Stan Lynch

Stanley "Stan" Lynch (born May 21, 1955) is an American songwriter and record producer. He was the original drummer for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers for 18 years until his departure in 1994.

Early years

Lynch was born in the U.S. city of Cincinnati, Ohio, and moved to Gainesville, Florida, in the early 1960s. He began playing music as a small child. As a teenager growing up near Gainesville, Lynch determined that he would find a way to make a living with music. “As a kid I had very little opportunity. I was a marginal student. I wasn’t going to college. My parents didn’t have money.”

“I played guitar and piano, and I always thought I was going to be a guitar player,” said Lynch. “The drums were sort of a happy accident. I didn’t really think that they would be my ticket out of the ghetto. Choosing to be a musician back then was not like choosing a job, but an entire lifestyle. My father looked at me as if I were going to wear a dress and dance in the circus.”

Lynch was always getting into fights at school so his folks reasoned that the high-strung youth might be able expel some aggression with drums. His parents made him take lessons before they bought him a kit, and he recalls with a laugh, "as soon as I got my first set they took up tennis—they just split, and I don’t blame them."

The Heartbreakers

He started to work with various...
Read More