Facing the Music

Petty says he is again broke, distraught over his conviction and convinced he's done nothing wrong. He filed a motion for a mistrial, which was denied, and offered up letters of personal explanations to the judge. Still, Petty is poring over thousands of documents that he says will vindicate him if he can just get someone in the justice system to see that his advanced technique of creating wealth for the average person is perfectly legal. It is quite complex and difficult for most to understand, but, as he's fond of saying, you don't need to understand electricity to turn on a light.

Petty leaves his document-strewn hotel room, as he is allowed to do during the daytime until he is sentenced. He takes the elevator to the lobby and walks to the hotel parking lot where a beat-up red Cadillac with Alberta plates sits. He gets in alone and drives to the Cracker Barrel on the other side of the freeway, where he will undoubtedly charm the waitresses while he orders a bowl of oatmeal.

"I never, ever took a dime of anyone's money to get anything for me. I didn't have to. I had $3 million left over after I paid $7.5 million in January, February and March," he says with the utmost sincerity and despair. "It's a whole new concept. There is nothing to compare with it."

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When Al Petty is selling Al Petty, he is a picture of self-confidence. He likes to refer to himself in the third person and by both names, especially in his literature when he's describing one of his ideas that, according to Al Petty, are universally far ahead of their time. Al Petty believes he is far more intelligent than most, a genius when you get right down to it.

It seems like everything the high school dropout and self-described deeply Christian man and manipulator (but strictly in a good way) has done was big, revolutionary and difficult for the average person to understand.

He spent most of his life devoted to music and sometimes to God and, if his fantastic version of events is to be believed, was a child prodigy when it came to music and the steel guitar. According to a 13-page "autobiography" that Petty offered potential TeleCom2000 investors, at age 9 he could quote so much scripture that he "was the winner every time" in Bible drills at his church. Also at 9, he took up the guitar and "began teaching guitarists that had been playing for 10 and 15 years chord patterns and structures of chords that they had not recognized." He "started playing professionally at the age of 12," he says, and quickly developed a music course that was eventually adopted by Nashville musicians.

"Once again, Al was ahead of his time by 20 or 30 years," he wrote.

Later, he moved to San Diego and wrote The History and Science of Tuning, which was "to be some 25 to 30 or 40 years ahead of its time. Over 20 years were to pass before some of the leading musicians in the world recognized the invaluable and unprecedented principles in that book. That information became a classic." A secret one, apparently; no record of the book exists at the Library of Congress or anywhere else. (Petty says it's on tape.)

As Petty was writing his book, while he supposedly played music for film and television, he says he met Leo Fender of Fender guitar fame. Petty claims he would leave an indelible mark on the famous guitar maker. He was 23.

"After producing unparalleled efficiency in production systems in every department in which he worked, at the age of 27, Al Petty was placed in charge of the amplifier division for Fender Instrument Company," Petty wrote.

The company was in big financial trouble, Petty says, and in desperation, Fender "asked Al to figure out a production system to salvage his amplifier division." Petty cleaned up the mess and turned the division around, but at age 30 he moved on and the company suffered because of it, he says.

"After he left Fender, the management was never able to figure his system out," Petty wrote of himself. "It was too complex."

George Fullerton, who founded the company with Leo Fender and ran its business side, was in charge of production until the company was sold in 1965. He remembers Al Petty well and says that while it is true Petty became supervisor of amplifier assembly, Petty is exaggerating "about a hundred times over" his influence.

"I was in charge of all production in the factory; I was vice president of the company. Al had nothing to do with anything except being supervisor over building amplifiers, the assembly of them," he says.

Petty says his music and other career paths blossomed soon after he left Fender. He was on the charts so much that any aspiring commercial musician would be envious, and he "became the highest-paid country entertainer in the nightclubs on the West Coast." He also says he is in the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame, a Texas organization headquartered at a Mesquite music store. Petty is not a member of the recognized Hall of Fame in St. Louis.