rock and roll hall of famer tom petty passedon october 2nd, 2017, surrounded by his friends, family, and bandmates. for more than four decades, his quintessentiallyamerican brand of rock music won him and his band, the heartbreakers, legions of fans fromacross the globe and made petty one of the best-selling musicians of all-time. a legendary career like that is full of storieshis obituary might omit. here's a look at the life and career of tompetty. refugee everyone has moments from their childhoodthat define them, and for petty, his adult
outlook was shaped by an abusive childhood,according to a 2013 interview with men's journal. petty's grandfather, a logger from georgia,married a cherokee woman, and, family legend has it, slew a man with an ax who had a problemwith the union. his father, earl, was raised in florida afterthe family fled, and petty said his dad was an angry drunk. earl regularly beat tom, his siblings, andhis beloved mother, who introduced him to music, which quickly became what he calledhis "safe place." but like the booze, the music also fueledhis old man's anger: petty suspected earl was so mean to him because of his interestin music and the arts, which earl found effeminate.
runnin' down a dream petty told men's journal in that same interviewthat his mother was everything to him growing up, crediting her with keeping, quote, "anelement of civilization in the house." because of her, his first musical influenceswere crooners like nat king cole and the soundtrack to musicals like west side story. the first record petty bought with his ownmoney, scraped together from turning in coke bottles, was the marvelettes' playboy from1962. once the family got a television, petty sayshe realized there was a great big world out there beyond his troubled life in florida,and he longed to escape to los angeles, or,
as he called it, "television city," his "wayout." around that same time, when petty was 11,he met elvis presley while the king was filming follow that dream in ocala, and that sealedthe deal. he later told billboard, "it wasn't like meetingjesus, but it was close." he went home, asked his mother to buy hima guitar from sears, and started spending his free time in a local music shop. by 14, he had formed his first band, the sundowners,and never looked back. make it better they say imitation is the sincerest form offlattery, but without proper attribution,
it can also get you sued in the music industry. in the last few decades of petty's life, therewere three instances of artists allegedly plagiarizing his riffs, but he never seemedbitter about any of it — and only one case ended with petty getting a songwriting credit. in 2006, after the red hot chili peppers wereaccused of lifting "mary jane's last dance" in "dani california," petty told rolling stone,"i think there are enough frivolous lawsuits in this country without people fighting overpop songs." in that same interview, petty mentioned howthe strokes admitted to lifting parts of his "american girl" for their song "last nite,"and said it made him "laugh out loud."
his laid-back attitude showed up again in2015, when he ended up with a writing credit on sam smith's "stay with me," which soundsuncannily similar to petty's "i won't back down." smith said he wasn't even familiar with petty'ssong, but the two parties settled the issue amicably. petty later told rolling stone there wereno hard feelings, and it was, quote, "a musical accident, no more, no less." change of heart the year of petty's death, confederate statuesand symbols re-emerged as a hot topic in the
u.s., with many states choosing to removeiconography deemed sympathetic to the confederacy. as it turns out, back in 1985, petty usedthe confederate flag as marketing during his southern accents tour, but later deeply regrettedit. "you grow up in the south like that, you neverreally beat it out of you, you know." after south carolina took down the confederateflag from outside its statehouse in 2015, petty wrote an essay for rolling stone apologizingfor his own use of it. he wrote that he used the flag to help illustratea character in his song "rebels," but things got out of hand, and he had to ask fans tostop bringing the flags to his shows. he told the magazine, quote, "i was prettyignorant of what it actually meant.
… it's like how a swastika looks to a jewishperson … it was dumb and it shouldn't have happened." don't do me like that corporate sponsorships are the norm in rock'n' roll, but petty stubbornly refused to accept them for any of his tours throughouthis long career. when billboard asked him about it in 2005,he said it was about keeping the heartbreakers independent and trustworthy to fans, tellingthe magazine, "we started it from nothing and we own it, and i want people to trustit. it's not for sale."
petty also refused to let his songs be usedin advertising spots, saying, quote, "i didn't write them to be orange juice commercials. sometimes i feel like maybe it's a dumb move,because i don't know if anyone cares, but i care immensely." into the great wide open by all accounts, petty was in good spiritsand health when he and the heartbreakers kicked off their 40th anniversary tour in april 2017. but he hinted it might be his last, tellingrolling stone in december 2016 that he no longer wanted to spend his life on the road.
in hindsight, the entire interview is eerieand heartbreaking. after a three-year lull from touring — thelongest the band had been off the road in 25 years — petty told the magazine he wantedto spend more time with his granddaughter, among other priorities, but he hadn't madeup his mind about future touring … "i'd be lying if i didn't say i was thinkingthis might be the last big one. … we're very aware that time is finite. at the end of the year we'll say, 'what doyou feel like doing?' then we'll figure out where to go next." the heartbreakers completed the entire runof full band shows on september 25th in los
angeles — petty's mythical "television city." just over a week later, the 66-year-old rock'n' roll legend suffered cardiac arrest at his malibu home on the morning of october2nd, and passed later that night at the hospital. in a 2014 interview with cbc news, petty saidhe was born to make music: "i feel like for some reason i was born withsome kind of conduit to, y'know, this energy force or whatever it is." "and i can have that happen through me ifi really try to do, or sometimes when i'm not."
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