US rocker Tom Petty dies at 66

Down-to-earth rock superstar

LOS ANGELES, Oct 3, (Agencies): Tom Petty, an old-fashioned rock superstar and everyman who drew upon the Byrds, the Beatles and other bands he worshipped as a boy and produced new classics such as “Free Fallin,’ “Refugee” and “American Girl,” has died. He was 66.

Petty died Monday night at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles a day after he suffered cardiac arrest at his home in Malibu, California, spokeswoman Carla Sacks said.

Petty and his longtime band the Heartbreakers had recently completed a 40th anniversary tour, one he hinted would be their last.

“I’m thinking it may be the last trip around the country,” Petty told Rolling Stone last year. “We’re all on the backside of our 60s. I have a granddaughter now I’d like to see as much as I can. I don’t want to spend my life on the road. This tour will take me away for four months. With a little kid, that’s a lot of time.”

Usually backed by the Heartbreakers, Petty broke through in the 1970s and went on to sell more than 80 million records. The Gainesville, Florida, native with the shaggy blond hair and gaunt features was loved for his melodic hard rock, nasally vocals and down-to-earth style. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which inducted Petty and the Heartbreakers in 2002, praised them as “durable, resourceful, hard-working, likeable and unpretentious.”

“I’m shocked and saddened by the news of Tom’s passing, he’s such a huge part of our musical history, there’ll never be another like him.” Eric Clapton wrote in a statement.

Petty’s albums included “Damn the Torpedoes,” “Hard Promises” and “Full Moon Fever,” although his first No. 1 did not come until 2014 and “Hypnotic Eye.” As a songwriter, he focused often on daily struggles and the will to overcome them, most memorably on “Refugee,” “Even the Losers” and “I Won’t Back Down.”

“It’s sort of the classic theme of a lot of the work I’ve done,” he told The Associated Press in 1989. “I think faith is very important just to get through life. I think it’s really important that you believe in yourself, first of all. It’s a very hard to thing to come by. But when you get it, it’s invaluable.”

Petty didn’t just sing about not backing down, he lived it. In 1979, he was enraged when his record label was sold and his contract transferred. Stating that he would not be “bought and sold like a piece of meat,” he self-financed what became “Damn the Torpedoes” and declared bankruptcy rather than allowing his label, MCA, to release it. He eventually reached a new deal with MCA, for better terms. In the early 1980s, he was again at war with MCA, this time over the label’s plans to charge extra money, a dollar higher than the standard $8.98, for his album “Hard Promises.” He again prevailed.

Petty was both a musician and obsessive fan, one who met his childhood heroes and lived out the fantasies of countless young rock lovers. He befriended Byrds leader Roger McGuinn and became close to George Harrison, who performed on “I Won’t Back Down” and joined Petty, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison and Jeff Lynne in the impromptu super group the Traveling Wilburys. Petty inducted

of wire fraud and making false statements to a bank. The proceeding was the result of a June 30 arrest and criminal charges of defrauding investors in the

Melodic

ill-fated Fyre Festival Bahamian concert that was to have taken place in April and May. Cancellation of the fest, which delved into chaos as attendees began Harrison into the Rock Hall in 2004; two years earlier Dylan’s son Jakob inducted Petty. In the 1980s, Petty and the Heartbreakers supported Bob Dylan on a nationwide tour.

He would speak of being consumed by rock music since childhood, to the point where his father, whom Petty would later say beat him savagely, thought he was “mental.” Awed by the chiming guitars of the Byrds, the melodic genius of the Beatles and the snarling lyrics of Dylan, he was amazed to find that other kids were feeling the same way.

“You’d go and see some other kid whose hair was long, this was around ‘65, and go, ‘Wow, there’s one like me,’” he told The Associated Press in 1989. “You’d go over and talk and he’d say, ‘I’ve got a drum set.’ ‘You do? Great!’ That was my whole life.”

By his early 20s, Petty had formed the group Mudcrutch with fellow Gainesville natives and future Heartbreakers (guitarist) Mike Campbell and (keyboardist) Benmont Tench. They soon broke up, but reunited in Los Angeles as the Heartbreakers, joined by bassist Ron Blair and drummer Stan Lynch. Their eponymous debut album came out in 1976 and they soon built a wide following, fitting easily into the New Wave sounds of the time.

The world changed more than Petty did over the past few decades. In 2014, around the time he received an ASCAP Founders Award, he told The Associated Press that he thought of himself as “kind of a music historian.”

“I’m always interested in the older music, and I’m still always discovering things that I didn’t know about,” he said. “To be honest, I really probably spend more time listening to the old stuff than I do the new stuff.”

Musicians mourned the loss of rock icon Tom Petty with an outpouring of tributes on social media.

Although Petty’s actual time of death was 8:40 pm PT on Monday, several media outlets reported that Petty had died earlier in the day, leading to a premature wave of statements and tributes. At his time of death, Petty was “surrounded by family, his bandmates, and friends,” according to Tony Dimitriades, the longtime manager of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

Shocking

“It’s shocking, crushing news,” Bob Dylan said in a statement. “I thought the world of Tom. He was a great performer, full of the light, a friend, and I’ll never forget him.”

“This is unbearable,” Sheryl Crow wrote on Twitter. “Vegas and now a great music hero has passed. You brought us so much joy,. We will miss you.”

“I loved Tom Petty and I covered his songs because I wanted to know what it felt like to fly,” John Mayer wrote.

“Thank you, Tom Petty, for all of the light you brought to the world,” Ed Helms said.

A number of musicians thanked Petty for his influence on their work. “Tom Petty changed my life,” Jack Antonoff wrote. “There is a reference to him in everything I’ve ever written. I love his work and life.”

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