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Tom Petty, Rock 'n' Roll Legend, Dies at 66
Tom Petty
Tom Petty has died after suffering cardiac arrest The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed. Petty's manager says he suffered cardiac arrest at his home in Malibu in the early hours in the morning and passed at 8:40 p.m after being taken to UCLA Medical Center.
Earlier in the day, authorities told THR they responded to a Malibu home around 10:52 a.m. for a man who suffered a heart attack. Emergency responders were able to get a pulse back, but the man was in critical condition, THR was told at the time.
"On behalf of the Tom Petty family we are devastated to announce the untimely death of our father, husband, brother, leader and friend Tom Petty," Petty's manager said in a statement. "He died peacefully surrounded by family, his bandmates and friends."
Earlier in the day, authorities told THR they responded to a Malibu home around 10:52 a.m. for a man who suffered a heart attack. Emergency responders were able to get a pulse back, but the man was in critical condition, THR was told at the time.
"On behalf of the Tom Petty family we are devastated to announce the untimely death of our father, husband, brother, leader and friend Tom Petty," Petty's manager said in a statement. "He died peacefully surrounded by family, his bandmates and friends."
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers just wrapped their 40th anniversary tour at the Hollywood Bowl last week.
Petty
was born in Gainesville, FL, on Oct. 20, 1950. Despite his easy-going,
affable persona, Petty endured a rough childhood, living in poverty with
an alcoholic, abusive father and a mother who was in fear of her
husband. But a childhood handshake with Elvis Presley in the '50s piqued
his interest in rock n' roll, and at the age of 17, inspired by the
Beatles and the Byrds, Petty dropped out of high school to play rock
with his band, Mudcrutch. After that band broke up, Petty and several of
its members formed Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, which catapulted
him to the forefront of rock music for the next 40 years.
(Mudcrutch reformed in 2007 and released two studio albums, 2008's
self-titled and 2016's 2, his final studio effort.)
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' self-titled album dropped in 1976,
and although it would eventually go Gold and produce two classic rock
radio staples with the singles "Breakdown" and "American Girl," the
album (and those singles) weren't big hits upon initial release
("Breakdown" would later peak at No. 40 on the Billboard Hot 100 after
being re-released). 1978's You're Gonna Get It! fared slightly better commercially, but it was the band's third album, 1979's Damn the Torpedoes!,
that found Petty break through to massive success. That No. 2-peaking,
triple Platinum album produced two top 20 hits with "Refugee" and "Don't
Do Me Like That."
While new wave and synth-pop took hold in the
'80s, Petty stuck to his no-frills heartland rock style while still
appealing to a young fan base. Platinum albums, massive tours and hit
singles (including the No. 3-peaking duet "Stop Draggin' My Heart
Around" with Stevie Nicks) followed, and he began to branch out
creatively from the Hearbreakers as the decade came to a close.
After
joining George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison and Jeff Lynne in the
supergroup-to-end-all-supergroups Traveling Wilburys – whose 1988 debut
hit No. 3 on the Billboard 200 – Petty continued to work with Lynne on
his solo debut, 1989's Full Moon Fever. It would prove to be his most blockbuster release since Damn the Torpedoes!
a decade earlier, going five-times Platinum, hitting No. 3 on the
Billboard 200 and producing arguably his best-known song, the
inescapable "Free Fallin'," a No. 7 Hot 100 hit. Within the space of two
years, Petty followed his runaway hit solo LP with another Traveling
Wilburys album as well as a new Heartbreakers album. Barely slowing his
pace throughout the next three decades, Petty continued releasing
albums, whether with the Heartbreakers, solo or Mudcrutch.
"We
ain't no punk band, we ain't folk rock, jazz rock, or any of that
bullshit. Just rock, and we don't put no other name on it than that.
We'd be stupid if we did," he told Rolling Stone in the '70s of
his style, which -- despite his knack for inventive songcraft -- would
stay largely the same throughout his career.
A staunch advocate
for artists controlling their careers, Petty wasn't afraid to speak out
against the music industry, even if he was far more forgiving when it
came to other creators. "I seriously doubt that there is any negative
intent there," Petty told Rolling Stone in 2006
when asked about perceived similarities between a Red Hot Chili Peppers
song and his hit "Mary Jane's Last Dance." "And a lot of rock n' roll
songs sound alike. Ask Chuck Berry.... I don't believe in lawsuits much.
I think there are enough frivolous lawsuits in this country without
people fighting over pop songs."
Despite his lifetime on rock's A-list, Petty didn't actually notch his first No. 1 album until 2014's Hypnotic Eye. Speaking to Billboard around the time of that release, Petty said,
“The only good thing about getting older is you get smart enough to
avoid unnecessary problems. You know what’s worth spending time on and
what’s not. If I had known that at 20, life would have been so much
easier, but you have to experience all these things so you figure out
how to find your way through the woods.”
Petty was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.
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