RIP Tom Petty

I've been a rocker since I was a little kid when the Beatles broke on Ed Sullivan. For my money the two best American Rock and Roll bands are Bruce and E Street and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

Shit. Today just sucks. Somehow I managed not to hear this till about 4 pm when my wife said something about it. I looked at her with my mouth hanging open, and she was like "What? You've been on the 'puter most of the day, you hadn't heard?"

Don't do me like that.

 

I remember hearing Petty say this Byrds' cover was pretty faithful but this just sounds so perfect for him:

 

On his Sirius channel 31 they haven't confirmed it yet.

 

Metallica was my first concert, but Petty was my first memorable one.

I was 17 (so like '94?) driving around Fredericksburg, and heard on the radio that Petty was playing that night in Richmond.

Called my sister at VCU, but she wasn't interested.

So I said fuck it, and drive the Fiero the hour south and bought a ticket from a scalper.

As it turns out, it was literally the very top row in the Richmond Coliseum.

About two songs in, for the first time in my life I decided to play the, "act like you belong card," and wound up on the floor, within 10 rows from the stage.

23 years later and that remains my No. 1 seed among concert experiences.

Petty has been a go-to for me since I was 14. I played Wallflowers until the tape got stuck in my car. This is a sad, sad day.

 

Great to see how Tom affected so many of us at so many points of our lives.

Here's another song that puts me in a place and time ...

In 2000 and '01 I covered a very small Vermont school. The girls hoops team always contended for the state title. Their coach was a hometown boy and one of the best athletes the school ever produced. He loved Petty and especially this song, and used it as the mantra for the girls hoops program.

In 2000 they made it to the semifinals in Barre yet again. I showed up for practice several days in a row to work on a preview/feature.

Every practice every day all season began with Won't Back Down. It always set a mood and tone. Cliche, sure, but it worked.

Every time I hear the song I'm back in that steamy bandbox atop the mountain on cold winter days in Southern Vermont.

 

Obviously it's a just matter of time, but apparently Tom Petty has not yet died.

Love Tom Petty. Saw him a bunch of times. Loving all the stories. here, too.

Full Moon Fever is one of the desert island albums.

 

Speaking of my lovely wife, Refugee was the song that she says gave her the encouragement she needed to finally leave her abusive first husband for good. We met 6 months after her divorce was final.

 

The Echo album gets a lot of guff for being sappy and not some of his "best stuff" but there are a lot of hidden gems on there. This was the "hit" off of it, along with Free Girl Now, but I posted "One More Day, One More Night" as a deep cut on there, and there's Counting On You and Rhino Skin and .. I could go on.

 

Oof. Nothing like declaring people are dead when they aren't.

 

I always had this rock ‘n’ roll fantasy of “Listen to Her Heart” being my band’s signature opening song. I actually know how to play it on guitar. Most of his stuff is easy. So much with a few little cowboy chords.

 

and yet I feel that Mike Campbell gets very little respect when it comes to some of the greatest rock guitarists of all time.

 

Tom's daughter seems a bit unhappy with Rolling Stone for declaring him dead. I'm particularly fond of "I will fucking shit down your throat."