1979 was a strange year in music. A shift in sound had coined a new phrase on the radio, "New Wave". Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers had been lumped carelessly into this category but would soon cast it off with their hit album Damn The Torpedoes.

As the Heartbreakers entered the studio for their third time at bat, suddenly and unexpectedly they were thrown a curve ball when their record label sold the Heartbreakers' recording contract to one of the biggest major labels . Tom refused, sparking a David-vs-Goliath legal battle that lasted months, cost over a million dollars, and nearly bankrupted Tom Petty.

Meanwhile, the drama being played out in the courtroom could not derail Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers' first Top Ten hit, "Don't Do Me Like That", providing unlimited musical inspiration for the band's timeless rock anthem "Refugee".

Tom describes to InTheStudio host Redbeard how "Refugee" defined the legal battle that threatened his and the band's future and gave them the strength to win the war.

"Refugee is like you had to leave one place and go to another without really wanting to, or to survive you had to go to another place. I think I was probably saying it to myself, in some sense there. I didn't think I had to live that way or cower down and run away. "