Lynch started to work with various Florida bands, among them Styrophoam Soule and Road Turkey, and when he was 15 he met Ron Blair, who was six years older than Lynch. “I remember he accused me of stealing an amp from him. Hell, I didn’t steal it. I was roadieing for him!” Drums didn’t absorb all of Lynch’s feistiness as his parents had hoped, although he stayed in school long enough to graduate from P.K. Yonge School in 1973.

Lynch moved to Los Angeles, and hooked up again with fellow Floridian Ron Blair, during a recording session set up by Benmont Tench in 1976. The session also included Jacksonville native Mike Campbell. Benmont called Tom Petty, also from Gainesville, to ask for some help with some vocals. While they were taking a break Petty looked into the recording studio and thought to himself “this should be my band”. Petty had come out to LA with his band Mudcrutch, which Tench and Campbell were originally a part of, and had a recording contract. But once in LA the producers decided they were not keen on the rest of the band, so it broke up, leaving Petty basically a solo act — something he was not happy about. But because he had the record deal already, after the break Petty went back into the studio and started his pitch. By the end of the evening, Lynch and the rest walked out as Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers.

After being with the Heartbreakers, Lynch calmed down. “Tom told me, ‘Look man, you can call anybody anything you want…but you can’t lay a hand on anyone in this band.’ ” Even though he was still in the band in 1989, Lynch did not perform on any songs on Petty’s solo album Full Moon Fever, even though Campbell, Tench and Epstein did.

Lynch left the group in 1994. His last gig with the Heartbreakers was on October 2, 1994, at the Bridge School Benefit Concert in Mountain View, California. It was immediately following this gig that Lynch left the band due to musical and personal differences with Petty. After his departure, Lynch moved back to Florida, where he partnered with longtime friend Don Henley to help put together the Eagles’ reunion album Hell Freezes Over. He also has toured with the Eagles.

Lynch reunited with his former bandmates in 2002 when they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, playing “American Girl” and “Mary Jane’s Last Dance”.

Tom Petty had the following to say about Lynch, included in his 2005 book, Conversations with Tom Petty: