People: Petty, Heartbreakers say they’re L.A. band
Before easing into a conversation about his new album with the Heartbreakers, “Hypnotic Eye,” the longtime Malibu beach-dweller Tom Petty has a score to settle. It’s in response to an old Times survey of Los Angeles’ most enduring rock bands.
Specifically: He and the Heartbreakers shouldn’t have been disqualified because of his north Florida roots.
“We’re an L.A. band,” Petty says with a good-natured but emphatic tone, puffing on a vapor pen while lounging in his home studio. The Heartbreakers were birthed in this city, he adds.
“We’re certainly as L.A. as the Springfield were, or the Byrds,” he says, then geekily lists Buffalo Springfield players and their hometowns before focusing on the Doors. His voice rises: “Jim Morrison was from Florida!”
The slight bugged him for years, says the singer, songwriter and guitarist, 63, mostly because of the ribbing he got from his accomplished peers. “I got the finger shaken at me by so many people. ‘Hey, you’re not an L.A. band!’ ”
Add in that Petty and the Heartbreakers have never recorded outside of Southern California and his frequent lyrical nods to his home. “Free Fallin’,” his solo ode to cruising the San Fernando Valley, cemented his residency years ago, as did the Roger McGuinn-suggestive Rickenbacker strum of “The Waiting” before that.
Stars lend voices to ‘The Simpsons’
Jane Fonda, Sarah Silverman and Nick Offerman are among the guest voices on “The Simpsons” this fall, while Kim Kardashian lends her voice in the final episode of “American Dad.”
Fox said Sunday that Kardashian plays an alien in the woods who has a fling with Roger when the series wraps up its run on Sept. 21. Jane Krakowski is heard in the one-hour season premiere on Sept. 14, with a second episode immediately following.
“The Simpsons” returns for its 26th season on Sept. 28. Fonda plays Mr. Burns’ girlfriend, while Willem Dafoe voices the part of Bart’s bullying teacher Mr. Lassen. Offerman and Silverman are heard in other episodes. Judd Apatow writes a special episode set to air later in the season.
“Family Guy” comes back with a one-hour premiere on Sept. 28 that features a get-together between the Griffins and the Simpsons. The voices of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie will be heard, along with Moe. Liam Neeson, Julie Bowen of “Modern Family” and Allison Janney of “Mom” lend their voices later in the season.
“Simpsons” executive producer Al Jean said Sunday that a “Simpsons” and “Futurama” crossover episode will air in November.
Actor Edward Herrmann (“Gilmore Girls”) is 71. Singer Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens) is 66. Cartoonist Garry Trudeau (“Doonesbury”) is 66. Comedian-actor Robin Williams is 63. Comedian Jon Lovitz is 57. Actress Alysia Reiner (“Orange Is the New Black”) is 44. Country singer Paul Brandt is 42. Actress Ali Landry is 41. Actor Josh Hartnett is 36.