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Page 7 | Monday, October 16, 2017
Tom Petty, frontman of the Heartbreakers, dies at age 66 Kimberly Jimenez Managing Editor
Tom Petty, legendary frontman for the band Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, passed away in Los Angeles on Monday, Oct. 2, at 66 years old. The singer, song-writer suffered from cardiac arrest in his home in Malibu, California early on Monday morning and was taken to the U.C.L.A. Medical Center, said Tony Dimitriades, Mr. Petty’s longtime manager, in a statement. He was pronounced dead at 8:40 p.m. Mr. Petty, born Thomas Earl Petty on October 20, 1950, was born and raised in the city of Gainesville in northern Florida. Growing up, he had a difficult relationship with his father, Earl Petty, an insurance salesman, and was uninterested in school, so he turned to music. In 1962, he got his first guitar, and by the mid-1960s, he was playing in his first band the Sundowners. A few years later, Petty quit high school at the age of 17 to join one of Florida’s top bands, Mudcrutch. However, after moving to L.A. in the early ‘70s to pursue a record contract, the band soon disbanded. In 1975, Mr. Petty and
two returning members from Mudcrutch, Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench, as well as other Gainesville musicians would form the Heartbreakers, and begin a longtime career of creating meaningful music together. Petty sold millions of albums with the Heartbreakers, and, up until his death, he had played with the band for more than 40 years. The Heartbreakers formed in late 1975. The band consisted of guitarist Mr. Campbell, keyboardist Mr. Tench, Stan Lynch on drums and Ron Blair on bass. Petty played guitar and lead vocals. The Heartbreakers 1979 album, “Damn the Torpedoes,” reached number 2 on the Billboard album chart, and sold more than 3 million copies. The Heartbreakers also had million-selling albums with “Hard Promises,” in 1981 “Let Me Up (I’ve Had Enough)” in 1987, “Into the Great Wide Open,” in 1991, and “Southern Accents,” in 1985. The band’s 1993 “Greatest Hits” album stayed on the Billboard album chart for six years. Later in their career, Mr. Petty and the Heartbreakers toured with the singer, song-writer Bob Dylan
Singer, song-writer Tom Petty dies at age 66.
on a 60-concert tour. In 1996, the Heartbreakers backed Johnny Cash in his album “Uchained.” In the late 1980s, Mr. Petty teamed up with Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, and Roy Orbison to form the Traveling Wilburys. The group wrote, recorded, and produced several albums together. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers spent much of this year touring across the
Photo courtesy of Mr. Petty’s twitter.
United States and Canada. Although Mr. Petty is gone, he is immortalized through his heartfelt music that spoke to millions. The song-writing of Mr. Petty tends to speak to the underdogs. Songs like “Free Fallin’,” “I Won’t Back Down,” “Into the Great Wide Open,” “Refugee,” and countless other hit songs will immortalize Mr. Petty and his band for generations to come.
“One thing about Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers is that they’ve been around for ages,” said Jack Mcclure, adjunct faculty of the CLC Engineering, Math, and Physcial Sciences Division, about Mr. Petty’s death. “I grew up listening to them.” “In some ways, it’s like the sad passing of a friend, because, although they weren’t a big part of my life, it’s still a part of my life.”
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