41 Facts About Tom Petty

1.

Tom Petty was the lead vocalist and guitarist of the rock band Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, formed in 1976.

2.

Tom Petty previously led the band Mudcrutch, was a member of the late 1980s supergroup the Traveling Wilburys, and had success as a solo artist.

3.

Tom Petty was honored as MusiCares Person of the Year in February 2017 for his contributions to music and for his philanthropy.

4.

Tom Petty had a minor acting career, most notably starring in a recurring role as the voice of Elroy "Lucky" Kleinschmidt in the animated comedy series King of the Hill from 2004 to the show's end in 2009.

5.

Tom Petty died of an accidental drug overdose at the age of 66,18 days before his 67th birthday and one week after the end of the Heartbreakers' 40th Anniversary Tour in 2017.

6.

Tom Petty grew up in the Northeast Gainesville Residential District, known locally as the Duckpond.

7.

Tom Petty instantly became a Presley fan, and when he returned that Saturday, he was greeted by his friend Keith Harben, and soon traded his Wham-O slingshot for a collection of Elvis 45s.

8.

Tom Petty has described his father as a "wild, gambling drinker guy".

9.

Tom Petty was close to his mother and remained close to his brother, Bruce.

10.

Shortly after embracing his musical aspirations, Tom Petty started a band known as the Epics, which later evolved into Mudcrutch.

11.

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.

12.

Also in 1987, the group released Let Me Up which includes "Jammin' Me" which Tom Petty wrote with Dylan.

13.

In 1988, Tom Petty, along with George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison and Jeff Lynne, was a founding member of the Traveling Wilburys.

14.

In 1989, while still under contract to MCA, Tom Petty secretly signed a lucrative deal with Warner Bros.

15.

Tom Petty's 2002 release, The Last DJ, was an album-length critique of the practices within the music industry.

16.

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.

17.

In July 2006, Tom Petty released a solo album titled Highway Companion, which included the hit "Saving Grace".

18.

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.

19.

Tom Petty was featured in Shandling's other show, The Larry Sanders Show, as one of the Story within a story final guests.

20.

Tom Petty appeared in the 1997 film The Postman, directed by and starring Kevin Costner, as the Bridge City Mayor.

21.

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.

22.

Tom Petty was known as a staunch guardian of his artistic control and artistic freedom.

23.

Tom Petty refused to be transferred to another record label without his consent.

24.

Tom Petty voiced his objections to the price hike in the press and the issue became a popular cause among music fans.

25.

Tom Petty married Jane Benyo in 1974, and they divorced in 1996.

26.

Tom Petty struggled with heroin addiction from roughly 1996 through 1999.

27.

Tom Petty blamed the emotional pain from the dissolution of his marriage to Benyo as a major contributing cause.

28.

On June 3,2001, Tom Petty married Dana York, who had a son, Dylan, from an earlier marriage.

29.

Tom Petty credited the group with inspiring him by demonstrating that he and musicians like him could make it in rock and roll.

30.

Tom Petty spoke in 2014 of the benefits from his practice of Transcendental Meditation.

31.

Tom Petty was found unconscious at his home, not breathing and in cardiac arrest, in the early morning hours of October 2,2017.

32.

Tom Petty was resuscitated and taken to the UCLA Medical Center in Santa Monica, California, where he died at 8:40pm PDT after premature reports of his death throughout the day.

33.

On January 19,2018, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner announced that Tom Petty had died of "multisystem organ failure due to resuscitated cardiopulmonary arrest due to mixed drug toxicity", which was reported by Rolling Stone as an "accidental overdose", a combination of fentanyl, oxycodone, acetylfentanyl and despropionyl fentanyl ; temazepam and alprazolam ; and citalopram.

34.

Tom Petty owned and used a number of guitars over the years.

35.

The next month, Tom Petty won the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers' Golden Note Award.

36.

Tom Petty is ranked 91st on Rolling Stone's list of the Greatest Artists of All Time.

37.

Tom Petty received the Billboard Century Award, the organization's highest honor for creative achievement on December 6,2005.

38.

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.

39.

Tom Petty was honored as MusiCares Person of the Year in February 2017 for his contributions to music and for his philanthropy.

40.

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.

41.

Tom Petty has two songs on the same magazine's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list.