“In January 1975, I received a call from a kid who used to come to watch my band the Tropics play up in Gainesville in the ’60s. It was Tom Petty,” Charlie Souza tells Guitar Player.
“It was Tom Petty,” he reveals. “He wanted to know if I’d be interested in playing bass with him in his band, Mudcrutch.”
Compared to Petty and his bandmates, Souza was big time. The Tropics, a rock act from Tampa, had scored a minor hit with their 1967 song “Time (Take the Time),” and appeared on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand. Later, he joined the New Cactus Band, a spinoff of the original Cactus band featuring Tim Bogert, Carmine Appice, Jim McCarty and Rusty Day. At the time of Petty’s call, Souza was playing with White Witch, whose 1974 album, A Spiritual Greeting, went on to achieve cult status.
Along the way, he’d played in Gregg Allman’s solo band and performed an uncredited appearance on his 1973 solo debut, Laid Back. Allman’s flirtations with drugs and adultery scared off Souza, leading him to literally run from Allman. It was a regrettable choice, as was turning down a gig with an up-and-coming Bob Seger over a $50 difference in pay.
Petty’s offer sounded promising. Mudcrutch had left Jacksonville, Florida, for L.A. the previous year and seemed to have momentum. “They’d signed a contract with the up-and-coming Shelter Records and released ‘Depot Street,’” Souza says.
Petty had sent Souza a recording of “Depot Street,” an early Mudcrutch tune. Souza liked what he heard and decided to accept Petty’s offer. He’d be replacing outgoing bassist Danny Roberts and joining Petty alongside guitarist Mike Campbell (who joined the band after completing a daunting audition), keyboardist Benmont Tench and drummer Randall Marsh.
But almost immediately, Souza encountered problems.
“At age 27, I had not developed my communication skills to a point where I could make myself clear about my own feelings and expectations,” he explains.
“My new friend, Tom Petty, had the same problem. Tom obviously had great skills communicating in music with his songs, as we all found out in the years to come. But he had a hard time conveying to me what his plans were for our future together.”
His misgivings aside, Souza was impressed when the band checked into the home studio of famed pianist, guitarist and producer Leon Russell in Tulsa, Oklahoma,
“We were in Leon’s basement, where he’d built a 40-track studio,” Souza says. “Forty tracks was unheard of. Leon Russell had always been one of my favorites. Stuff like ‘A Song for You’ and other hits ran through my mind. And now I was in his basement recording songs with these kids from Gainesville.”
As it turned out, those songs were pretty strong.
“Some of the tunes Tom hammered out on the piano were catchy and had good hooks,” he says. “‘Don’t Do Me Like That’ was one of them. There were many other songs I remember recording with Tom and the boys, taking on a slightly off-key Bob Dylan vocal slang that twanged in my ears.
“We laid down a few tracks that sounded pretty good to me, some of which were eventually released in the 1995 Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ Playback multi-CD box set.”
Those sessions briefly eased any concerns Souza had. But he still couldn’t figure out where they were headed. A month later, they were back in California, in Encino.
After seeing the Hollywood sign on the hill from the Shelter Records home office on Sunset, I really thought that was it. I had made the big time.”
— Charlie Souza
“We continued to record more songs,” Souza says. “But the sessions seemed to be getting further apart from each other, and the band members’ energy seemed drained, especially Tom, who was pretty down at that point. But he never said much, so I didn’t really know what was going on.”
To make matters worse, Souza and his wife were struggling in their new home in Hollywood. “I had unknowingly rented an attic apartment in one of the worst parts of Hollywood, a block away from Sunset Boulevard and Vine Street,” he says.
Still, he believed he had made the right decision. He had a constant reminder of that. “After seeing the Hollywood sign on the hill from the Shelter Records home office on Sunset, I really thought that was it,” he says. “I had made the big time, finally, at the ripe old age of 27.”
But, like many others in Hollywood, Souza saw his dreams go up in smoke.
“I walked into the house in Encino to record with the band one day in August, and the only guy who was there was Tom,” Souza says. “He told me he was done. The band had broken up.
“All I could think about was Mike Campbell telling me that we were going to make it big together, as long as I didn’t start doing heroin or something.”
Stranded in California with a wife, two cats and no more weekly checks from Shelter Records, Souza had to recalibrate.
“It was a whole new Hollywood for me.”
“When we passed in the hall, we said nothing to each other.”
— Charlie Souza
One year later, he was listening to the radio when a song came on.
“It was Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ ‘Hometown Blues,’” he recalls. Souza had played bass on the track, but it had been erased and replaced with a new part performed by Donald “Duck” Dunn of Booker T. & the M.G.s, one of several guest artists on Petty & the Heartbreakers’ self-titled debut.
“I also overdubbed a three-part harmony alto sax riff, which I heard faintly in the mix coming out of my car speaker.”
Souza hadn’t been credited or paid for his work, which led him to file a claim with the Los Angeles Musicians Union.
“The Union accepted my claim, and I was granted double scale for my sax overdubs.”
Producer Denny Cordell showed up at the hearing. “When we passed in the hall, we said nothing to each other,” Souza says.
Souza and his wife moved to the back room of a friend’s house. He set up a tape recorder in the garage and tried to write some new songs.
One day, he recalls, “I walked outside, and there was Tom Petty. I walked up to him and asked if he’d come into the garage and record with me on my little tape recorder. He, of course, quickly declined and said he was on his way somewhere else.”
Petty might have been referring to geography, but Souza understood their careers were headed in very different directions.
“I knew that Tom was on his way to making it big in the music business,” he says. “In the end, I was happy to have spent the time with him that I did.”
Souza never got another opportunity like Mudcrutch again. His career stalled, although he continues to make music and is working on a new album titled 2012.
I guess I wanted to understand what happened so long ago from someone else’s viewpoint.”
— Charlie Souza
Although he took his break with Petty in stride, his feelings shifted when the guitarist fired up Mudcrutch again in 2007. That December he paid a visit to Randall Marsh, the band’s former drummer, to see if he was open to making music together. But he had an ulterior motive.
“I guess I wanted to understand what happened so long ago from someone else’s viewpoint,” he says.
Over lunch at Sonny’s BBQ in Bushnell, Florida, Souza got a confidence boost, but little new information about why he was left behind.
“Randall told me, ‘Charlie, we all looked up to you — Tom, Mike, Benmont, and me. You were our hero back then. You had played with Cactus, and you were our idol because you sang all those great Beatles harmonies in the Tropics. We all thought you were the best bass player we could have in the band.’
“That felt great. I was a lot happier about what had happened.”
Souza also learned Marsh had been invited back to Mudcrutch and been recording with Petty back in Los Angeles. “I asked if he would see if Tom would bring me in to play bass, but he immediately said Tom was the bass player for the new Mudcrutch,” he explains. “That was the end of that discussion.”
Souza may never know why he was cut from the band, but he has a theory. His predecessor, Danny Roberts, had offered up his own songs for the band to record. Petty wasn’t happy about it and let him go. Unable to express his feelings, he dealt with matters in silence. Mike Campbell had a phrase for it: “covert aggression.”
I read in the trades as recently as last year that Tom quit the band because I wanted to record a song I had written about a spaceman called ‘Brother in the Sky.’”
— Charlie Souza
The circumstances sound familiar to Souza.
“I read in the trades as recently as last year that Tom quit the band because I wanted to record a song I had written about a spaceman called ‘Brother in the Sky,’” he says.
Petty died in 2017, so Souza will probably never learn what happened. But he did have one last contact with his former bandmate.
“In 2011, I finally contacted Tom through East End Management,” he says. “He graciously gave me his blessings on releasing my book, Live Your Dream.” Published that same year, the memoir recounts Souza’s career and time with Mudcrutch.
As for “Brother in the Sky”? Souza hasn’t given up on it.
“I intend to record that song on my next album,” he says.
