10 Perfect Rock Songs That Divided Rock Bands
5. Free Fallin - Tom Petty
If you were one of the Heartbreakers, hearing that Tom Petty was going off on his own to make a solo record probably isn't the best thing that you want to hear. Compared to the band-centric records where it felt like everyone was contributing in some capacity, being asked to play on this would probably feel more like session work than an actual creative process. You might want to be careful when you're taking shots though.
When Tom was first starting to put together the final track list with Jeff Lynne and Mike Campbell, bassist Howie Epstein was asked to come play bass on a handful of the tracks on the album. After having to sit on his hands for a majority of the session, Epstein finally got the guts to tell Tom that he didn't like the song he was being asked to play and decided to leave shortly afterward.
Tough luck for him though, considering that the song was Free Fallin, which would go on to become one of the biggest songs of Tom's career and launching him back into the stratosphere again. Despite some of the Heartbreakers claiming that the tour for the album felt like being in a cover band, most other covers act would kill to say they get to play this song night after night.