It’s no secret that Tom Petty finds genres like hip-hop, metal and EDM to be “plastic computer music,” or so he claimed in a recent interview with USA Today.

Just days before releasing his thirteenth studio album with The Heartbreakers, Hypnotic Eye, Petty spoke out on topics such as the music production process, religion, politics and MP3s vs CDs. He was also quick to attack electronic dance music, condemning the genre for its heavy drug culture and frequent deaths.

“Watch people play records? That’s stupid. You couldn’t pay me to go. I’m not oversimplifying it. That’s what’s going on. I don’t think it would be any fun without the drugs. It’s a drug party.”

Petty’s low opinion of the scene is only amplified by festivals such as Electric Daisy Carnival Las Vegas, going so far as to reference in his interview the two attendees who passed away due to drug overdoses. He feels as though festival organizers are automatically setting themselves up for disaster by gathering hundreds of thousands of young adults in a Las Vegas desert, questioning whether money prevails over morality.

“You take that many kids to Vegas in the summer, what could go wrong? I knew it as soon as I saw the ad. I went, ‘Ooh, dead people.’ Do you need the money so bad that you’ll put some kid’s life at risk?”

It is possible that Petty’s qualms about EDM may be rooted in his disappointment with popular culture, having come to terms with the fact that rock has been “elbowed to the side.”

Via: USA Today

Tags: drug party, EDM, Tom Petty

Categories: Music