The band included future Heartbreakers Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench and was popular in Gainesville, but their recordings went unnoticed by a mainstream audience. Shortly after embracing his musical aspirations, Petty started a band known as the Epics, which later evolved into Mudcrutch. Main article: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Career 1976–1987: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Petty was close to his mother and remained close to his brother, Bruce. Petty has described his father as a 'wild, gambling drinker guy'. According to Petty, his father found it difficult to accept that Petty was 'a mild-mannered kid who was interested in the arts' and subjected him to verbal and physical abuse on a regular basis. Petty also overcame a difficult relationship with his father. An Ogeechee lime tree that he purportedly planted while employed at the university is now called the Tom Petty tree (Petty stated that he did not recall planting any trees). As a young man, Petty worked briefly on the grounds crew of the University of Florida, but never attended as a student. ĭon Felder, a fellow Gainesville resident, who later joined the Eagles, claimed in his autobiography that he was one of Petty's first guitar teachers although Petty said that Felder taught him to play piano instead. He credited the group with inspiring him by demonstrating that he and musicians like him could make it in rock and roll. In an interview with the CBC in 2014, Petty stated that the Rolling Stones were 'my punk music'. It wasn't long before there were groups springing up in garages all over the place.' He dropped out of high school at age 17 to play bass with his newly formed band. But I really saw in the Beatles that here's something I could do. You get your friends and you're a self-contained unit. 'The minute I saw the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show-and it's true of thousands of guys-there was the way out. In a 2006 interview, Petty said he knew he wanted to be in a band the moment he saw the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show. Of that meeting with Presley, Petty said, 'Elvis glowed.' He instantly became a Presley fan, and when he returned that Saturday, he was greeted by his friend Keith Harben, and soon traded his Wham-O slingshot for a collection of Elvis 45s. In the summer of 1961, his uncle was working on the set of Presley's film Follow That Dream, in nearby Ocala, and invited Petty to watch the shoot. His interest in rock and roll music began at age ten when he met Elvis Presley. His brother Bruce was seven years younger. Petty was born October 20, 1950, in Gainesville, Florida, the first of two sons of Kitty Petty ( nee Avery), a local tax office worker, and Earl Petty, who was a traveling salesman.

2.2 1988–1991: Traveling Wilburys and solo career.2.1 1976–1987: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.In 2017, Petty died of a cardiac arrest, at the age of 66, one week after the end of the Heartbreakers' 40th Anniversary Tour and two weeks shy of his 67th birthday. Petty was honored as MusiCares Person of the Year in February 2017 for his contributions to music and for his philanthropy. Petty and the Heartbreakers were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002. Solo or with the Heartbreakers, he had hit albums from the 1970s through the 2010s and sold more than 80 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time. Petty's solo hits include ' I Won't Back Down' (1989), ' Free Fallin'' (1989), and ' You Don't Know How It Feels' (1994). Hit singles with the Heartbreakers include ' Don't Do Me Like That' (1979), ' Refugee' (1980), ' The Waiting' (1981), ' Don't Come Around Here No More' (1985) and ' Learning to Fly' (1991). He previously led the band Mudcrutch, was a member of the late 1980s supergroup the Traveling Wilburys, and had success as a solo artist. Thomas Earl Petty (October 20, 1950 – October 2, 2017) was an American musician and actor who was the lead vocalist and guitarist of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, formed in 1976.

Tom petty free fallin