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Q: Rick Rubin, who produced "Wildflowers," brought you in to play on Johnny Cash's record. You must have been like a kid in the candy store.

A: I was. That album, "Unchained," just blows my mind. I think it's some of the best playing the Heartbreakers ever did . . . it would be on somebody else's record. But we really gave him everything we could give him. We would have died for him. I'm real proud of that record, even when I hear it in the commercials. [Sings] "I've been everywhere, man..."

Q: "She's the One" came out as the soundtrack to Ed Burns' movie of the same name. You scored the movie as well. Do you want to do more movie scores?

A: No, I think that cured me of ever wanting to do it. [laughs] I busted my ass on it, and then you see the movie and people are talking over it. I don't have time for that. I've got other stuff to do. I really liked Ed a lot and I thank him for giving me the shot, but it taught me that [that's] not where I want to live.

Q: You took "Free Girl Now" from the album "Echo" and gave it away as an MP3. Two days later it had been downloaded 182,000 times. This was in 1999 before downloading really took off.

A: It was funny, because Tony [Dimitriades] and I did that without really having the permission to do it. We just thought, "Try it and see what happens," but it went over bigger than we had planned. I think [the WB execs] were very nice, like, "That was funny, but don't do it again."

Q: It seems the relationship with Warner started to go south with 2002's "The Last DJ."

A: It was going south before that, because it was regime after regime coming through there. It was a very confused place at the time and, you know, I could feel that I don't have anyone here who understands me or who really understands what we're trying to do. At that point, the whole music industry had been turned on its side by the computer and by this sort of instant pop star that you can throw away and make another one.

I don't know a lot about the music business, but I knew there was enough metaphor there to write a sort of moral play and use it as the vehicle. It was fun to sort of send them up and run them up the flagpole and have a laugh at them.

Q: A lot of people thought the title track was directed at Clear Channel, but it was not.

A: No, not at all. I thought Clear Channel put on concerts, I didn't know they had the radio thing. I knew it when they banned my record the first day . . . Tony [told] me, and I was like, "Great, you can't pray for anything better than that." But the record got a bad reputation. I don't know if it's something I'd do again, but I'm kind of glad I did it.

Q: Do you think it did not do well because it was not what people expect from Tom Petty?

A: Well, too bad, you're going to have to take what he gives you. I don't give a damn what you want.

Q: Yes, you do. You have just spent hours talking about the respect you have for your audience.

A: Yes, well, that is respecting them. If I disrespected them, I would pander to them, but I don't. I never have, and I'm never going to. If you just think I'm going to sing "Refugee" every time, I'm not going to do it. I'm too old for that now.

Q: What do you want to do?

A: I'm more interested in what I'm going to leave behind me now than in making a big hit record. I've refined what I do for a long time. If getting better at it means it goes over the heads of those who only wanted to party, then so be it.

Q: There is a great line in the song "Joe" on "The Last DJ" that says, "We could move more catalog if he'd only die quicker." So death really is a good career move.

A: Well, you always sell more. It's just a downright vicious song. It's black, black humor. I think I was hurt inside that you guys fucked this up, just the business in general, you fucked up this beautiful thing, this music that spoke for people. You turned it into this thing that nobody trusts, and it's, like, all for money. Like you weren't making enough money.

Q: What can we expect from your next solo album, "Highway Companion," when it comes out next year?

A: It has a lot to say about time and the passage of time. It's not so much love songs, it's not going to be what anybody expects from me, I'm sure of that. But it's good music, it's really good music.

Q: Do you see a day where you do not make music anymore?

A: My wife will tell you I'm not any happier anywhere than when I'm in the studio. I'm over the moon about it. It keeps me young, it keeps me feeling like I have some purpose. There's some reason this stuff is coming through me. So I don't intend to quit.

Q: Next year marks the 30th anniversary of the first Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers album. Are you surprised your run has lasted this long?

A: I specifically remember thinking if we had a five-year run, we'd look back on this and think that was a good run. Then it got to, "If we get 10 years out of this, it would be really something," so 30 years, incredible. I never thought we would do it this long. But you go back to '76, there weren't a lot of 50-year-old rock singers. Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley were the only people that I was aware of who had gotten old in rock'n'roll; everyone else had died or faded out. I just feel really pleased to be here.

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