Mudcrutch Co-Founder and Former Tom Petty Bandmate, Tom Leadon Dies at 70

Tom Leadon, guitarist and founding member of Tom Petty‘s first band, Mudcrutch, and brother of Eagles co-founder Bernie Leadon, has died. He was 70.

Leadon died of natural causes, according to his family. “It is with great sadness, but profound love and gratitude for his life, that the family of Tom Leadon announce his passing on March 22, 2023, peacefully of natural causes,” wrote Leadon’s brother Mark on a Facebook post.

Fellow Mudcrutch co-founder and Heartbreakers guitarist, Mike Campbell, also posted his condolences on Twitter.

“Tom Leadon was my deepest guitar soul brother,” shared Campbell. “We spent countless hours playing acoustic guitars and teaching each other things. A kinder soul never walked the earth. I will always miss his spirit and generosity. Sleep peacefully, my old friend.”

Born Sept. 16, 1952, in Rosemount, Minnesota, Leadon’s family moved to Gainesville, Florida in 1964, where he later met his future bandmates, including Petty.

Still teenagers, Leadon and Petty first played in a band called The Epics together. “I was fascinated with Petty, he always fascinated me,” said Leadon. “I thought he was very entertaining and very talented in his own way. I started hanging around with The Epics and would work the lights for them, and after a couple of months they asked me to join, Tom told me later he was pushing for that. He felt he needed a good musician, someone who could really play guitar, and I was only 14.”

By 1970, The Epics changed their name to Mudcrutch with vocalist Jim Lenehan, Petty on bass, Leadon and Campbell on guitar, and drummer Randall Marsh and released the single “Up In Mississippi” in 1971.

Leadon left Mudcrutch in 1972 and followed his brother Bernie—a former member of the Flying Burrito Brothers, who had just formed the Eagles—to California.

In 1976, Tom Leadon joined the band Silver, who had a top hit with the song “Wham Bam,” while the remaining members of Mudcrutch also relocated to Los Angeles before forming Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

Mudcrutch reunited in 2007 with Petty, Leadon, Tench, and Marsh, and released their self-titled album in 2008. The album marked the band’s first full-length release together since forming more than 35 years earlier. They followed it with their second and final album, Mudcrutch 2, released a year prior to Petty’s death on Oct. 2, 2017.

On Mudcrutch 2, Leadon contributed one track, “The Other Side of the Mountain,” which he sang with Petty.

Following Petty’s death, Leadon wrote and released the song “My Best Old Friend,” a tribute to his late bandmate.

Throughout his career, Leadon also played with Linda Ronstadt, The Beach Boys, Martha Reeves, James Jamerson, Big Mama Thornton, and Johnny Rivers, among other artists. In 1975, the Eagles featured Leadon’s song “Hollywood Waltze” on their fourth album One of These Nights.

In his later years, Leadon taught guitar in Nashville and played with his band the Bayjacks.

Photo by Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images