Without Elvis Presley, we might never have heard the music of Tom Petty. You could say that about a lot of musicians who came after Elvis, but this was a little different.
Born in Gaineville, Florida, Petty’s interest in rock and roll began at the age of ten when he actually met Elvis Presley. In the summer of 1961, Tom’s uncle was working on the set of Presley’s movie Follow That Dream, in nearby Ocala, and invited his young nephew to tag along. Shortly after that fateful meeting with the King, Tom traded his slingshot to a friend for a collection of Elvis 45s. In a 2006 NPR interview, Tom Petty said he knew he wanted to be in a band the moment he saw the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show in the mid-1960s. Little did the teenage Tom know that he would one day befriend and work with some of the Beatles.
Petty’s earliest bands included Mudcrutch, formed with fellow Floridians Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench. Mudcrutch was popular in the Gainesville area but it wasn’t until they added Stan Lynch and Ron Blair that the full potential of the re-named Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers would be realized, beginning with their self-titled debut album in 1976.
Tom Petty released 13 studio albums with the Heartbreakers, as well as three solo albums. He was also a member of the Traveling Wilburys with Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, and Roy Orbison. Petty died of a cardiac arrest in 2017, at the age of 66, one week after the end of the Heartbreakers’ 40th Anniversary Tour.
