Tom Petty on Johnny Cash

The first time I met John was in 1982. I was with Nick Lowe, who was his son-in-law at the time, and we were in Nashville. John invited us to have a meal at his place out on the lake. We arrived, but we were disappointed, because John had taken ill that morning and had gone to the hospital with pneumonia -- him and June. But the meal was still going to go on. We sat at this long, elaborately set table. Just as the meal was about to begin, someone said, "Tom, John's on the phone and would like to talk to you." So I went to the phone, and we talked for, God, about half an hour. Then after dinner, he and June spoke to every single guest by phone as they left the house and asked if they had a good time.

When John came out to Los Angeles to make Unchained, me and the Heartbreakers kind of became his band. I still view that as the best work we ever did. One of my favorite stories is being at this studio in downtown Hollywood -- which is kind of a weird neighborhood -- when John came in with June. He was laughing, so I said, "Hey, where you been?" He said, "June and I thought it would be fun to just sit on that bus bench across the street for a while. I met the most interesting people over there." I said, "You're kidding me." I was trying to picture the look on these people's faces as they came to wait for the bus, and there's Johnny and June. This guy was friends with presidents, and he was friends with people at the bus stop.