Singer and guitarist Tom Petty, whose work with his band the Heartbreakers and as a solo artist tapped a classically pure vein of American rock and roll for more than four decades, died Monday acco…
Singer and guitarist Tom Petty, whose work with his band the Heartbreakers and as a solo artist tapped a classically pure vein of American rock and roll for more than four decades, died Monday according CBS News, apparently after suffering a heart attack at his home in Malibu on Sunday night. He was 66.
Petty just wrapped up a 40th anniversary tour with the Heartbreakers with three sold-out shows at the Hollywood Bowl, the last of them on Monday, Sept. 25, which now stands as his farewell appearance. He and the band had also headlined the Arroyo Seco Weekend in Pasadena on June 24 as part of what he’d suggested might be his last big tour, continuing to play shows as he felt like it but talking of a desire to stay closer to home to spend time with his family and friends.
A Florida native, Petty found his first measure of success there in the early ’70s with Mudcrutch, a band that also included future Heartbreakers Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench. But it was when he and the Heartbreakers moved to Los Angeles to record their self-titled 1976 debut that he and the band quickly broke out as stars, with songs such as “Breakdown” and “American Girl” setting Petty on a path that would eventually land him and the Heartbreakers in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002 and as the Grammy Awards MusicCares Person of the Year in 2017.
