Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Released: October 8, 2002

Songwriter: Tom Petty

Producer: Tom Petty Mike W. Campbell George Drakoulias

My name's Joe, I'm the CEO
Yeah I'm the man makes the big wheels roll
I'm the hand on the green-light switch
You get to be famous, I get to be rich

Go get me a kid with a good-looking face
Bring me a kid can remember his place
Some hungry poet son-of-a-bitch
He gets to be famous, I get to be rich

Or bring me a girl, they're always the best
You put 'em on stage and you have 'em undress
Some angel whore who can learn a guitar lick
Hey! Now that's what I call music!

Well, they'll come looking for money when the public gets bored
But we'll fight 'em with lawyers they could never afford
Yeah, I'll make her look like a spoiled little bitch
She gets to be famous, I get to be rich

Or bring me a girl, they're always the best
You put 'em on stage and you have 'em undress
Some angel whore who can learn a guitar lick
Hey! Now that's what I call music!

So burned-out Johnny thinks the books are shifty
What good is that alky to me when he's fifty?
Well we could move catalog, if he'd only die quicker
Send my regards to the gig and a case of good liquor

He gets to be famous, I get to be rich
He gets to be famous, I get to be rich
My name's Joe, I'm the CEO
I'm the man that makes the big wheels roll

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – an L.A.-based gang of sharp-dressed garage-rock refugees from Gainsville, Florida – released their debut LP in November 1976, featuring two tracks which are now part of their long list of hits, “Breakdown” and “American Girl.”

Since that first LP in ‘76, the band’s style has epitomized and largely defined the American “heartland rock” movement – a vintage-guitar twang, hard lyric truth, and searing vocal attitude.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers have been nominated for 17 Grammy awards and sold more than 80 million records worldwide, making them one of the world’s best-selling bands of all-time.

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