Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
Getting a song on the “FM” soundtrack (“Breakdown”) helped establish Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers.
“Refuge,” “Don’t Do Me Like That,” “The Waiting,” and “You Got Lucky” followed.
Petty also had an impressive solo career that included a duet with Stevie Nicks (Fleetwood Mac) on “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” (Nicks had previously provided vocals to Petty’s “Insider”) and a stint as a member of The Traveling Wilburys, a roots Rock band that had Bob Dylan, George Harrison Jeff Lynne and Roy Orbison.
For maximum exposure, there was a halftime performance at Super Bowl XLII in Phoenix. Petty & The Heartbreakers played “American Girl,” “I Won’t Back Down,” “Free Fallin’,” and “Runnin’ Down A Dream.”
Petty & The Heartbreakers rolled out “Hypnotic Eye” in ’14. The set, which featured the single “American Dream Plan B,” was the group’s first in four years. It was also the band’s first #1 album on the Billboard 200. It only took Petty and company a mere thirty-seven years to get to the top spot.
Like a bolt out of the blue, when it looked as though Petty & The Heartbreakers still had more chapters in their story, Petty died of cardiac arrest on 10/02/17.
Found unconscious and not breathing in his Malibu home, Petty was rushed to the hospital and put on life support. But with no brain activity life support was removed. He was 66. An autopsy determined that Petty died of an accidental overdose of various medications, including painkillers.
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers released thirteen albums – 7 went gold (500,000 units moved) and four were platinum (1,000,000 units). Petty issued three solo albums with “Full Moon Fever” going multi-platinum. The set contained “I Won’t Back Down,” “Runnin’ Down A Dream,” which gave a nod to the late Del Shannon, whose career Petty had worked to revive, and “Free Fallin’.”
I Won’t Back Down
Runnin’ Down A Dream
The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in ’02, their first year of eligibility.
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