Harrison Too Humble to Front the Heartbreakers

30 November 2009

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Late Beatles star George Harrison almost landed Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers as his backing band but was too reluctant to play the frontman for a world tour.

After performing with Bob Dylan on the Temples in Flames tour in the late 1980s, Petty offered his band's services to Harrison - but the Brit was too humble to lead one of the world's greatest rock groups, and Petty will always regret not pushing his old friend harder.

He says, "He loved the Heartbreakers, especially (guitarist) Mike Campbell. He told me once that Ry Cooder and Mike were the best slide players... I told Mike that. I don't know if he believed me".

Thinking back on it, it should have

Petty tells Rolling Stone magazine Harrison knew a tour with the Heartbreakers would be a big draw "He knew that. But I said, 'You have to playlead guitar. People would be very disappointed if you didn't.'

"It just never happened. Thinking back on it, it should have. But I don't think any of us really tried to make it happen... It wasn't meant to be. It didn't go that way".

Petty and Harrison did become bandmates, however, in supergroup the Traveling Wilburys, opposite Dylan, Jeff Lynne and Roy Orbison.

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