Tom Leadon

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tom Leadon is an American musician. He was once part of Tom Petty's old band Mudcrutch and his brother is Bernie Leadon of The Eagles.

In high school Leadon was a member of the Epics in Gainesville, Florida, where he met Petty. Petty played bass and Leadon was the lead guitarist. Soon after forming Mudcrutch, with Randall Marsh on drums, the group added a second lead guitarist, Mike Campbell. Leadon and Campbell shared lead guitar solos during Mudcrutch's live shows in and around Gainesville, and also on their recording of "Up in Mississippi."

Leadon left Mudcrutch in 1972 and moved to Los Angeles, following in the footsteps of older brother Bernie, who had recently formed the Eagles with Randy Meisner, Glenn Frey, and Don Henley. The Eagles were touring at the time in support of their debut LP, "Eagles," and Tom Leadon guest-starred several times with the band, playing electic lead guitar. He also played bass in Linda Ronstadt's band, and in 1976 joined the country-rock band Silver, who had a top 40 hit the same year with "Wham-Bam."

In 1975 the Eagles recorded one of Tom Leadon's original songs. Frey and Henley re-wrote most of the lyrics, but preserved Leadon's original melody and subject matter, including the opening line which was slightly altered from "Springtime in Topanga Canyon" to "Springtime, the acacias are blooming." They changed the song's title to "Hollywood Waltz" and released the song on their "One of These Nights" LP. The final version of the song is credited to Tom Leadon, Bernie Leadon, Frey, and Henley. Later that year Buck Owens released his own version. The song is considered on the prettiest of the band's songs, and included an early use of a sythesizer.

Petty credits Leadon with inspiring him to move to L.A. and try to make it as a musician.