Stan Lynch’s career has had three acts: drummer with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, producer/songwriter for Don Henley, The Mavericks and more. Now, at age 70, he’s a member of The Speaker Wars, whose hard-edged Americana sound adds the best of Lynch’s experience and returns him to the kit. “It’s good to have my old job back,” he says.
We caught up with Lynch for a chat about everything from learning the secret of the groove to attending a Frank Sinatra concert with Bob Dylan.
Was it in your plans, or did you ever expect, to be in another band when you were seventy?
I’ve had no plan my entire life! The last thing I remember, I was playing at a topless bar and had a Volkswagen bus and a hundred bucks. Then I remember driving to Los Angeles when I was nineteen – same Volkswagen bus, same hundred bucks [laughs]. I just allow myself to stay busy, and trip and fall into the next joyful thing. That’s what The Speaker Wars is.
How did you learn about the all-important groove as a drummer?
In the Heartbreakers, Tom always said: “We gotta get the feel, Stan.” Our first producer, Denny Cordell, was the same. He took me to a Bob Marley & The Wailers concert, and Marley was hypnotising the room. Denny said: “That’s what a groove is.” Denny also had a Ferrari Daytona. He’d say: “Get in and drive. Now, gun it! You feel that? That’s the groove.”
Don Henley helped to launch your second act, as a producer-songwriter.
He invited me into his world of how he creates songs. He’s a poet, and a badass. He sees the world through a filter that’s really divine. He said: “Stan, a song has to work from the neck up and the waist down.” Great advice.
Can you tell us about when you and Bob Dylan went to see a Frank Sinatra show?
The Heartbreakers were on tour with Bob, and I had tickets to see Frank and Sammy Davis. No one wanted to go, except Bob. There’s Bob in the second row, wearing his Unabomber sweatshirt, hiding as best he can. During the break, someone came up to me because they figured I must be Bob’s bodyguard, and said: “Come by the dressing room. Frank and Sammy want to say hi.” I asked Bob. He made the perfect face, and said: “No, let’s get the fuck out of here!” He was always this wonderful contrarian, flying in his own atmosphere. Fearless and courageous, the baddest rock star I ever had the pleasure of backing up.
When was the last time you saw Tom Petty before he died?
At the Hall Of Fame induction. I was certainly the odd man out at that point. But I wasn’t going to let that stop me telling Tom how much he meant to me, what a difference all those cats made in my life. I had to literally grab him by the back of the shirt to tell him I loved him. Tom set me up for a whole life in music.
Do you feel a sense of purpose in keeping rock’n’roll music alive?
It’s the only music I know. You put me behind the drums, I have a very narrow lane. It’s going to sound like the Heartbreakers or The Speaker Wars. I’m not really worried about being a flag bearer. I’m more: “This is what I do. This is what’s fun!”
The Speaker Wars is out now via Frontiers Records.
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