1. Thomas Earl Petty was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist.
43 Facts About Tom Petty
1. 2.
Tom Petty was the leader and frontman of the rock bands Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Mudcrutch and a member of the late 1980s supergroup the Traveling Wilburys.
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Tom Petty was honored as MusiCares Person of the Year in February 2017 for his contributions to music and for his philanthropy.
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Tom Petty acted; he had a recurring role as the voice of Lucky Kleinschmidt in the animated comedy series King of the Hill from 2004 to the show's conclusion in 2009.
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Tom Petty died of an accidental drug overdose in 2017 at the age of 66, one week after the end of the Heartbreakers' 40th Anniversary Tour.
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Tom Petty grew up in the Northeast Gainesville Residential District, known locally as the Duckpond.
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Tom Petty attended Howard Bishop Middle School, where he played Little League baseball and basketball.
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Tom Petty then attended Gainesville High School, where he graduated in 1968.
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In 2006, Tom Petty said he knew he wanted to be in a band the moment he saw the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show.
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Shortly after embracing his musical aspirations, Tom Petty started a band known as the Epics, which later evolved into Mudcrutch.
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The song's video featured Tom Petty dressed as the Mad Hatter, mocking and chasing Alice from the book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, then cutting and eating her as if she were a cake.
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Also in 1987, the group released Let Me Up which includes "Jammin' Me" which Tom Petty wrote with Dylan.
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In 1988, Tom Petty, along with George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison and Jeff Lynne, was a founding member of the Traveling Wilburys.
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In 1989, while still under contract to MCA, Tom Petty secretly signed a lucrative deal with Warner Bros.
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Tom Petty's 2002 release, The Last DJ, was an album-length critique of practices within the music industry.
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In 2005, Tom Petty began hosting his own show "Buried Treasure" on XM Satellite Radio, on which he shared selections from his personal record collection.
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In July 2006, Tom Petty released a solo album titled Highway Companion, which included the hit "Saving Grace".
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Tom Petty later had a small part in 1987's Made in Heaven and appeared in several episodes of It's Garry Shandling's Show between 1987 and 1990, playing himself as one of Garry Shandling's neighbors.
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Tom Petty was featured in Shandling's other show, The Larry Sanders Show, as one of the story within a story final guests.
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Tom Petty appeared in the 1997 film The Postman, directed by and starring Kevin Costner, as the Bridge City Mayor.
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Tom Petty had a recurring role as the voice of Elroy "Lucky" Kleinschmidt in the animated comedy series King of the Hill from 2004 to 2009.
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Tom Petty was known as a staunch guardian of his artistic control and artistic freedom.
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Tom Petty refused to be transferred to another record label without his consent.
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Tom Petty voiced his objections to the price hike in the press and the issue became a popular cause among music fans.
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Tom Petty described his father as a "wild, gambling drinker guy".
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Tom Petty was close to his mother and his brother, Bruce.
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Tom Petty struggled with heroin addiction following his divorce from Benyo.
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Tom Petty cited the emotional pain of the divorce as a cause.
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Tom Petty got clean after going to rehab in 1999, crediting his then-girlfriend Dana York with saving his life by helping him seek treatment.
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Tom Petty spoke in 2014 of the benefits from his practice of Transcendental Meditation.
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Tom Petty was resuscitated and taken to the UCLA Medical Center in Santa Monica, California, where he was put on life support.
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On January 19,2018, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner announced that Tom Petty's death was due to an "accidental overdose" stating "multisystem organ failure due to resuscitated cardiopulmonary arrest due to mixed drug toxicity", a combination of fentanyl, oxycodone, acetylfentanyl and despropionyl fentanyl ; temazepam and alprazolam ; and citalopram.
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Tom Petty owned and used a number of guitars over the years.
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Tom Petty was known for his usage of Rickenbacker guitars, which he frequently played from 1979 onwards.
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Tom Petty extensively played several Fender Telecasters and a Guild D25 12-string acoustic.
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The next month, Tom Petty won the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers' Golden Note Award.
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Tom Petty is ranked 91st on Rolling Stone's list of the Greatest Artists of All Time.
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Tom Petty received the Billboard Century Award, the organization's highest honor for creative achievement on December 6,2005.
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Peter Bogdanovich's documentary film on Tom Petty's career titled Runnin' Down a Dream premiered at the New York Film Festival in October 2007.
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Tom Petty was honored as MusiCares Person of the Year in February 2017 for his contributions to music and for his philanthropy.
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Tom Petty has three albums, Wildflowers, Damn the Torpedoes, and Full Moon Fever on Rolling Stone magazine's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list.
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Tom Petty has two songs on the same magazine's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list.
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In December 2023, Tom Petty's song "Love Is a Long Road" was used in the first trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI, which is considered one of the most anticipated video games ever made.