If you are asked for your opinion, you have two choices: give your honest opinion, or tell the interviewer what you think they and their audience want to hear. Petty chose the former. He could possibly have phrased it more tactfully, but at least he gave his opinion for what it was worth, rather than being mealy-mouthed.
Petty’s comments seem gratuitous to me. It’s not like Huey Lewis was trying to make profound statements in his music.
While I felt that Tom Petty had exactly one great rock track to this name ["I Need To Know" since you asked…] I have to laugh at his all too on target assessment of Huey Lewis + the News! They seemed to me from day one like the kind of bar band your ne'er-do-well uncle might have fronted on the weekends. How in hell did they ever manage to mine platinum? Did teenagers really buy those records?!
Frankly, I'm surprised Tom Petty would even have an opinion about Huey Lewis. Doesn't seem like the kind of music he would listen to, or care one way or the other about. Making a negative comment reveals more about Tom Petty than Huey Lewis (imo).
Im not sure if Petty is criticism his singing more what he chose to sing about and the delivery more than anything.
Huey Lewis was (is?) an interesting guy. He should write a biography. Yes, he basically was at "the right place, at the right time", as far as the music he was serving up. People were tired of Punk/New Wave, and just wanted some old fashioned Rock and Roll. He was doing it...
I approach music similarly. Me personally, I’m a sucker for fancy production and memorable melodies. It’s why I find Bob Dylan, for example, uninspiring and boring beyond compare. It’s really about taste, and I feel like TP was mindlessly echoing his tastes, or distaste in the case of Lewis. Listening to Petty speak, I sense a bit of arrogant and elitist tone in his commentary. I had to laugh!
I can't find it at the moment, but I remember an interview with Huey Lewis where he was slagging off on Ray Parker Jr. (over the Ghostbusters theme song), then yesterday I was listening to the recently released Funky Nation - The Detroit Instrumentals by Marvin Gaye and who was playing guitar on there? Ray Parker Jr. Marvin apparently thought Ray was ok. Like you said, that's rock 'n' roll, I guess.
Thing is, Petty believed it. He lived and died by it. He was consumed by rock’n’roll and if that means he was hoodwinked by rockist dogma, thank God for that. It’s what made him (and others like him) the special artists they are. And it’s what gave us (some of us) music to live by, not just to hum along to.
I just looked it up and Huey was working at it for about 10 years before his big breakthrough, so he put in his fair share of work. (BTW, I own most of Tom Petty's albums and none by Huey Lewis, but I don't necessarily hate HL&TN. For instance, I quite liked the use the "Power of Love" at the beginning of "Back to the Future".)
Just looked at the track list. I'd gladly stick that in my car and sing along to every song. Go on, Huey!
The funny thing is, everyone is arguing about the relative importance of Tom Petty vs Huey Lewis as musical artists. (TP>HL). And take it that TP was being somewhat dismissive of HL. But in the end I feel that both of their contributions are relatively simplistic and limited when compared to the people like Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, Ellington, Davis, etc, etc,
The Heart of Rock and Roll Bad is Bad The Power of Love Heart and Soul Workin for a Livin I Want a New Drug Hip to Be Square Couple Days Off Great, fun tunes.
