His aren't just Petty concerns
Wilmington Star-News - November 6, 1984
Tom Petty sustained multiple fractures of the left hand when he slammed his fist into a wall in frustration over the sound of one of the tracks from his upcoming LP. He still doesn't know if he'll ever be in shape to play the guitar again. But he's not letting that fact keep him inactive. Petty let MCA Records know he doesn't like the cover the company chose for what will be his first album in two years. So instead of Southern Accents going out with his picture on the jacket cover, it will feature a reproduction of a post-Civil War American Painting by Winslow Homer titled A Veteran in a New Field. Why? Because Petty likes it, that's why -- and he thinks it fits the music he wrote for the LP. MCA execs aren't too high on the idea -- figuring Winslow Homer isn't exactly record-buyer bait.