Trail Stops

112 SE 1st St, Gainesville, FL 32601

https://maps.app.goo.gl/pitaxYV95uxodhkN7

     Today this is a bar, but it once was an actual music store frequented by Tom Petty in his youth, The historic sign and the business name remain, despite it now being a bar. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' song "Dreamville," from the 2002 album "The Last DJ" contains this lyric: 

"Goin' down to Lillian's Music Store 

To buy a black diamond string 

Gonna wind it up on my guitar 

Gonna make that silver sing 

Like it was Dreamville 

A long time ago 

A million miles away 

All the trees were green In Dreamville" 

     Keith Harben, who was Tom Petty's lifelong friend and lived in Tom's neighborhood through their child and teen years, recalled to me that he was with Tom when he purchased from the store a set of black diamond strings, which were hung on the wall to the left as you walked through the front door. Keith noted that his mother drove him and Tom to Lillian's Music Store that day. Tom would later strum these strings on his acoustic guitar.

Photo by Shawn Murphy.

4562 NW 13th St, Gainesville, FL 32609

https://maps.app.goo.gl/uKThcBxytdzKhdxq7

     Today this is the site of a Social Security building, but from 1966 to 1991 it was where Dub’s Steer Room was located (the building was eventually razed). The steak restaurant transitioned into a lounge known for its live music -- and, for awhile, its topless dancers. Starting in 1969, James Wayne "Dub" Thomas, the owner, hired the dancers to entertain along with the bands, as noted in Marty Jourard's 2016 book Music Everywhere: The Rock and Roll Roots of a Southern Town. The topless dancers were discontinued in January 1972.

     The 600-capacity club is where Mudcrutch was the "house act" in the fall of 1970, playing four hours a night, with five sets, for six nights a week. 

     Prior to Mudcrutch's standing gig at Dub's in fall 1970, which gave each band member a steady salary of $100 per week, Tom Petty and Tom Leadon worked during the stifling summer of 1970 for the Plants and Grounds Department on the campus of the University of Florida where they helped maintain lawns, benches, crosswalks and roads. During this time, they would labor all day in the oppressive heat and humidity, then quickly head home to shower and eat, go to Mudcrutch Farm for rehearsals, and then on to Dub's for a show. On top of that, late-night parties at the Farm were sometimes in store.

     Mudcrutch also had a six-night-per-week, five-sets-per-night residency here in summer 1972.

      At times, Mudcrutch would alternate sets with Road Turkey (including future Heartbreaker Stan Lynch). 

     To learn more about Dub's read these two articles from the Gainesville Sun: https://www.gainesville.com/story/news/2004/05/26/the-one-only-dub-s/31461419007/ https://www.gainesville.com/story/news/local/2018/09/29/gainesville-where-tom-pettys-dreams-began/9740920007/ 

Photo by Shawn Murphy.

1625 SW 13th St, Gainesville, FL 32609

https://maps.app.goo.gl/1Xg5Dq7qhMjM5SUU8

     Long before there was a CVS drug store here on the corner of SW 13th. Street and 16th Avenue, there was the popular Cin City Lounge, a multi-level establishment from 1970 to 1973 that featured live music with local bands, among them Mudcrutch (with future Heartbreakers Tom Petty, Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench) and Road Turkey (with future Heartbreaker Stan Lynch), according to Marty Jourard's compiled list of live music venues in Gainesville, found here: http://gainesvillerockhistory.com/Venuesweb.htm#:~:text=The%20location%20at%20SW%2016,DJ%20named%20Rudi%20spinning%20records.

Photo by Red Slater of Mudcrutch in the early 1970s at an unknown Gainesville venue, courtesy of The Gainesville Sun.

203 SW 16th Ave, Gainesville, FL 32601

https://maps.app.goo.gl/xDSUVvu4Q4RC7Z5f9

     Currently a vacant building, this was once a convenience store that was converted into a bar called The Keg here in 1972. From July 20 through Aug. 11, 1973, there was a residency by Mudcrutch (with future Heartbreakers Tom Petty, Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench), which had recorded "Up In Mississippi" and "Cause Is Understood" as a demo 45. Both songs were on their set lists.

     Joining Mudcrutch was Road Turkey (with future Heartbreaker Stan Lynch, along with Marty Jourard, later in the Motels). The two bands performed alternating nightly sets from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m., Monday through Saturday. 

Photo of poster courtesy of Marty Jourard.

203 SW 16th Ave, Gainesville, FL 32601

https://maps.app.goo.gl/xDSUVvu4Q4RC7Z5f9

     Currently the site of Rural King, a retail box store where one could purchase farm supplies and hunting gear. Yet, it was once the site of the Suburbia Triple Drive, know simply as the Suburbia, is where, depending on the year, you could see the latest Hollywood blockbuster, a seedy X-rated film, or a concert -- including those held for two night in September 1973 by Mudcrutch (with future Heartbreakers Tom Petty, Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench) and Road Turkey (with future Heartbreaker Stan Lynch). The Suburbia was open from 1952 until it was destroyed by a tornado in 1978. 

Photo by Alex Ojeda, courtesy of Cinema Treasures.

233 W University Ave, Gainesville, FL 32601 

https://maps.app.goo.gl/DdnKJYSyijTmYVK37

      Once the site of the Great Southern Music Hall, which featured live music by national and regional artists from 1974 to 1981. A long list of diverse national acts performed here, among them America, The Band, Dave Brubeck, Jimmy Buffet, Bo Diddley, Ray Charles, Cheech and Chong, Jimmy Cliff, Count Basie, Dan Fogleberg, Patti LaBelle, Richie Havens, Howlin’ Wolf, Waylon Jennings, B.B. King, Keo Kottke, Kraftwerk, Jerry Lee Lewis, Taj Mahal, Chuck Mangione, Steve Martin, John Mayall, Molly Hatchet, Randy Newman, The Outlaws, John Prine, The Ramones, Leon Redbone, Minnie Ripperton, Rush, Earl Scruggs, Bob Seger, Steppenwolf, Peter Tosh, Grover Washington, Muddy Waters, Johnny Winter and Frank Zappa. 

     On one concert bill in June 1974 was Road Turkey as an opening act. The band included Stan Lynch, a future member of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and Marty Jourard, a future keyboardist and saxophonist for The Motels. 

     The Matheson History Museum, located at 513 E. University Ave. in Gainesville, hosted a 50th anniversary retrospective exhibit in 2023 and 2024 called “Return to Forever: Gainesville’s Great Southern Music Hall." To learn more about the exhibit's opening night, read this article from The Independent Florida Alligator:

https://www.alligator.org/article/2023/02/matheson-70s-gainesville-music-exhibit

Photo courtesy of Matheson History Museum.

1210 SW 11th Ave, Gainesville, FL 32601

https://maps.app.goo.gl/TNt2gM3dE7pRgpxe7

     While this apartment complex post-dates Tom Petty's footprint in Gainesville, it is fittingly named Wildflower (surely coincidently) since on this property was once a house with an attic where Tom lived in 1972. The house would have been located adjacent to the railroad bridge (now an elevated bike path) at SW 13th St., according to this Gainesville Sun article by fellow musician Marty Jourard: https://www.gainesville.com/story/news/local/2018/09/29/gainesville-where-tom-pettys-dreams-began/9740920007/ 

     In Jourard's book, Music Everywhere: The Rock and Roll Roots of a Southern Town, he notes this wooded property in the early 1970s was referred to as "the Stone Castle" -- likely because there was a stone house on the five-acre lot. On it, Tom Petty's Mudcrutch performed.

     A two-minute walk to the north is 1298 SW 9th Road, Tom Petty “allegedly lived in this house after high school when he regularly performed with Mudcrutch," according to the following short-term home rental website:

https://www.gainesvillecorporatehousing.com/post/amazing-gator-game-day-house-perfect-location-sleeps-12

     There are other places in Gainesville that proclaim to have been where he lived, including this Airbnb rental: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/754382579475515901?source_impression_id=p3_1719770571_P3R_qEPLx4N5QADZ

Photo by Shawn Murphy.

221 SE 7th St, Gainesville, FL 32601

https://maps.app.goo.gl/QHFENPAfzbRTz7cf7

     Now an upscale bed and breakfast on SE 7th St. where there are other upscale places to say, The Laurel Oak Inn was once a modest two-story, four-apartment building in a partying section of the city called “Hippie Hill." This building is where Tom Petty was reported to have once lived with "another member of Mudcrutch” around 1969, according to this 2023 article in The Independent Florida Alligator (note that it doesn't state who this other Mudcrutch musician was): https://www.alligator.org/article/2023/09/gainesvillesbedandbreakfastdistrict 

     Tom was said to have lived in an apartment that is now the inn’s kitchen, according to this 2017 article in The Palm Beach Post: https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/entertainment/local/2017/10/03/tom-petty-rip-his-florida/7129426007/ 

Photo by Shawn Murphy.

3700 SE Hawthorne Rd, Gainesville, FL 32641

https://maps.app.goo.gl/Pw3fHnGfo49aW9zn7

     Forest Meadows Cemetery-East is the site of gravestones for Tom Petty's parents (found in the southwest portion of the cemetery) and maternal grandmother.

     Father Earl Petty: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7936151/earl_alvin_petty

     Mother Katherine A. Petty, known as "Kitty": https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7936151/earl_alvin_petty

     Maternal grandmother Troas H. Avery: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/174013512/troas_frances_avery

     In Warren Zanes' 2015 book, Petty: A Biography, it is noted that Troas did not like Earl (p. 16).

 NOTE: If you are to visit this site, be sure to show reverence. And never, ever desecrate a gravesite! 

Photo by Shawn Murphy.

401 SE 21st Ave, Gainesville, FL 32641 

https://maps.app.goo.gl/j5TBAyJQWsTFsAMR7

     Located in the vast Evergreen Cemetery are the gravesites of Tom Leadon, Harry Green and Benmont Tench's parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents. (See following trail stop for Leadon's grave.)

     Harris Harding Green was the the inspiration for Tom Petty's biographical song "Harry Green," which was recorded in 1994 during the sessions for the "Wildflowers" album, yet not released until 2020 in the "Wildflowers & All the Rest" box set. Gainesville High School peer Harry Green died in a car crash on Nov. 7, 1966, at age 16, the same age as Tom. Harry's parents inscribed “Little Harry” onto the tombstone.

     Here are excerpts of that song lyric: 

“Harry Green was my old friend 

We met in Spanish class 

Helped me out of a spot I was in 

He stopped a redneck from kickin’ my ass...

Harry Green was strong and tall 

Played on the football team... 

Well, them high school halls can sure get rough when you ain’t like everyone else... 

Sounded like rumor or lie 

Pontiac wrapped around an old oak tree

Vehicular suicide, Harry Green had died

Sometimes I wish I was still a boy 

With life ahead of me 

One day I’ll go back and say a few words over Harry Green... 

Harry Green was alright with me 

Harry Green was alright by me” 

     Consult this Find a Grave website entry for information and to see a photograph of Harry Green's gravestone: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/199580784/harris-harding-green  

     Benjamin Montmorency Tench II, an attorney and circuit court judge for nearly 50 years, was buried here in 2005. His son was Benjamin Montmorency Tench III, or Benmont, the keyboardist for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Mudcrutch. To learn more about the judge and his grave, go here: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/91200655/benjamin-montmorency-tench 

     Mary Catherine McInnis "Katie" Tench, Judge Tench's wife and Benmont's mother, was also buried in this cemetery, in 2003, as noted here: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/91200580/mary_catherine_tench

 NOTE: If you are to visit this site, be sure to show reverence. And never, ever desecrate a gravesite! 

Photo courtesy of The Historical Marker Database.

401 SE 21st Ave, Gainesville, FL 32641

https://maps.app.goo.gl/jR5p3MYLqopSGXPW7

    Tom Leadon, who was in the Epics and Mudcrutch along with Tom Petty, a close childhood friend, is buried in Evergreen Cemetery. Leadon died March 22, 2023, at the age of 70. At this Find a Grave website entry you can read his obituary that was published in the Gainesville Sun:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/266282617/thomas-j-leadon  

     At the time of Leadon's death, Mike Campbell, who was also in Mudcrutch, tweeted this: "Tom Leadon was my deepest guitar soul brother, we spent countless hours playing acoustic guitars and teaching each other things. A kinder soul never walked the earth. I will always miss his spirit and generosity. Sleep peacefully my old friend."

 NOTE: If you are to visit this site, be sure to show reverence. And never, ever desecrate a gravesite! 

Photo by Jody Cake.

412 NE 13th Ave, Gainesville, FL 32601

https://maps.app.goo.gl/aTf9gxpHW3Y3Wp6e8     

     Childhood home of Bernie Leadon, later of the Eagles, and Tom Leadon, later of the Epics and Mudcrutch with Tom Petty. For Warren Zanes’ 2015 book, Petty: A Biography, Tom Leadon talked about his friendship with Petty. Leadon recalled that during their teen years he would often go along with Petty and his date to the movies. And when Leadon couldn’t make it that night, Petty would fill Leadon in on what he missed.

     “He’d sit there and spend an hour, tell me the whole movie. The dialogue, the scenes in detail. He did it several times. I was amazed that he could remember it all. I think it was real to him in a way. Like he was experiencing it…” Leadon said. “And he had a way of looking you right in the eye, like he wanted to make sure you were getting it” (pg. 66).

     At the time of Tom Petty’s death in 2017, Leadon wrote an emotional remembrance song called “My Best Old Friend,” which he sang and posted on YouTube. He wrote most of the lyrics on the night that Petty died. Here are lyrical excerpts:

“Angels came and took you away

Much too soon, I have to say.

We should have had many more years

And many more songs…

How I wish we could hang out once more

Just like we did a thousand times before…

But you live on inside my heart

My best old friend…

Spread your wings to the clear blue sky

And fly up to the mighty god on high…”

    To hear the full song, watch this video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LhjB8jA6OQ 

    Tom Leadon died March 22, 2023, at the age of 70. His gravesite is in Evergreen Cemetery in Gainesville.

    Should you go here, remember that this private home, located in a residential neighborhood, must be treated with respect for the property owners and neighbors. 

Photo by Red Slater. Shown is an early 1970s lineup of Mudcrutch, taken at Mudcrutch Farm. From left to right are Tom Leadon, Tom Petty, Randall Marsh and Mike Campbell.