Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Bomber Jacket Nose Art ‘Rock n’ Roll Caravan ‘87

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Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Bomber Jacket Nose Art ‘Rock n’ Roll Caravan ‘87” original pen & ink artwork
TP/HB Bomber Jacket Nose Art ‘Rock n’ Roll Caravan ‘87” original pen & Ink artwork
Here is very rare and interesting original pen & ink  that has some real TP/HB band history. There were a number of different ideas and thoughts as how to best represent Tom’s concept for the upcoming “Rock N’ Roll Caravan ‘87” tour. This piece of art was an early favorite and an early contender. It was presented by Brass Ring Circus as a logo which might have been adopted as nose art on a WW2 B-17 or B-24 or P-38. Stan Lynch championed this design especially and even had the design painted onto the back of his own vintage looking leather aviator's jacket, commonly called a bomber’s jacket. Each one of the bomb icons represented a different tour ‘mission’ to deliver the goods with the 3 letter airport abbreviation of the tour cities.
There were people who didn’t ‘get’ the historic and deliberate ironic nose art reference ( perhaps it was the notion of a flying camel taking a dump, everyone has their own opinion.) There was a vocal minority opposed to Stan pushing for ’his’ idea(s) anyway, as Stan is known for his sense of humor in the face of certain institutions. The more he insisted, the more they dug in in opposition and said that the band should consider a ‘less cartoony’ tour design. He rushed BRC to take this design and paint it full color on his jacket to show the naysayers that it would look suitably bad-ass and that they would sell an enormous amount of tour merch swag featuring it. When the finished jacket was delivered to Stan during tour rehearsal, the other band members applauded it and several likewise requested that they wanted to have the same made for them individually. Several crew members likewise placed their orders. The politicking ‘for’ or ‘against’ “Stan’s idea” created a noticeable division. There were those who said that the wrong message was being presented…’Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers are going to ‘bomb’ in your city’. Was the design 'pro-military'? Was the design potentially controversial to the point of confusing? Some suggested that the only thing worse would be to paint the flying camel in the Confederate Flag’s ‘Stars and Bars’. (Which several persons specifically asked for...defiantly)
Stan refused to back down and the final concession was to let him be photographed wearing it proudly on his own dedicated pages within the tour book (see attached..before the city bombs as missions are painted on). Of course the ‘Joe Camel, Smooth Character’ ad campaign by Camel Cigarettes and R.J. Reynolds followed which created a huge shit storm far bigger that this initial difference of interpretation of classic WW2 Nose Art. Stan wanted to merchandise the design separately on his own as t-shirts and other wearable items. Bootleggers jumped on it and there was an unauthorized tailgate version that showed up in various tour cities only to be confiscated or threatened with legal action by the band's merchandising company. Tom once quipped: "I don’t care how cool I think something is...I don’t promote war and all that it represents. There are plenty other people irresponsibly doin’ that...there are plenty of ideas.”
Howie Epstein had been selected to coordinate all the band member’s thoughts, approvals and participation in the tour book process and later merchandising line input to bring to Tom . Stan wanted to take over this position as Howie became too busy on an album project at the same time for Charlene Carter.
One city bomb has noticeably fallen off somewhere between 1987 and today. The piece is composed of three pieces of paper, one is the bristol board pen and ink original, with mission city bomb icons are affixed to the sheets on the right side. The sunglass-wearing comic camel did appear on the tour’s VIP backstage pass and on the final tour admat design predating the allegedly inspired  'Joe Camel, smooth Character' national advertising campaign by  R.J.Reynolds for Camel Cigarettes and the resulting national controversy.
Size: 18" H x 14 " W, artwork on paper only. The jacket is shown here as reference only to the above and is NOT included in this sale.
Shipping:  original artwork is shipped flat domestically from Arcadia, California
International orders welcome, but contact us first for a price for postage and insurance to your country.