tom Petty 1950 – 2017
Passing away suddenly on 2 october, the leader of the Heartbreakers and supergroup the traveling Wilburys was regarded as one of the finest songwriters in american rock
arly in the morning of Monday 2 October, Tom Petty was found unconscious, not breathing and in full cardiac arrest at his home in Encino, California. He was rushed to the ULCA Medical Center and immediately put on life support, but he died at 8.40pm PDT that day. Later , his manager Tony Dimitriades posted a statement on Petty’s website that read: “On behalf of the Tom Petty family, we are devastated to announce the untimely death of our father, husband, brother, leader and friend… He died peacefully… surrounded by family, his bandmates and friends.” Social media exploded with outpourings of surprise, shock and disbelief, slowly coming to terms with the fact that yet another music legend had passed on. Tributes from fellow musicians poured in: Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger and Dhani Harrison all expressed their sorrow about a man who, to many, defined the spirit of rock ‘n’ roll. “He was a great performer,” Dylan noted, “full of the light, a friend and I’ll never forget him.”
Tom Petty’s death came a week or so after completing his band’s 40th anniversary tour and just 18 days before his 67th birthday, but his musical journey began in February 1964, the catalyst being The Beatles’ first TV appearance on US TV on The Ed Sullivan Show. After that, as Petty put it himself, “There was no way out, I saw in The Beatles that here’s something that I could do – I knew I could do it”. Dropping out of high school in 1967, Petty formed his first band, electing initially to play bass. His first guitar teacher was The Eagles’ Don Felder, himself a local musician in Petty’s home town of Gainesville, Florida, and it wasn’t long before Petty and his first serious band, Mudcrutch, were performing together. After failing to gain them any real success Petty went on to perform first as a solo artist, ultimately forming the band with which he would always be associated in 1976. Their first album, titled simply Tom Petty And The
Heartbreakers, failed to make too much of a mark in the USA, but after a UK tour with Nils Lofgren kickstarted sales on this side of the Pond, the US record label decided to re-release the album. This time the US listened.
The Heartbreakers went on to achieve legendary status with singles like Free
Fallin’ and American Girl becoming an indelible part of FM rock’s landscape.
During his career, Petty collaborated with many other artists, including Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks, but perhaps his most celebrated partnership was that with George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Jeff Lynn and Roy Orbison in The Traveling Wilburys. Initially a project for ex-Beatle Harrison to “record an album with some of my mates”, the first studio outing, Traveling Wilburys Vol 1 was a surprise success on its release in 1988, sparking a sequel, the enigmatically titled
Traveling Wilburys Vol 3, two tears later. Always claiming that the true guitar sound of The Heartbreakers was a combination of his own and Mike Campbell’s combined, Petty had a considerable collection of instruments. Using Vox, Fender and Marshall amps, his choice of guitars ranged from a 1964 Stratocaster to a selection of Rickenbackers, a Gretsch Tennessean, an Epiphone Casino for studio use and a Gibson Firebird appearing on occasion.
Spookily, before setting out on The Heartbreakers 40th Anniversary Tour, which began in April this year and ran until 25 September, Petty predicted that “It may be my last trip around the country. I don’t want to spend my life on the road…” Sadly, this proved to be the case.
In his lifetime Tom Petty sold well in excess of 60 million albums and played thousands of gigs; in the words of Brian Wilson, “Tom was a hell of a songwriter and record-maker. He will be missed by everyone who loves music.”