I'm going back through what comprised my senior year of high school and first semester of college in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Come along for the ride. New posts every day or so mixed in with other things.
July 9, 1985. I was so fired up to see Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers that I went out and bought a pack of Newport cigarettes. I had been smoking on and off ever since I was a freshman in high school. This would continue until about 1989. I was lucky that I never got hooked on the things, but I still get the itch even now even though I can't stand the cigarette smell. I had been usually smoking Marlboro Lights so I don't have a clue why I decided to make July 9th of 1985 the day I should try menthol sticks.
I was selected, or perhaps I selected myself, as the driver of the gang to the show. It was myself, DD, Clyde, and maybe Smooth or Chris who went to the concert. Bruno was away for basic training or I'm sure he would have been in the mix that night too. I was driving my Mother's old Buick Electra as my Plymouth was having difficulties. The Electra was a big V-8 and I became one of those annoying punks who liked squealing the tires upon punching the gas. We drove up to Nashville abuzz with Lone Justice and Tom Petty expectations. DD was in full Maria McKee infatuation.
I found us an empty space at Channel 5's studios which is just around the corner from Municipal Auditorium. We got into Municipal quickly and milled around for awhile. I believe we had seats on the right side about where I sat for Ted Nugent a few years earlier, but maybe we just had general admission ones as I know we watched Lone Justice from the floor in front of the stage. They were hot as a pistol. Maria McKee was a whirling dervish of beauty in her calico dress. I had been steadily puffing on the Newports though and by their set's end I was starting to feel nauseous. I left the guys and went back to our seats or simply found an empty one while I tried to clear my head. I felt horrible, but must of looked worse as I overhead a couple of people remark how wasted I was and I thought, "If only that was the case."
There wasn't much of a crowd at this event with Municipal only being about half full. I guess a middle of the summer show on a weeknight right after the 4th of July was a tough sell. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers came on with "American Girl" and the small audience was ecstatic. I was digging the sounds, but still felt like dying. I watched a few more songs and then I wandered outside to get some air. I actually left the auditorium, walked over to my car, got in, and started driving around downtown Nashville with the windows down. I chucked those damn Newport's out. I drove for about 20 minutes or so and was still feeling cruddy, but a little better. I knew I had to get back to the concert as I was my friends's ride home. There was a gate to Channel 5's parking lot which was open, but I still managed to just hit the right part of it as I thankfully found my parking spot had remained empty. There was a small scratch on the car for my troubles.
I thought I might have trouble getting back inside, but I just breezed on in. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were playing their latest hit "Don't Come Around Here No More." I had missed probably half or more of the concert and I would never smoke a menthol cigarette again. Their setlist was pretty much the same as most on their "Pack Up The Plantation" tour from that summer. I would buy the live album taken from that tour when it was released in November 1985. The Tennessean has many photos of Tom from the concert available online. I told my friends of my adventure in menthol induced sickness and I believe Clyde offered to drive us back home. My memory is hazy at this point. Perhaps I let him though I doubt it as I love to drive. I would get to see a whole Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers show a few years later with no cigarettes involved.
Review of concert from the July 10, 1985 Tennessean
