Tom Leadon, a co-founding member of Tom Petty’s first band Mudcrutch, has died. “It is with great sadness, but profound love and gratitude for his life, that the family of Tom Leadon Nashville, Tennessee, and Gainesville, Florida, announce his passing on March 22, 2023 peacefully of natural causes,” learn an announcement posted by Leadon’s brother Mark on social media. Leadon was 70.
In a tribute submit, Mudcrutch bandmate Mike Campbell wrote that 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.”
Born in 1952, Leadon met Petty in Gainesville, Florida in highschool. Around 1970, they shaped a band referred to as the Epics, with Leadon on lead guitar on Petty on bass. The Epics developed into Mudcrutch, with Randall Marsh on drums and eventual Heartbreaker Mike Campbell additionally on lead guitar. Leadon left Mudcrutch in 1972 and moved to Los Angeles, the place his older brother Bernie Leadon had just lately shaped the Eagles. Hearbreaker Benmont Tench changed Leadon within the Mudcrutch lineup. (Petty would later credit score Leadon with inspiring his personal eventual transfer to LA.)
In the ’70s, Leadon performed bass in Linda Ronstadt’s band, and in 1976 he joined the country-rock act Silver, which had a high 40 hit the identical yr with “Wham Bam Shang-A-Lang.” In 1975, the Eagles recorded a tune Leadon wrote referred to as “Hollywood Waltz,” which was launched on the One Of These Nights LP.
Though he ultimately moved to Nashville and taught guitar, Leadon did be part of the Mudcrutch reunion in 2007, which featured himself, Petty, Campbell, Marsh, and Tench. The reunited Mudcrutch toured intermittently till Petty’s demise in 2017.