10 Perfect Rock Albums That Almost Destroyed Bands

Most of the headaches that come with making a record usually come down to the songs not reaching their full potential. Even though you may try to put your heart and soul into it, there's always that X-factor that keeps it from reaching a level of true greatness. In Tom Petty's case though, you also have to factor in a record label that was breathing down your neck.

At the same time that Petty was cutting Damn the Torpedoes, he and the Heartbreakers were in the midst of a massive lawsuit with their record company, who were trying to seize the rights to his copyrighted material. Instead of just rolling over though, Petty decided to play the game with the label, declaring bankruptcy in the middle of the sessions and eventually getting the roadies to hide the tapes of the new record so no one could figure out what they were working on.

Aside from the bitter fallout with MCA, Petty's new label Backstreet got the golden ticket with this record, boasting some of Petty's greatest work ever on songs like Refugee and Here Comes My Girl. Given what he was up against, something tells me that Petty knew he had gold on his hands here. If you knew this was your best work, there was no way you were going to let some legal middle man in the conversation.