later join the band, told me through email that the Sundowners had “one of the best guitarists from Gainesville EVER, Robert Crawford,” adding, “I mean, Robert was REALLY good. Keith says Robert is the man that taught Tom how to play the guitar. I agree.”

    To learn about the origin story of the Sundowners, read the descriptions for the trail stops of Petty’s childhood home and Howard Bishop Middle School, found in the Childhood Years section of the website, found here: https://tompettytrail.com/childhood-years 

    To learn more about some of the places where the Sundowners performed, including the Moose Club where they won the Battle of the Bands contest, go to the Teen+ Years section of the website, found here: https://tompettytrail.com/teen%2B-years

    Thank you to Keith Harben for driving me around Gainesville in March 2025 to point out these homes to me.

Should you go here, remember that this is a private home located in a residential neighborhood, so must be treated with respect for the property owner and neighbors. This includes not trespassing on private property! 

Photo by Shawn Murphy

3242 NW 5th St, Gainesville, FL 32609 

https://maps.app.goo.gl/sGSut6Lp1ug3QoS49 

    Dennis Lee was the drummer for the Sundowners, the first band to which Tom Petty belonged. While his skills were certainly required for a rock ‘n’ roll band composed of teenagers, so were the skills of his mother.

    After the Sundowners had formed in the living room of the Petty family home (1715 NE 6th Terrace), the first official practice session was held here at the Lee house, but after neighbors complained about the noise, future practices were held at the Petty house, according to Keith Harben, the band’s manager. The Sundowners practiced in the Petty backyard in a wooden warehouse attached to their house, which was empty at the time. Dennis Lee’s family donated unused carpet that was then attached to the walls for soundproofing. 

    The band would eventually perform at high schools and university fraternity houses – driven there by Mrs. Lee, as everyone called her. 

    “The Sundowners went to a number of places where they were paid to play, but we were still too young to drive, so Dennis Lee’s mother had a station wagon and little trailer,” Harben recounted for the audience at Heartwood Soundstage in 2019 for Tom Petty Weekend. 

    Harben explained that she drove them to their shows, he set up their equipment, the band would perform, he would then haul the equipment back to the wagon and trailer, and she would drive everyone home.

    Moreover, for each of the four original band members, she also sewed stage outfits: pink jackets with ruffled white shirts and tight black pants – British Invasion-style. And Tom Petty acquired from a Jacksonville wig store a blonde wig that resembled the Beatles’ haircuts at the time, which he briefly wore on stage at a concert at the Alpha Pi Epsilon fraternity house (14 Fraternity Dr.) along with the pink jacket that Mrs. Lee had made.

    In 1966, the Sundowners had been hired to play a social at the Delta Upsilon fraternity house (1814 W. University Ave.). But while setting up equipment during the day, there was a disagreement between Tom Petty and Dennis Lee, which led to a fistfight between the two. There are two accounts of what happened. One is what Tom Petty told for a 1985 “Southern Accents” documentary, which was made for MTV, when he drives by the frat house, points it out, and talks about the skirmish that he says resulted in a broken nose, and was caused by an unprovoked assault by Dennis Lee. Petty also talked about this with Warren Zanes for his 2015 book Petty: The Biography.

“Dennis Lee, the drummer, is yelling at me as we load gear out of my house,” Zanes reports Petty told him. “He was a bossy guy, ordering me around. Earl (Tom’s father) leans out the window, says to me, ‘Don’t take that shit from him. You don’t have to be talked to like that.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, I know.’ We got to the gig, and it keeps going. Dennis is just on my ass, laying down the law. And he hit my rage button. I said, ‘Give me any more shit, and I’m going to leave.’ He says, ‘I’d like to see that happen. I’d kick your ass.’ So I just turned to one of my buddies who was with me, and told him to help me load my gear out. This is the way you are when you’re fifteen. I get my amp and stuff loaded out, turn around, there’s a fist in my face. My own drummer beat the living shit out of me. Beat me badly. The frat guys just stood around in a circle, cheering it on. I remember my mother crying all night because I was so fucked up. That was kind of the end of me working with Dennis Lee,” (pg. 37).

    The other account is what Keith Harben has told me and also recounted for the audience at Heartwood Soundstage in 2019 for Tom Petty Weekend. Keith, who, as the band manager who helped transport equipment and set up, was there to witness what unfolded. He said there was a disagreement between the two of them with the end result being that Dennis was on top of Tom and punching him – and the band broke up. 

   “Tom was a very strong-willed person, and so was Dennis (Lee),” Keith told the audience at Heartwood Soundstage in 2019. “Tom told the story that the drummer was being obnoxious, but it was Tom who was being obnoxious.”

    The Delta Upsilon show was the last time the band would perform.

    To learn about the origin story of the Sundowners, read the descriptions for the trail stops of Petty’s childhood home and Howard Bishop Middle School, found in the Childhood Years section of the website, found here: https://tompettytrail.com/childhood-years 

    To learn more about some of the places where the Sundowners performed, including the Moose Club where they won the Battle of the Bands contest, go to the Teen+ Years section of the website, found here: https://tompettytrail.com/teen%2B-years

    Thank you to Keith Harben for driving me around Gainesville in March 2025 to point out these homes to me.

Should you go here, remember that this is a private home located in a residential neighborhood, so must be treated with respect for the property owner and neighbors. This includes not trespassing on private property! 

Photo by Shawn Murphy

2225 NE 8th St, Gainesville, FL 32609

https://maps.app.goo.gl/2oAe485sruvnZXGB7 

    While his name appears spelled as Richie Henson in the Paul Zollo book Conversation With Tom Petty, Warren Zanes’ book Petty: The Biography, Marty Jourard’s Music Everywhere: The Rock and Roll Roots of a Southern Town, and other sources, his 2011 obituary presented his name as Richy Hinson. Regardless of spelling, he was an original member of the Sundowners, the first band to which Tom Petty belonged. He played rhythm guitar in the band when it won the 1964 Battle of the Bands contest at the Moose Club (1414 NE 23rd Ave.), for which the contest prize included a contract for a standing Friday night gig throughout the summer that paid $100 to the four-member band for each show. 

    Eventually, though, Keith Harben, the band’s manager, said that his “grades were not so good, so his Dad asked him to leave the band,” which he told the audience at Heartwood Soundstage in 2019 for Tom Petty Weekend. David Mason, a peer of the same age as Harben and Petty who played keyboards, joined the band along with Gary McMillan, a friend of Keith’s, on lead vocals. 

    Richard “Richy” Bernard Hinson, Jr., died in 2011 at age 61, according to an obituary published in The Gainesville Sun via the Legacy obit website. It notes that in addition to fishing and golfing, he “loved singing and playing the guitar.” 

  Mike Boulware, a fellow Gainesville musician, wrote the following remembrance on the Legacy website: “I’d known Richy all my life, heard him play with the Sundowners, ended up owning his beloved orange Gretsch guitar...I’ll miss him...let the record note he did most of the singing in the band!”

   To read this obituary, go here:

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/gainesville/name/richard-hinson-obituary?id=20577196&fhid=4014&fbclid=IwY2xjawKF2k9leHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETFXRTcxdlRrc01mdElLSlFPAR5aMK4Xy9A8O7hUN1jp7pgisviaaTC856DqZnbBOoaIgwS3I32E3cjkmf7NpA_aem_4MmnFWTioi-XVcG6bmk-xQ 

    To learn about the origin story of the Sundowners, read the descriptions for the trail stops of Petty’s childhood home and Howard Bishop Middle School, found in the Childhood Years section of the website, found here: https://tompettytrail.com/childhood-years 

    To learn more about some of the places where the Sundowners performed, including the Moose Club where they won the Battle of the Bands contest, go to the Teen+ Years section of the website, found here: https://tompettytrail.com/teen%2B-years

    Thank you to Keith Harben for driving me around Gainesville in March 2025 to point out these homes to me.

Should you go here, remember that this is a private home located in a residential neighborhood, so must be treated with respect for the property owner and neighbors. This includes not trespassing on private property! 

Photo by Shawn Murphy

1803 SW 43rd Ave, Gainesville, FL 32608

https://maps.app.goo.gl/thRDSjUbL5PapL6Y6 

    Gary McMillan joined the Sundowners, the first band to which Tom Petty belonged, as lead singer after Richy Hinson left the band; David Mason, a keyboardist, joined at the same time. While Gary lived until age 13 at 830 NW 16th Ave., closer to the original members of the band, by the time he was asked to join the Sundowners he lived on the outskirts of town, here at 1803 SW 43rd Ave. It was Keith Harben, the band’s manager, who asked him to try out for a spot in the band.

    “I was sitting in 11th grade history class singing an old Roy Head tune called ‘Treat Her Right,’ McMillan recalled for me via email. “Keith Harben heard me and said I sounded great. I’d always liked to sing and I had memorized a few tunes from that time: a couple of Rolling Stones songs, Beatles, Kinks. Also, R&B tunes like ‘Walking the Dog’ by Rufus Thomas or ‘Big Boss Man’ by Jimmy Reed. He then tells me the Sundowners are looking for a singer and I should go with him after school to the ‘practice room’ Tommy’s Dad had made for the band at his house and audition. After school Keith drove me to Tommy’s house. The band was waiting. David Mason, a super talent, on keyboards; Dennis Lee, a very good drummer; Tommy (Petty) on bass guitar; and one of the best guitarists from Gainesville EVER, Robert Crawford. I mean, Robert was REALLY good. Keith says Robert is the man that taught Tom how to play the guitar. I agree. I remember not being nervous, just concerned that I would sing in key with the right beat and tempo. I think I sang a couple of songs by the Kinks: ‘You Really Got Me’ and ‘All Day and All Of The Night.’ We did a few more verses of the songs I knew. Tommy said I sounded good and I could lead the arrangement – when Robert would take and lead or David on the keyboards – more than just singing the song. He asked me to wait outside so the band could take a vote. I was voted in. We started practicing immediately. We came up with a solid song list and put ourselves out for hire. The frat party bookings followed. The gigs were booked by Tom Henly, a local Gainesville guy, and Keith. It still boggles my mind that I was a part of this band with one of the world’s biggest rock stars and a true songwriting genius.”

    To learn about the origin story of the Sundowners, read the descriptions for the trail stops of Petty’s childhood home and Howard Bishop Middle School, found in the Childhood Years section of the website, found here: https://tompettytrail.com/childhood-years 

    To learn more about some of the places where the Sundowners performed, including the Moose Club where they won the Battle of the Bands contest, go to the Teen+ Years section of the website, found here: https://tompettytrail.com/teen%2B-years

    Thank you to Keith Harben for driving me around Gainesville in March 2025 to point out these homes to me.

Should you go here, remember that this is a private home located in a residential neighborhood, so must be treated with respect for the property owner and neighbors. This includes not trespassing on private property! 

Photo courtesy of Google Street View

1012 NW 10th Ave, Gainesville, FL 32601

https://maps.app.goo.gl/RhxHpdfGsxHps9cv5 

    David Mason joined the Sundowners, the first band to which Tom Petty belonged, as keyboardist after Richy Hinson left the band; Gary McMillan, the lead singer, joined at the same time. Mason was already a locally established organist/keyboardist when he joined the Sundowners. Mason had played with many popular Gainesville bands, including the Taxmen, Maundy Quintet and the Continentals (with Don Felder, later a member of the Eagles). 

    Warren Zanes provided a brief bio for Mason in his 2015 book Warren Zanes’ book Petty: The Biography: “David Mason was friends with Tom Petty from second grade through junior high. Briefly part of Petty’s first band, the Sundowners, later a founding member of Todd Rundgren’s Utopia and in Jackson Browne’s touring band,” (pgs. 28-29). (Mason would also later perform with Elton John and Joe Walsh, among other musicians.)

      Petty told Zanes, “It blew our minds that he was in the Continentals. But David Mason was that good.” Zanes wrote, “When Petty called him to come play in the Sundowners, Mason went ahead and checked it out.” And Zanes asked Mason to recall that moment: “I was a little underwhelmed. In the Continentals I was around a lot of older guys, learning a lot real quickly. This was different. Pretty soon I left the Sundowners and joined one of the college bands,” (pgs. 35-36).

    In 2013, Gary McMillan posted this on Gainesville Rock History, a Facebook group: “I just received a message from Hal Saylor, a friend of David Mason. He confirmed that David did pass away last Friday in Tallahassee. Shocked and saddened to receive this news. One of Gville’s most talented, and a great friend from the old neighborhood. RIP David Mason.”

    David Mason was 63.

    To learn about the origin story of the Sundowners, read the descriptions for the trail stops of Petty’s childhood home and Howard Bishop Middle School, found in the Childhood Years section of the website, found here: https://tompettytrail.com/childhood-years 

    To learn more about some of the places where the Sundowners performed, including the Moose Club where they won the Battle of the Bands contest, go to the Teen+ Years section of the website, found here: https://tompettytrail.com/teen%2B-years

    Thank you to Keith Harben for driving me around Gainesville in March 2025 to point out these homes to me.

Should you go here, remember that this is a private home located in a residential neighborhood, so must be treated with respect for the property owner and neighbors. This includes not trespassing on private property! 

Photo courtesy of Google Street View

1226 W University Ave, Gainesville, FL 32601

https://maps.app.goo.gl/md9dN3qyrTzZhGCF7

     By all accounts, Lipham Music (1010 N. Main St., Gainesville) was the central place where Gainesville’s musicians hung out and bought their instruments, and Buster Lipham was instrumental in making it happen by allowing teens without credit or collateral to leave the store with musical instruments, new or used, with nothing more than a signed promise. Yet, there were other music stores in Gainesville in the late 1960s and early 1970s, among them Marvin Kay’s Musicenter, which got its start in Jacksonville yet expanded to a few stores across the state.

    I am aware that it was here, 1226 W University Ave., Stan Lynch was a customer – and served as a model in a print advertisement for the business. And where Rick Reed, the person who in 1973 recorded the eight Mudcrutch demos in the living room of Benmont Tench’s home (321 NW 23rd St., Gainesville), co-managed the store in various locations in Gainesville. And it is where Mike Campbell bought a guitar (note that Marvin Kay's is long-gone from this location and is today another business).

    While in Mudcrutch, it was here that Mike Campbell bought a 1962 Fender Stratocaster with a rosewood neck, Campbell notes in his 2025 autobiography, Heartbreaker (pgs. 95-96), despite it having a broken bridge pickup. As luck would have it, that day Campbell talked with a friend, Steve Soar (who was in Road Turkey with Stan Lynch and Marty Jourard), who Campbell says told him: “I’ve got a ’62 Strat bridge pick up in my toolbox you can have. Bring it over. I’ll solder it in for you.” Soar did, thus expanding Campbell’s expanding guitar inventory.

    Rick Reed worked in a Marvin Kay’s in Panama City before moving to Gainesville in 1971 to manage the local store, which then was located “in a little strip mall at 4131 NW 16th Blvd., at the corner of NW 43rd Street,” as Reed noted in an interview he gave with Marty Jourard. Within the next couple of years, Marvin Kay’s moved the store twice, both times to gain a more spacious location (NW 13th Street, West University Avenue). Reed remembers Stan Lynch occasionally coming into the store as a customer during the time he worked for Marvin Kay’s. By 1973, Rick Reed was on Tom Petty’s radar screen, so hired him to record the eight Mudcrutch demos at the Tench house. Petty wrote a $200 check to Reed, who had loaded his van with all the equipment needed for mobile recording.

    To learn more about Rick Reed and his recording session with Mudcrutch in the Tench home, go here:

http://www.gainesvillerockhistory.com/RickReed.htm

    What’s more, here is where Bernie Leadon, older brother to Tom Leadon (who was in the Epics and Mudcrutch with Tom Petty) who would later join the Eagles, taught guitar and banjo lessons, according to Rogers Bartley in a discussion about Marvin Kay’s on a Facebook group, Gainesville Rock History. Don Felder, also later in the Eagles, worked here, according to Marty Jourard. And Marty, who played in Road Turkey with Stan Lynch during his Gainesville years and later became a member of the Motels, said about Marvin Kay’s, “I would go there often and never buy anything, just hang around and play whatever they would let me play (I was 14).”

    Marty Jourard interviewed Buster Lipham for his 2016 book, Music Everywhere: The Rock and Roll Roots of a Southern Town. He asked Buster about competition from Marvin Kay’s, to which Buster answered the question by framing a question: “Did I ever feel competition from other stores? We’ve probably had sixteen music stores move in and out of Gainesville during our 58 years. Marvin Kaye was a pawnshop broker who got in the music business, and he came down and ran it like a pawn shop.” To read the Buster Lipham interview, go here:

http://www.gainesvillerockhistory.com/BusterLipham.htm

    In 2002, Marvin Kay died in Jacksonville. He was 82. His obituary read, in part, “He worked in the Pawn business for many years, which led him to open Marvin Kay’s Music Center.” To read his obit, go here:

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/timesunion/name/marvin-kay-obituary?id=28094923

Photo of location where Marvin Kay’s was once located courtesy of Google Maps

100 NE 1st St, Gainesville, FL 32601

https://maps.app.goo.gl/RyxUMjswceQLUoAV8

     Tom Petty and Jane Benyo were married here in the Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Gainesville on March 31, 1974 -- before leaving for California the next day -- April 1st, April Fool's Day -- with the hope that Mudcrutch would hit the big time. 

     The wedding was held the day after Mudcrutch had a concert across town at Westside Park. This event, the night of March 30th, served as a fundraiser for the band's gas money to bring band members and equipment in multiple vehicles out west. To read about Mudcrutch's farewell-to-Gainesville concert, go here on this website:

https://tompettytrail.com/teen%2B-years 

     Note that the church -- the building itself -- is not the same one in which Tom Petty and Jane Benyo were married, although it is still located in the same location. This is explained on the church's website: "During a 1991 spree of Florida church fires set by a mentally ill arsonist, our church burnt to the ground. While the building didn’t survive, our parishioners’ spirit did. In a resolute demonstration of fire-proof faith, they rallied and rebuilt the church on the same site as an expanded version of the 1907 original."

     Officiating the wedding ceremony was Rev. Earle Page, who became the church's longest-serving rector.

Photo by Shawn Murphy

6123 NW 109th Pl, Alachua, FL 32615

https://maps.app.goo.gl/5nyynektgQxeZfDk6

     Tom Petty and Jane Benyo’s Alachua house from September 1991 to August 1998. They purchased it from Tom’s brother, Bruce. Note that today this is a gated community with a security guard at its entrance. It is also home to Turkey Creek Golf Course, which is a public course. 

     Should you go here, remember that this is a private home, located in a residential neighborhood in a gated community, so must be treated with respect for the property owner and neighbors. That includes no trespassing on private property!

Photo by Shawn Murphy

321 NW 23rd St, Gainesville, FL 32607

https://maps.app.goo.gl/gbnp5Y5wL2o2fNDm9

     Childhood home of Benmont Tench, keyboardist for Mudcrutch and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Benmont started piano lessons here in the living room at age 6, using the same piano teacher used by his father. He took lessons through his teen years, including from a University of Florida music professor. Throughout Benmont's childhood, his parents made him practice one hour a day, enforced by an egg timer. While Benmont detested this regimented practice, he took advantage of the time by exploring diverse musical genres. 

     After attending high school at the prestigious Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, N.H., Benmont majored in art at Tulane University in New Orleans, from where he would drop out to join Mudcrutch to pursue a career in music. Mike Campbell talked about Benmont being brought into the Mudcrutch fold for Warren Zanes' 2015 book Petty: The Biography.

     "Benmont was a kind of nerdy little guy that would come watch us play," Campbell told Zanes. "He was from a very different world, wore glasses, a turtleneck, went to prep school, came from a rich family. I just thought, 'Oh, he's just a college kid, and we're cool, out in the world with girlfriends, smoking pot and taking drugs and playing music. And then he played the piano. I was like, 'Whoa!' He could play circles around us" (pg. 77).

     When Benmont broached with his father, a circuit court judge, the topic of dropping out of college to join the band, "all hell broke loose," Tench told Zanes. Benmont was told that if didn't return to college, he'd be on his own for living quarters in Gainesville. 

     "That's when Tom [Petty] came over to talk with my father. I think he went into my father's study. ... I have no idea what Tom said. It was just the two of them. But my dad was a formidable character," Benmont told Zanes.

     About this intervention, Petty told Zanes: "He was a judge, so this wasn't the crowd I usually hung with. But he heard me out, back there in the office, surrounded by books. Looking back, I'm not sure where I got the balls to do that kind of thing. But I just told him that this was all going to work out. There was a plan, I assured him" (pg. 79).

     In the fall of 1973, with the intent of recording an album's worth of music, Mudcrutch rehearsed and recorded eight songs over two days in the front living room of the house. For recording engineer Rick Reed's account of these sessions, read this transcript from an interview that was part of the research that Marty Jourard did for his 2016 book Music Everywhere: The Rock and Roll Roots of a Southern Town, which is found at a companion website:

http://www.gainesvillerockhistory.com/RickReed.htm

     During the summer of 1986, while Benmont and the Heartbreakers were on tour with Bob Dylan for the True Confessions tour, University of Florida student Nancy Steigner interviewed Judge Tench as part of its Samuel Proctor Oral History Program. The interview helps establish the footprint of the Tench family in the history of Gainesville. In it, Judge Tench dotes on all four of his successful children. In doing so, about Benmont he says: "And he is an amazing young man, a thoroughly amazing young man. I am intensely proud of him." 

     During the interview, he tracks his son's interest in classical music and the piano from childhood to adulthood. The judge, who was also an accomplished piano player, marvels at his classically trained pianist son's ability to play anything from gospel and classical to the American songbook and rock and roll. 

     To read the interview, go here (the referenced portion about Benmont can be found on pages 16-19):

https://original-ufdc.uflib.ufl.edu/UF00024774/00001/29x 

     Should you go here, remember that this private home, located in a residential neighborhood, so must be treated with respect for the property owner and neighbors. That includes no trespassing on private property!

Photo by Shawn Murphy

3215 NW 15 Ave, Gainesville, FL 32605

https://maps.app.goo.gl/QJRR6oW35bBpdurr8

     Before heading off to Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire, for his high school years (where he graduated from the class of ’71), Benmont Tench attended here at Westwood Junior High School (since renamed as a middle school) along NW 15th Avenue in Gainesville. At Westwood he was a standout student musician in the school band, according to fellow student David Hammer. 

    By then, Tench could play the guitar and piano. He learned to play the guitar strings when he became old enough to embrace rock and roll, but he learned the piano keys much earlier. Tench started piano lessons at age 6 in the living room of his family home (321 NW 23rd St.). Benmont had the same piano teacher used by his father, an attorney and circuit court judge who was also a talented recreational musician. Benmont took lessons through his teen years, including from a University of Florida music professor. Throughout Benmont’s childhood, his parents made him practice one hour a day, enforced by an egg timer. While Benmont detested this regimented practice, he took advantage of the time by exploring diverse musical genres. 

    Hammer told me that the Westwood band and chorus teacher, Joe Johnson, organized a fundraiser to bring in a remote recording studio from elsewhere in Florida. 

    “We actually recorded an LP on the stage of the Westwood ‘cafetorium,’” Hammer recalled. “Benmont was the student Musical Director for both sides of the album. Even then, everybody knew he was a musical genius. I think it was the next year that his dad sent him off to boarding school.”

    Years later, a photograph was taken of Tench wearing a Westwood t-shirt under a jacket.

    “Those were the shirts we had to buy at the beginning of every year for PE class at Westwood Junior High School,” Hammer explained. “You were supposed to write your name on the front of them.”

    In this photograph, we see a wide-eyed, bearded-and-bespectacled Benmont wearing his old Westwood physical education class t-shirt, on which he has purposely left the nameplate area blank. In it, he is seen with Mudcrutch bandmates, including Tom Petty.

    Today, March 7, 2025, Benmont Tench’s second solo album, “The Melancholy Season,” is released. If you wish to purchase this album, or get tickets for the forthcoming limited-engagement West Coast tour, go here:

https://www.benmonttench.com/

    Tench was profiled by The New York Times on Feb. 27. Should you read it, you can learn about the new album, his Gainesville roots, his career with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, serving as a respected studio and touring musician for a who’s who list of musicians, and the ups and downs in his life – including his recent cancer surgery during which his left jaw needed to be replaced.

    “The doctors took half my jaw out,” Tench told the reporter, “took a piece from my leg, muscle and bone to rebuild it.”

    Read the article here:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/27/arts/music/benmont-tench-the-melancholy-season.html

Photo of Westwood Middle School today by Shawn Murphy

115 S Main St, Gainesville, FL 32601

https://maps.app.goo.gl/zNgLxDZ2HbbLNA7y8

     The Tench Building was built in 1887 (see building peak from Main Street for this notation). It is not named after Benjamin Montmorency Tench III, or Benmont, the keyboardist for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Mudcrutch. Currently the site of an artist studio, it once housed the law practice of Benmont's father,  Benjamin Montmorency Tench II, an attorney and circuit court judge for nearly 50 years, and prior to that an office for his grandfather, who ran the B.M. Tench Shoe Store (where Benmont started working at age 10), and a great uncle, a dental surgeon. 

Photo by Shawn Murphy

200 E University Ave, Gainesville, FL 32601

https://maps.app.goo.gl/gXFV9wwsumVj4VmaA

     On an inside wall of city hall (not in the mayor's office) are photos of previous mayors, including B.M. Tench, 1935-36, who was the grandfather of Benmont Tench, the keyboardist for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Mudcrutch. 

     To see this portrait, a security guard escort is required. 

Photo by Shawn Murphy

3000 NW 83 St, Gainesville, FL 32606

https://maps.app.goo.gl/bDtud67FX8TrTYAQA

    It was at this college that Tom Petty, who was in the recently formed Mudcrutch, enrolled just long enough to avoid the Vietnam War draft, before dropping out.

    Later, Mudcrutch performed concerts in 1971, 1972 and 1973 in the Auditorium. At its 1971 show, Mudcrutch shared the bill with RGF, which included Ron Blair, a future member of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

    This college is also where Stanley Youngerman Lynch was a longtime psychology professor. He was the father of Stan Lynch, a Gainesville native who was the drummer of the band Road Turkey before becoming the first drummer for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Professor Lynch was a supporter of his son’s interest in learning the drums.          

    To learn more about drummer Stan Lynch and his father, Stanley Y. Lynch, see this entry from The Petty Archives:

https://www.thepettyarchives.com/archives/miscellany/interviews/2003-stanlynch-stars 

    To learn more about professor Stan Lynch, read his 2022 obituary from The Gainesville Sun here: https://www.gainesville.com/obituaries/pgai0127952 

Photo by Shawn Murphy

9291 NE 140th Ave, Williston, FL 32696

https://maps.app.goo.gl/HDtw3cSEkHSBWgW48 

   A farm in northern Levy County was the site of two Woodstock-inspired music festivals in 1971 that were organized by the Rose Community Center, a concert production enterprise formed by Bruce Nearon and Charles Ramirez, eventually assisted by Jeff Goldstein, which produced many concerts, with local and national acts, in and around Gainesville during the early 1970s. Landowner Peggi Young allowed her land to be used for these music festivals.

   The Gainesville Music Festival on May 22-23, 1971, was the first concert held at Greer’s Farm (today known as GHC Farms, Inc.). This two-day festival included musical acts such as Mudcrutch (with future Heartbreakers Tom Petty, Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench), RGF (with future Heartbreaker Ron Blair), Lynyrd Skynyrd (although then spelled Lynard Skynard), Power, Celebration, Shoe Shine Boys, and many more lesser-known bands.

  Greer's Farm was also the site of the two-day Dusserah Festival on May 29-30, 1971.  Musical acts in the scheduled lineup of the intended 36-hour concert included Mudcrutch, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Moby Grape, the Amboy Dukes (with Ted Nugent), Iron Butterfly, Dion, and Tom Paxton, New England Rock Ensemble, and Game. On the second day of the festival, a half-dozen local and state law enforcement officers, overseen by Levy County Sheriff Pat Hartley, raided the concert grounds and arrested eight attendees for drug use. In doing so, clubs and tear gas were used by the officers. This was at a time when possession of a single marijuana joint could result in a one-year jail sentence. 

   To learn more about these festivals, pick up Marty Jourard’s 2016 book, Music Everywhere: The Rock and Roll Roots of a Southern Town, and read pages 117-120.

    Peggi Young, landowner of the 197-acre farm, offered to the Rose Community Center the northern part of her rural property as a site for these 1971 festivals after locating a suitable venue in Gainesville was problematic, if not impossible.

   In 2023, the Alachua Conservation Trust (ACT) awarded G.H.C. Farms conservation land status and acknowledged Peggi Young’s role in caring for the natural habitat on her rural property. ACT protects private land through conservation easements, to date 6,600 acres.

    To learn more about this, read the ACT press release here:

https://www.alachuaconservationtrust.org/ghc-farms 

    Should you go here, remember that this is private property, so must be treated with respect for the property owner and neighbors. 

Photo of Peggi Young at her GHC Farms property in 2023, courtesy of Alachua Conservation Trust press release

601 S Main St, Gainesville, FL 32601

https://maps.app.goo.gl/LbUBQ78aT8nM7GaV8

    The Lynx, a bookstore on South Main Street, is a stone's throw from Depot Park -- and even closer to Heartwood Soundstage, where the bookstore and music venue hosted a collaborative book club July 31, 2024, discussion about Warren Zanes' 2016 book, Petty: The Biography.

    Join the bookstore's email newsletter list, called the Lynx Watch, for notices about future events:

https://thelynxbooks.com/

Photo courtesy of The Lynx

2700 SW 13th St, Gainesville, FL 32608

https://maps.app.goo.gl/6ZaYhVEXYPME6k9e6

     The Gainesville Sun has existed since the late 1800s, covering news like any daily newspaper in and around the city. But since the early 1970s the coverage has included all things Tom Petty. The newspaper has documented the music, life and legacy of Tom Petty from the Mudcrutch era to this day with the annual Tom Petty Weekends. It even published an article about this website, Tom Petty Trail, in November 2024. That article is found here:

https://www.gainesville.com/story/entertainment/2024/11/29/tom-petty-trail-gives-fans-map-to-explore-musical-icon-in-gainesville/76404032007/ 

   Rewinding the clock to June 1973, the Gainesville Sun profiled Mudcrutch at a time when it had established a name for itself in Gainesville, across Florida and elsewhere in the Deep South, and toured extensively throughout this circuit. But this regional fame had not yielded the fortune that comes with national fame. The reporter, John Bartosek, hangs out with the band in a “standard two-bedroom apartment on the northwest edge of the city” that seems to serve as their home base (1976 NW 2nd St.). Later in the article, he shadows them to a show at The Keg (203 SW 16th Ave. in Gainesville; go here to see Tom Petty Trail’s mapped Trail Stop for the venue that was once at this address: https://tompettytrail.com/dreamville-ghosts ).

   Bartosek’s story is a time capsule worth revisiting. It is a fascinating fly-on-the-wall piece that combines overheard conversations and observations of the band members off and on the stage. He introduces us to the band, which then consisted of Tom Petty, Mike Campbell, Benmont Tench (although the article misspells the first name as Ben Mont), Randall Marsh and Danny Roberts. It’s clear from the story’s lead that Tom Petty is the band’s leader:

“Tom Petty has a one-track mind. It’s on music.

   Bass guitarist for ‘Mudcrutch,’ that seemingly eternal Gainesville rock and roll band, Tom talks about everything. But somehow it all gets back to music.

   ‘It's our life,’ he says quietly.’”

   To read Bartosek’s article, you can find the original as a PDF along with the digitized version, thanks to The Petty Archives, here:

https://www.thepettyarchives.com/archives/newspapers/1970s/1973-06-24-gainesvillesun 

   To read more of The Gainesville Sun’s stories about Tom Petty,  or to see its published photographs, here is a starting point for your online search:

https://www.google.com/search?as_q=gainesville+sun&as_epq=tom+petty&as_oq=&as_eq=&as_nlo=&as_nhi=&lr=&cr=&as_qdr=all&as_sitesearch=&as_occt=any&as_filetype=&tbs= 

    Note that paywall usage fees charged by the newspaper may apply.

Photo by Shawn Murphy

17301 NE US Hwy 301, Waldo, FL 32694

https://maps.app.goo.gl/kAqHfJWoBS3QFMjd9 

   Tom Petty and Benmont Tench, while home in Gainesville for a holiday visit with family in 1975, were guest musicians for a night in a “disco/lounge band” named Southpaw, which played here at what was then Bobby’s Hideaway, set back from U.S. 301 in Waldo, Fla., on the edge of the woods – a place that Marty Jourard described as “redneck package store/lounge/live music venue.” And in 1977, Petty, Tench and Stan Lynch all guested in Southpaw with Jourard and the other band members.

   Jourard had played in a handful of Gainesville bands, among them in 1972 was Road Turkey with future Heartbreaker Stan Lynch. By 1975 he had learned to play multiple instruments, including saxophone and keyboards, and had joined Southpaw, a band that played R&B, soul, funk and disco songs in the age of disco. Among their setlist was “Cut the Cake” by the Average White Band, which included Steve Ferrone, future drummer of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, on the album’s original recording. Southpaw had a 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. periodic gig at Bobby’s Hideaway.

   “The cover band I was in (Southpaw) played Bobby’s half a dozen times in late ’75,” Jourard explained in a discussion thread on Gainesville Rock History, a Facebook group he created and moderates. “Petty and Benmont would come back to Gainesville around Christmas in those early years. And according to my diary notes from 1975: ‘DEC 27: Bobby’s Hideaway with Petty, Ben” and other band members. Jourard added that “New Years Eve 1975 was a jam with Petty, Ben, Sandy Stringfellow and Jeff Jourard at Bobby’s Hideaway.”

   In addition, Marty Jourard notes that in 1977, Petty, Tench and Stan Lynch “came out once when we played.”

   To learn more about Southpaw, which Jouard calls a “disco/lounge band,” and to see a photo of them in their white suits, you will find it on this Jourard bio page, “My Life Of Music”:

http://www.jourard.com/MyLifeofMusic2.htm 

   Allan Lowe, a member of the Dixie Desperados, reported in this GRH discussion thread that at Bobby’s Hideaway “one weekend” in 1977 he was on stage with his band when “Tom and Jane Petty were there sitting in a booth – how cool.”

   To learn more about the Dixie Desperados, go here:

https://thedixiedesperados.com/bio 

    About Bobby’s Hideaway, Jourard noted: “Bobby’s had a reputation as a rough sort of place and it was not frequented by hippies or long hairs. … I heard many tales of parking lot fights. It seems that whoever wanted to fight went there for that purpose. … Bobby’s was a historically redneck bar famous for fights in the parking lot, a serious roadhouse that catered to a very rural clientele.”

   Note that the most of the above information, and all of the quotations, about Southpaw and Bobby’s Hideaway was acquired from the following sources: “The Live Music Venues of Gainesville,” a list that Jourard compiled for his Facebook group Gainesville Rock History;  a  Gainesville Rock History discussion thread about this venue, including Jourard sharing his diary entries from this time; Jourard’s overview of Southpaw on his “My Life in Music” bio website; and Jourard’s brief autobiography for a self-named website. 

   At some point before Bobby’s Hideaway owner Bobby Lee Bryan’s death at age 85 in 2009, the bar had closed and the building was purchased by Asher G. “Jerry” Sullivan, who owned a handful of strip clubs: four in Georgia and North Carolina, one in nearby Micanopy. Sullivan attempted to open in this vacant building an adult store that purveyed magazines, videos and sex toys, yet met resistance. When protesters assembled there in 2006, Sullivan orchestrated a counter-protest with “a truck full of bikini-clad women,” according to coverage by The Gainesville Sun. Further community pushback ensued, including physical damage to the building. In 2006 Sullivan filed a lawsuit against Alachua County, claiming it was being overly restrictive with its regulations for opening an adult business. 

   The proposal eventually fizzled. In 2006, Sullivan died at age 47.

   To read the 2006 article from The Gainesville Sun about this, go here:

https://www.gainesville.com/story/news/2006/10/09/adult-cafe-proprietor-discovered-dead-at-47/31498651007/

   At last check, March 2025, the building housed two businesses: Toomey Tools and Crazy Gracen's Groceries. 

Photo by Shawn Murphy

2700 NE Waldo Rd, Gainesville, FL 32609

https://maps.app.goo.gl/AiJfEirNYtbXvCwG9

     Tom Petty liked his barbecue, especially if it was from Sonny’s BBQ on NE Waldo Road in Gainesville, according to several sources. One of them, who asked to keep his name out of my dispatch, was a fellow Gainesville musician who referred to himself as “a close friend of Tommy’s” which I can confirm that he was. He said he and his band also ate here, as “did everybody.”

    Like Petty, this close friend also eventually left town to pursue a music career based out of California, where there was a yearning for a taste of Sonny’s BBQ from back home.

    “In the early years of the L.A. Gainesville transplants, mid-seventies, whoever went back to Florida to visit was reminded to bring back a quart of their BBQ beans and a couple pounds of ribs to split among us,” he told me. “It was sort of a ritual, I brought them back several times along with others. We’d meet at a house and dig in.”

    While in Gainesville, Petty eating Sonny’s BBQ while he was in Mudcrutch in the early 1970s was one thing, but trying to eat there while he fronted Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers was another. Petty told his close friend about one instance that shows the price of regional versus national fame.

    “When Tom was famous and came back to town it was not easy,” Petty’s close friend told me. “He and Alan Weidel (known as “Bugs,” he served as the Heartbreakers’ equipment manager and guitar technician for the band’s entire career) once went to a Sonny’s (either the original on NE Waldo or the second restaurant on Rt. 441 in south Gainesville; he’s unsure which one), but as word spread that he was there, it got very dramatic, almost riot-like I imagine, and he and Alan quickly stood up, paid and ran to the car while people chased it. He didn’t retell it as a happy experience.”

    Petty also ate Sonny’s BBQ when on vacation with his family on Crescent Beach in St. Augustine, according to this close friend who vacationed in a nearby beach house. There, however, Petty was not recognized by fans, so could hang loose. To read about the Tom Petty Trail stops for the former Petty family beach house and the Sonny’s BBQ in St. Augustine, look in this section of the website:

https://tompettytrail.com/buried-treasure 

    The neon sign along NE Waldo Road in Gainesville for Fat Boy’s BAR-B-Q restaurant, which Sonny Tillman opened in 1968, showed a smiling, chubby man in a chef’s hat, an apron, and bare feet. In 1977 the restaurant’s original “fat boy” moniker was eventually trimmed down to a somewhat leaner name, Sonny’s Real Pit BAR-B-Q. With it came a revamped sign, which was westernized to show a smiling, chubby man in a cowboy hat and boots. The name and the original location still stand today, although there are other franchised Sonny’s BBQ restaurants throughout the South.

    To learn more about the Sonny’s BBQ story, read this Florida History overview:

https://floridahistoryblog.com/sonnys-and-fat-boys-bbq/ 

    In August 2024, Sonny Tillman turned 95. Gainesville’s Main Street News profiled him and his business, which can be found here:

https://www.mainstreetdailynews.com/food-drink/sonnys-bbq-celebrates-founders-birthday

    In December 2024, Sonny Tillman reminisced on Facebook: “A lot of smoke up the chimney since I got too old to enjoy the days of old but you guys and ladies make me proud. I miss the smoke in my eyes and the sweat on my brow but really love the memories of the years past and all the wonderful family members and the thousands of friends and the millions customers who made SONNYS what it is. Thank you all.”

Photo by Shawn Murphy

1001 NE 28th Ave, Gainesville, FL 32609

https://maps.app.goo.gl/vxUQCCxeaEHJd5Rq6 

    Circa 1970-1971, Stan Lynch, who would later be the first drummer for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, performed his first concert in a band called Flash and The Cosmic Blades, which was their first and last show. As for its location, there are two accounts from two sources: the concert flyer and Stan Lynch. Each source notes a precise location, even though they are 21 miles apart. Naturally, both locations have been mapped as Tom Petty Trail stops.

    Marty Jourard, who was in this band with Stan Lynch and who would later be in the Motels, explained on Gainesville Rock History, a Facebook group he administers, the brief history of this band.

    “Flash and The Cosmic Blades was a one-off assemblage of Stan Lynch (15) and me (16), just before the formation of Road Turkey (trio version), along with three members of Mr. Moose: keyboardist Archie McCoy, bassist George Mixson and guitarist Bill Lee. The venue was the Church of Christ clubhouse; the church is still there, around the corner from the Elks’s Club. 

I recall three songs we played: “Living In The U.S.A” by the Steve Miller Band, “Wipeout” (I took a flute solo), and  “Spaceman  Blues,” a minor blues jam with me playing bad alto sax with the reverb turned way up,” Jourard wrote.

    The concert flyer for the Flash and The Cosmic Blades concert begins by addressing its intended audience: “Attention Teenagers and Guests: ‘Live Band’.” It is noted they will play from 8:30 to 11:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 24. No year is given, although it would have been 1970 or 1971 based on the ages that Jourard gives for him and Lynch. Admission to this one-off concert cost $1. As for location, the flyer notes the show will be “at the HCM Clubhouse, 1001 NE 28th Ave.” in Gainesville. According to a discussion thread on Gainesville Rock History, HCM Clubhouse was shorthand for Highland Court Manor Clubhouse, a building that “was later converted to a church.” Since Jourard notes that the concert was held in the Church of Christ clubhouse, it can be assumed that the flyer noted it was in the HCM Clubhouse because of a very recent transition from secular to nonsecular use of that space, and because of familiarity with the venue name in its secular capacity.

    However, even though the flyer and Jourard both say the concert was held in the church’s function hall in Gainesville, Stan Lynch indicates it was held in a different location, 21 miles to the west, in Newberry. For Marty Jourard’s 1997 book, Start Your Own Band, he interviewed Lynch about the dawn of his musical interests. Among other things, we learn that Stan got first drum kit at age 14 or 15, and we learn what songs he gravitated toward while listening to the radio. But we also learn about his first concert, the one with Flash and The Cosmic Blades.

    “The first gig I had was with Flash and The Cosmic Blades at the Newberry American Legion Hall, the Watermelon Festival,” Jourard quotes Lynch as saying. "I’d played at several parties, but that was the first real gig” (pg. 178).

    The American Legion Hall in Newberry, Fla., is Post 149, according to its website. And its address is 26821 W. Newberry Rd.

    So, where was this Flash and The Cosmic Blades concert held? It seems to depend on who you ask.

    When I contacted Marty Jourard in May 2025 to ask about this band and this concert, he responded by noting that the one-off band, performing its one-off concert, was “more casual than you can imagine.”

Photo of Church of Christ courtesy of Google Street View

26821 W Newberry Rd, Newberry, FL 32669 

https://maps.app.goo.gl/6yHJ9rPDvA7KTepp8 

    Circa 1970-1971, Stan Lynch, who would later be the first drummer for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, performed his first concert in a band called Flash and The Cosmic Blades, which was their first and last show. As for its location, there are two accounts from two sources: the concert flyer and Stan Lynch. Each source notes a precise location, even though they are 21 miles apart. Naturally, both locations have been mapped as Tom Petty Trail stops.

    Marty Jourard, who was in this band with Stan Lynch and who would later be in the Motels, explained on Gainesville Rock History, a Facebook group he administers, the brief history of this band.

    “Flash and The Cosmic Blades was a one-off assemblage of Stan Lynch (15) and me (16), just before the formation of Road Turkey (trio version), along with three members of Mr. Moose: keyboardist Archie McCoy, bassist George Mixson and guitarist Bill Lee. The venue was the Church of Christ clubhouse; the church is still there, around the corner from the Elks’s Club. 

I recall three songs we played: “Living In The U.S.A” by the Steve Miller Band, “Wipeout” (I took a flute solo), and  “Spaceman  Blues,” a minor blues jam with me playing bad alto sax with the reverb turned way up,” Jourard wrote.

    The concert flyer for the Flash and The Cosmic Blades concert begins by addressing its intended audience: “Attention Teenagers and Guests: ‘Live Band’.” It is noted they will play from 8:30 to 11:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 24. No year is given, although it would have been 1970 or 1971 based on the ages that Jourard gives for him and Lynch. Admission to this one-off concert cost $1. As for location, the flyer notes the show will be “at the HCM Clubhouse, 1001 NE 28th Ave.” in Gainesville. According to a discussion thread on Gainesville Rock History, HCM Clubhouse was shorthand for Highland Court Manor Clubhouse, a building that “was later converted to a church.” Since Jourard notes that the concert was held in the Church of Christ clubhouse, it can be assumed that the flyer noted it was in the HCM Clubhouse because of a very recent transition from secular to nonsecular use of that space, and because of familiarity with the venue name in its secular capacity.

    However, even though the flyer and Jourard both say the concert was held in the church’s function hall in Gainesville, Stan Lynch indicates it was held in a different location, 21 miles to the west, in Newberry. For Marty Jourard’s 1997 book, Start Your Own Band, he interviewed Lynch about the dawn of his musical interests. Among other things, we learn that Stan got first drum kit at age 14 or 15, and we learn what songs he gravitated toward while listening to the radio. But we also learn about his first concert, the one with Flash and The Cosmic Blades.

    “The first gig I had was with Flash and The Cosmic Blades at the Newberry American Legion Hall, the Watermelon Festival,” Jourard quotes Lynch as saying. "I’d played at several parties, but that was the first real gig” (pg. 178).

    The American Legion Hall in Newberry, Fla., is Post 149, according to its website. And its address is 26821 W. Newberry Rd.

    So, where was this Flash and The Cosmic Blades concert held? It seems to depend on who you ask.

    When I contacted Marty Jourard in May 2025 to ask about this band and this concert, he responded by noting that the one-off band, performing its one-off concert, was “more casual than you can imagine.”

Photo of Newberry American Legion Hall courtesy of Google Street View 

1001 NW 34th St. Gainesville

https://maps.app.goo.gl/dp4WBc9vkRnnEEYK7 

    Stan Lynch, who would later be the first drummer for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, in 1971 played with a one-off band with a psychedelic-sounding name, The Styrocosmic Funnel, at the Westside Park Recreation Center in Gainesville (today is is called Albert Ray Massey Park). 

    The band’s one-off concert was advertised by a flyer hand-written by Marty Jourard, who was also in this band and who would later be in the Motels. It promised a Saturday night “3 hour Jam-Concert!” at which attendees could “Dance and boogie to the reunited sounds of these 8 talented lads!” for 50 cents admission for stag (solo) or 75 cents for drag (more than one). 

    The eight band member were listed on the flyer in this order: Steve Soar, Bill Lee, George Mixon, Richard Tedder, Stanley Lynch, Marty Jourard, Archie McCoy and Stan Bush. The Styrocosmic Funnel was composed of teenage musicians from various Gainesville bands of the time: Mr. Moose, Styrophoam Soule, Uncle Funnel, and Flash and the Cosmic Blades, Jourard explained in a discussion thread on Gainesville Rock History, a Facebook group he administers. In this discussion thread, participants were able to determine that this concert was held in 1971. However, the month and date are unknown since this information was omitted from the flyer.

    “The Styrocosmic Funnel … was a blend of Styrophoam Soule (Stan was the drummer in that cover band), Uncle Funnel (my first band, on bass, original name Airmont Classic) and cosmic, for no reason,” Jourard told me.

Photo of Recreation Center courtesy of the City of Gainesville’s website