10 Amazing Rock Albums We Never Got To Hear

By the time the '80s reached their midpoint, Tom Petty was creatively spent with his new venture. After taking some time off, the rest of the Heartbreakers were all kinds of messed up, with drugs running rampant throughout the sessions for the group's latest album Southern Accents. Though the tracks we got were still good, Petty has said that it wasn't half as good as he originally saw it.

When they were cutting the demos, Petty wanted to make a fully-fledged concept record about his upbringing in the American South, with songs like Rebels and the title track being the jumping off point. However, things took a different turn as the sessions went on, as Petty got more and more frustrated and nearly pulverized his hand in the process of making it. Once Jimmy Iovine came into the picture, the concept idea ended up going completely out the window in favor of making a few more hits like on Don't Come Around Here No More.

As it stands though, some of the southern rock opera songs have gotten released further along the line, with the song Trailer eventually turning up on an album by Petty's side band Mudcrutch. Given that Petty was so good at writing story songs though, the idea of making a concept record still seems like a missed opportunity in retrospect.