A Bite of Tom Petty 🍪
Getting nostalgic with this ever-impactful, lovable rock star
Monday Bites are bite-sized musician spotlights & playlists by Grace Lilly.
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• 3 min read •
My grandpa gave me a Tom Petty record for Christmas
I was 14 years old and had never heard of the legendary musician. But a gift from my grandpa was a big deal. He didn’t usually buy gifts for people individually, instead defaulting to having my grandma sign his name next to hers on whatever presents she picked out.
But this year was different — the tag on this gift read “For Gracie, Love Papa” in his handwriting. It was directly from him, especially for me.
When I opened it, he asked me if I knew who Tom Petty was and I shook my head. “He’s kinda like Dylan. You’ll like it.”
You see, two years prior, Papa had gifted me my first Bob Dylan record, launching a Dylan-craze inside me that’s going strong to this day. He’s been my favorite musician since I was 12 years old.
So when I sat down to “give this guy a chance,” I did so comparing him to my hero. I’m embarrassed to say that I only listened to one or two songs before declaring, “Dylan is better” and moving on.
There wasn’t room for Tom in my Dylan-loving heart yet. A little less than five years later, I found the CD one day as I was packing up for college. I decided to give it another try. This time, I was different — Tom Petty’s music blew me away. His voice, the lyrics, the guitar, everything. He did sound like Dylan, but dare I say, a little more fun.
All these years later and I love Tom Petty now more than ever. Looks like you were right, Papa.
Tom Petty
The basics
🤝 American singer, songwriter, and guitarist
🤝 b. 1950 (Gainesville, Florida) - d. 2017 (Santa Monica, California)
🤝 One of the best selling artists in history
Why you should know him: For the last 50 years, Tom Petty has been a hugely influential presence in music, with three of his albums on Rolling Stone’s list of 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and two of his songs on their list of 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
If you like
✨ The Rolling Stones
✨ Bob Dylan
✨ Noah Kahan
✨ Kurt Vile
✨ The Grateful Dead
Known for
🏆 Being a successful solo artist, plus the frontman of rock bands Mudcrutch and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
🏆 Speaking out in defense of fair pricing for music and artistic control
🏆 Ranked 91st on Rolling Stone's list of the Greatest Artists of All Time
🏆 3 Grammy Awards, 18 nominations
🏆 Being a member of the supergroup Traveling Wilburys with George Harrison, Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan, and Jeff Lynne
🏆 His philanthropy work involving the environment, mental & physical disabilities, creative arts & education, homelessness, adoption, and more
Bite-sized facts
🍪 “A mild-mannered kid who was interested in the arts,” became fascinated with rock music at age 10 after meeting Elvis Presley
🍪 Worked as a gravedigger and on the grounds crew of the University of Florida
🍪 Started the Gainesville-loved band the Epics (later Mudcrutch), recorded at Leon Russell’s famous The Church Studio in Tulsa
🍪 At 26, formed the first lineup of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers — released a string of hits in the late 70s-early 80s, toured with Bob Dylan in ‘86 and with the Grateful Dead in ‘86-‘87
🍪 His marriage and wife inspired the title of Stevie Nicks’ hit song “Edge of Seventeen” — his wife Jane Benyo told mutual friend Stevie that she met Petty at “the age of seventeen” but Stevie misheard her North Florida accent
🍪 Started a successful solo career with Full Moon Fever (1989), peaking at No. 3 on the charts and becoming 5x platinum
🍪 Acted in movies and television — FM (1978), Made in Heaven (1987), It's Garry Shandling's Show (1987-1990), The Larry Sanders Show, The Postman (1997), The Simpsons (2002), and King of the Hill (2004-2009)
🍪 Practiced Transcendental Meditation and spoke publicly about its benefits
In film & TV
📺 The Silence of the Lambs (1991): Catherine sings along to “American Girl” as she drives
📺 She’s the One (1996): one of Tom Petty's few movie soundtracks, featuring singles “Walls (Circus),” “Climb that Hill,” “Change the Locks” and a cover of Beck’s “Asshole”
📺 The Sopranos (2000): Petty’s song “Free Fallin” played during the season 2 finale
📺 King of the Hill (2004-2009): Petty had a recurring role as the voice of Lucky Kleinschmidt in the animated comedy series from 2004 to the show's conclusion in 2009
Songs & dates
♫ 1976 “American Girl” and “Breakdown” become Top 40 singles off Tom Petty and the Heartbreaker’s first album
♫ 1979 Achieves breakthrough singles with “Here Comes My Girl,” “Even the Losers,” “Don’t Do Me Like That,” and “Refugee” off the Heartbreakers’ platinum album, Damn the Torpedoes
♫ 1989 “I Won’t Back Down,” “Free Fallin,” and “Runnin’ Down a Dream” become hit singles off his first solo album, Full Moon Fever
♫ 1994 Releases “You Wreck Me,” “It’s Good to Be King,” “A Higher Place,” “You Don’t Know How It Feels,” and the highly-beloved “Wildflowers” off his second solo album, Wildflowers, produced by Rick Rubin
♫ 2002 Releases The Last DJ, an album-length critique of practices within the music industry; peaked at No. 9 on the Billboard 200 chart
♫ 2014 Releases the Heartbreakers’ thirteenth album, Hypnotic Eye. which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, becoming the band's first album to top the chart
♫ 2024 Will posthumously appear on Snoop Dogg’s twentieth album, Missionary on the track “Last Dance with Mary Jane” scheduled for Dec. 13 release
He said
⭐ “A good song should give you a lot of images; you should be able to make your own little movie in your head to a good song.”
About the Beatles
⭐ “The minute I saw the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show — and it's true of thousands of guys — there was the way out. There was a way to do it. You get your friends and you're a self-contained unit. And you make the music. And it looked like so much fun. It was something I identified with. I had never been hugely into sports... I had been a big fan of Elvis. But I really saw in the Beatles that here's something I could do. I knew I could do it. It wasn't long before there were groups springing up in garages all over the place.”
About his sunglasses
⭐ “That's my security blanket. I feel like if I've got the hat and glasses on, I can do and say what I want to.”
Tom Petty Playlist
I gathered my fav Petty songs, from me to you with love. Like & save on Spotify and listen all week 💗
Where to start
One of the “Greatest Songs of All Time”
Watch a 28-year-old Tom Petty perform his Top 40 single live in 1978, “American Girl,” ranked by Rolling Stone as one of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
〰️
“Rock and roll is pretty universal, you know?”
Tom Petty talks about his start in music, moving into Leon Russell’s house, and more in this 1977 interview backstage at the Whiskey-A-Go-Go.
〰️
At Bonnaroo with Stevie Nicks
Singing his hit Heartbreakers’ song “Learning to Fly” with Stevie Nicks in 2006 as part of the festival’s 30th Anniversary Tour.
Down the rabbit hole
If you wanna dive even deeper:
Runnin’ Down a Dream (2007)
Premiering at the New York Film Festival, this Peter Bogdanovich-directed documentary chronicles Petty’s career, from his Mudcrutch days up to the 30th anniversary concert in his home town. Featuring interviews with Rick Rubin, George Harrison, Stevie Nicks, and more.
Watch on Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play, Tubi, or Youtube.
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