Tom Petty

WHEN TOM PETTY burst into his manager's Sunset Blvd offices early this April he was exuberant. No wonder. He'd just finished mixing his fourth and most mature album, Hard Promises and the sessions had gone off without a hitch – indeed, much of the album had been recorded using completely live takes (MCA had almost managed to create a crisis by announcing plans to release the new Petty album at a $9.98 list price. But Petty politicked judiciously in the media – at one point threatening to make the LP title Eight Ninety – and his desire for a more affordable price prevailed.)