10 Bands That Only Have One Key Member

There's always a fine line between having a leader in a band and then just making a solo project. If you have an act like Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, you still get the impression that Bruce is just the Boss and does everything in his power to squeeze every ounce of life out of his friends as he can whenever he's on stage. Tom Petty definitely fit in that camp, but he was also adamant that the Heartbreakers have to be a band before they put out anything.

When Tom first started to make a name for himself in the music industry with his band Mudcrutch, he was told that his label was interested in him solo rather than just having a full band behind him. Tom wasn't just going to let his bandmates pay all of their dues just to send them packing, and keyboardist Benmont Tench and Mike Campbell stayed on to help while working on projects of their own. By the time that everything gelled with Ron Blair and Stan Lynch, Tom had pitched himself a second time with the insistence of being labeled as Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

Just because Tom is the boss doesn't mean that the Heartbreakers can't make names for themselves on their own, with Mike Campbell going on to write songs like Boys of Summer for Don Henley and Tom actually flying solo with the help of Jeff Lynne on albums like Full Moon Fever. There may be a de facto leader of the group, but the core behind the Heartbreakers always felt like a democracy until the end of their days.