Just when you think that you’ve been rendered uncomfortably numb by the tsunami of horrific and heartbreaking news that’s been crashing on us all — another story breaks that adds further to the heartache. Sadly, it has just been reported that Tom Petty has passed away. The American rock icon was 66.
Tom Petty was born and raised in Gainesville, Florida. Like countless Americans, Tom wanted to be in a band from the very moment he first saw the Beatles on TV performing on The Ed Sullivan Show. He took up guitar, and interestingly enough, one of his first 6-string teachers was a guy named Don Felder — who later rose to fame with the Eagles.
Tom dropped out of high school when he was 17 so he could follow his heart and play music full-time with a band named Mudcrutch. And the rest, as that old adage goes, soon became history.
When Mudcrutch split, Tom went solo and formed Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, which featured two of his previous bandmates — guitarist Mike Campbell and keyboardist Benmont Tench. The group’s eponymously titled debut LP was released in 1977, and although it didn’t make much of a wave in America, it did so in England. I still remember seeing the band play live on The Old Grey Whistle Test TV show at that time, and the haunting, 3-chord progression that made up the verse of “Fooled Again” (one of the songs they performed) not only prompted me to buy the album the very next morning, but I also still (ab)use that often wrongly transcribed chord sequence — especially the jarringly cool third shape — to this very day.
The band’s sophomore release, You’re Gonna Get It! cracked the top 40 of the US Billboard chart, and then 1979’s Damn the Torpedoes — which included the hit single “Refugee” — went comfortably Platinum, selling well over 1 million copies in America alone.
Since then, Tom Petty has enjoyed much-deserved, platinum-plated success, not only with the Heartbreakers, but also as a member of one of the truest superstar bands the world has ever experienced — the Traveling Wilburys — a much-lauded musical gathering put together in 1988 by George Harrison (yeah, that George Harrison) that also included Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, and Jeff Lynne.
In the summer of 2014, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers unleashed their 13th studio album, Hypnotic Eye, and it debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 — a first for this legendary artist.
On Monday, September 25, 2017, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers completed yet another successful US tour with a 3-night stint at the Hollywood Bowl — a wonderful climax to their 40th anniversary. He told Rolling Stone that it was to be his “last trip around the country.”
Sadly, following a cardiac arrest, said prophecy is now true…
All at Sweetwater would like to express their sincere condolences to Tom’s family, friends, bandmates, and countless fans. Our thoughts and prayers are with you during this heartbreaking time. We’d also like to sincerely thank Tom for four decades of wonderful, timeless music.
RIP, Mr. Petty and thank you for that goose-bump-inducing, magical trio of “Fooled Again” chords — especially that mesmerizingly, jarringly beautiful D sus add 2/A shape.