On Monday, Oct. 3, the world lost rock legend Tom Petty, who was one of the most influential musicians in classic rock. Petty, as a person and for his music, meant a lot to people. His music seemed to touch us in ways we couldn’t have imagined. Petty reached pivotal heights most artists only dream of by selling more than 80 million albums and being inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall Fame which is is an incredible honor.
In a 2006 interview, Petty described how he knew he desired to be in a band the moment he saw The Beatles on “The Ed Sullivan Show.”
“The minute I saw the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show — and it’s true of thousands of guys — there was the way out,” Petty said. “You get your friends and you’re a self-contained unit: and you make the music! … But I really saw in the Beatles that here’s something I could do. I knew I could do it.”
He dropped out of high school at age 17 to play bass with his newly formed band. After embracing the musical gift he was given, he and his band had trouble getting noticed in the music industry at first, like most bands. After years of hard work they finally broke through the charts at number 48 with the song “Breakdown” where they became known to the music world.
After that, the band became one of the most influential in classic rock.
What people loved about Petty is that he’s a “jam artist,” like the Grateful Dead. He had great taste in music, and took liberties in taking the freedom to add new sounds to his music in the genre of classic rock. This why people loved to learn his music when first learning the guitar.
In an interview with Justice Guevara he expressed why Tom Petty has been so influential to him.
“My dad used to play with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers when I was little so I grew up loving his music,” Justice Guevara commented on the passing of Tom Petty, “ When I was first learning how to play guitar, the first songs I ever learned by him were Mary Jane’s Last Dance and Breakdown. I really focused on getting the feel of the music more than every note because his music has such a unique feel to it as if it is behind the set beat. It’s hard to explain but there’s nothing like it. He has been one of my biggest influences for songwriting.”
Again, here we see the effect Petty had on our lives making us want to be as musically talented as him. Some of us were fortunate to see him, and some always wished to but did not. Kristin Martin was lucky enough to witness one of his last performances at KAABOO 2017, two weeks before he passed.
“He was appreciative of his forty years with his band,” Martin said, “The crowd was a love fest for him, I had really never seen anything like it. It really was one of those moments that you would say, ‘If I died tomorrow I’d be okay.’ Too bad he did! He was loved, and certainly appreciated,” she said.
Tom Petty and his art can never be forgotten, so we should keep listening to his masterpieces in music to remember not just the artist he was but also the great person he was for the life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living.
May he always be free fallin in heaven.