# Tom Petty was never a fan of MTV, but he was happy to accept it made his 1991 song into a massive hit

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/tom-petty-was-never-a-fan-of-mtv-but-he-was-happy-to-accept-it-made-his-1991-song-into-a-massive-hit/
- Published: 2026-11-15T18:00:00+00:00
- Updated: 2026-11-15T18:25:32+00:00
- Original publisher: Far Out
- Original article: https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/tom-petty-was-never-a-fan-of-mtv/
- Topics: Entertainment, Music

## Key points

- Petty was wary of music videos.
- MTV gave Eddie’s story a wider audience.
- The video’s length led Petty to extend the song.

## Summary

Tom Petty was sceptical about music videos, but the elaborate 1991 video for ‘Into the Great Wide Open’ changed his view. He felt the video matched the song and helped bring its satirical story to a much wider audience through MTV.

Co-written with Jeff Lynne, the song follows Eddie, a young musician whose Hollywood ambitions end in disappointment, reflecting the music industry’s tendency to discard artists after their first success. Julien Temple directed the video as a miniature film, starring Johnny Depp, Faye Dunaway and Gabrielle Anwar, with Petty in several roles. Temple shot so much footage that Petty extended the recording to fit it.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.