Trail Stops

112 SE 1st St, Gainesville, FL 32601

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

     Today this is a bar that retains the name of the music store that once was located here. In the music store, which sold sheet music and some equipment, Tom Petty frequented in his youth. The historic sign for the business remains. 

    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

 2212 SW 13th St, Gainesville, FL 32608

https://maps.app.goo.gl/5YoFwWsSJRzrfvkV6 

    The Epics had a residency here at what was then Trader’s South during the summer of 1969. Soon the band’s name morphed into Mudcrutch, during an era when other bands were picking different-sounding names. Tom Petty and Tom Leadon, and for a while Jim Lenahan, made up the lasting core of Mudcrutch.

    Road Turkey, which included future Heartbreaker Stan Lynch, also played here. Marty Jourard, later of the Motels, was also in this band.

    Trader’s South opened in 1968 as a bar that featured topless dancers and live music. It was otherwise known as Trader Tom’s, named after the colorful owner, Tom Henderson, who once told Petty to “turn the music down.”

    To learn more about Henderson, who died in 2019, and his bar businesses in Gainesville, read this Gainesville Sun article:

https://www.gainesville.com/story/news/local/2019/01/09/gainesville-bar-owner-trader-tom-henderson-dies/6336769007/

    Trader’s South closed in 2006. The building was eventually leveled. As of December 2024, there is nothing but a vacant lot here.

    The business sign now resides in the barn at Stan Lynch’s house near Melrose, Fla., 20 miles east of Gainesville.

Photo from 2013 by Marty Jourard

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. 

     In June 1973, The Gainesville Sun profiled Mudcrutch. The reporter, John Bartosek, hangs out with the band in an apartment that seems to serve as the band's home base. Later in the article, he shadows them to a show at The Keg, where he describes what's happening on and off the stage. To read his 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 

Photo of poster courtesy of Marty Jourard

1007 SW 13th St, Gainesville, FL 32601

https://maps.app.goo.gl/cKRky9dza8Yf2eqV6

     While the apartment complex here today post-dates Tom Petty's footprint in Gainesville, it is fittingly named Wildflower, although perhaps coincidently. That's because Petty once resided here, and because his band at the time, Mudcrutch, performed here.

     Lots of woods and two houses once comprised this five-acre property. In one of them, Petty 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/ 

     Entering the heavily wooden property down its tree-lined driveway was the first house, where Petty lived in the attic. Prior to him, residing here were members of the band Cowboy, who once played a free concert here.

     The second house on the property had stonework on the outside, thus taking the name Stone Castle, a casual way to refer to the property as a whole. One of the occupants of this house at the time was David T. “Lefty” Wright, who in January 1971 at the WUFT studios on the campus of the University of Florida videorecorded what is believed to be the earliest known film of Mudcrutch. The video was shot on Super 8 film using a silent film camera, which Wright borrowed from his friend Jim Lenahan, a founding member of Mudcrutch and later a Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ tour lighting director as well as a director of some of the iconic music videos in the 1980s. (To watch this video and learn more, see the mapped Trail Stop on the Tom Petty Trail here: https://tompettytrail.com/uf-early-years )

     In Jourard's 2016 book, Music Everywhere: The Rock and Roll Roots of a Southern Town, he notes that Mudcrutch once played a concert here.

     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 of Stone Castle courtesy of David T. Wright

2801 NW 13th St, Gainesville, FL 32609

https://maps.app.goo.gl/uRMzbVqGE75B1DfE7

     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-In, according to Cinema Treasures:

https://cinematreasures.org/theaters/19505

     Known simply as the Suburbia, it is where, depending on the year, one could see the latest Hollywood blockbuster, a seedy X-rated film, or a concert -- including those held for two nights 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 Florida Theater, where in the late 1950s and early 1960s Tom Petty and his childhood friend Keith Harben would go on Saturdays to watch movies.

     After the movie theater ceased operations, this became 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 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 and maternal grandmother (found in the southwest portion of the cemetery).

     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).

     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 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 is 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

     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."

     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     

     The childhood home of Bernie Leadon, later of the Eagles, and Tom Leadon, later of the Epics and Mudcrutch with Tom Petty, is hidden from street view along NE 13th Avenue, tucked behind a smaller house and lots of trees. 

     Should you go here, remember that private property must be treated with respect, so do not trespass. 

     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.

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