Tom Petty's got his 'Mojo' working

The 59-year-old rocker's first album with the Heartbreakers since 2002 has him so pleased that he's taking the boys on tour too. But they won't reach L.A. until the fall.

  • Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times
Tom Petty casually rolled back the sliding glass door at his rustic beach house in Malibu and stepped out onto the deck for a clear look at the waves crashing on the sand a dozen yards away. Surveying the picture-perfect blue sky and sparkling water to match, the 59-year-old rocker took in the view surrounding him and couldn't help noticing two young women sunbathing topless in front of the house next to his.
The record business may be in disarray, but on days like this, it's still good to be a rock star — a job Petty has fulfilled admirably for more than 30 years now
A couple of decades earlier things might have transpired differently, but on this day, Petty simply cracked a wry smile at the scene next door and stepped back inside. He had other things on his mind, chiefly his new album, "Mojo," which hits stores Tuesday. He left the beach in the care of his wife of nearly a decade, Dana, who pulled up a chair to soak up some sun while her husband turned his attention to his first love, music.
Atop a coffee table near the living room window was a copy of Greil Marcus' new book about Van Morrison, one of Petty's musical heroes.
"I haven't got around to it yet," he said, adding with a laugh: "I haven't had a lot of time to read." That's because he's been busy finishing "Mojo," his first album with the Heartbreakers since 2002's "The Last DJ," and gearing up for a tour that commenced last week. (It doesn't reach the Southland until fall.)
"I always thought that when I got around to the Heartbreakers making another record, that I'd like it really to represent the band that they've grown into," said Petty, his dirty-blond hair a bit shorter than usual, barely reaching the collar of the white Oxford shirt under a black vest that's part of his signature look.
"The band has kind of matured into something else," he said, more with the air of an impartial observer than you might expect of the man who has fronted that band on (mostly) and off (periodically) for 35 years. "This is more the way we play for ourselves when the heat's off; this is what it sounds like. And I thought, number one, it would be more fun, and, number two, it would just be truer to what we really are at the moment. They're a ridiculously good band. I'm still sometimes awed by them."