Petty's interest in
rock and roll music began at age ten when he had an opportunity to meet
Elvis Presley. In the summer of 1961, his uncle was working on the set of Presley's film
Follow That Dream, in nearby
Ocala, and invited Petty to watch the movie's filming. Petty instantly became a Presley fan. 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. Of that meeting with Presley, Petty said, "Elvis glowed." In 2006, Petty said he knew he wanted 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. There was a way to do it. You get your friends and you're a self-contained unit. And you make the music. And it looked like so much fun. It was something I identified with. I had never been hugely into sports. ... I had been a big fan of Elvis. But I really saw in the Beatles that here's something I could do. I knew I could do it. It wasn't long before there were groups springing up in garages all over the place."
Don Felder, a fellow Gainesville resident who later joined the
Eagles, wrote in his autobiography that he was one of Petty's first guitar teachers although Petty said that Felder taught him to play piano instead. As a young man, Petty worked briefly on the grounds crew of the
University of Florida, but never attended as a student. An
Ogeechee lime tree that he purportedly planted while employed at the university is now called the Tom Petty tree, though Petty said he did not recall planting any trees. After Mudcrutch split up, Petty reluctantly agreed to pursue a solo career. Tench decided to form his own group, whose sound Petty appreciated. Eventually, Petty and Campbell collaborated with Tench,
Ron Blair and
Stan Lynch, forming the first lineup of the Heartbreakers. Their
eponymous debut album gained little popularity among American audiences, achieving greater success in Britain. The singles "
American Girl" and "
Breakdown" (re-released in 1977) peaked at after the band toured in the United Kingdom in support of
Nils Lofgren. The debut album was released by Shelter Records, which at that time was distributed by
ABC Records. Their second album, ''
You're Gonna Get It!'', was the band's first
Top 40 album, In September 1979,
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers performed at a
Musicians United for Safe Energy concert at
Madison Square Garden in
Manhattan. Their rendition of "
Cry to Me" was featured on the resulting album,
No Nukes. Their fourth album,
Hard Promises, released in 1981, became a top-ten hit, going platinum and spawning the hit single "
The Waiting". The album also featured Petty's first duet, "Insider" with
Stevie Nicks. Bass player Ron Blair quit the group and was replaced on the fifth album,
Long After Dark (1982), by
Howie Epstein; the resulting lineup lasted until 1994. The album contained the hit "
You Got Lucky". In 1985, the band participated in
Live Aid, playing four songs at
John F. Kennedy Stadium, in
Philadelphia before a crowd of 89,484 people. The band's album,
Southern Accents, was also released in 1985. It included the hit single "
Don't Come Around Here No More", produced by
Dave Stewart. The song's video featured 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. The ensuing tour led to the live album Pack Up the Plantation: Live!'' and an invitation from
Bob Dylan to join Dylan on his 60-date
True Confessions Tour through Asia, Oceania, and North America. In 1986 and 1987, they played some dates with the
Grateful Dead. Also in 1987, the group released ''
Let Me Up (I've Had Enough)'' which includes "
Jammin' Me" which Petty wrote with Dylan.
1988–1991: Traveling Wilburys and solo career In 1988, Petty, along with
George Harrison,
Bob Dylan,
Roy Orbison and
Jeff Lynne, was a founding member of the
Traveling Wilburys. The band's first song, "
Handle with Care", was intended as a B-side of one of Harrison's singles, but was judged too good for that purpose and the group decided to record a full album,
Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1. A second Wilburys album, mischievously titled
Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3 and recorded without the recently deceased Orbison, followed in 1990. The album was named
Vol. 3 as a response to a series of bootlegged studio sessions being sold as
Travelling Wilburys Vol. 2. Petty incorporated Traveling Wilburys songs into his live shows, consistently playing "Handle with Care" in shows from 2003 to 2006, and for his 2008 tour adding "surprises" such as "
End of the Line" to the set list. In 1989, Petty released
Full Moon Fever, which featured hits "
I Won't Back Down", "
Free Fallin'" and "
Runnin' Down a Dream". It was nominally his first solo album, although several Heartbreakers and other well-known musicians participated: Mike Campbell co-produced the album with Petty and Jeff Lynne of
Electric Light Orchestra, and backing musicians included Campbell, Lynne, and fellow Wilburys Roy Orbison and George Harrison (
Ringo Starr appears on drums in the video for "I Won't Back Down", but they were actually performed by Phil Jones). Petty and the Heartbreakers reformed in 1991 and released
Into the Great Wide Open, which was co-produced by Lynne and included the hit singles "
Learning To Fly" and "
Into the Great Wide Open", the latter featuring
Johnny Depp and
Faye Dunaway in the music video. Before leaving MCA Records, Petty and the Heartbreakers got together to record, live in the studio, two new songs for a
Greatest Hits package: "
Mary Jane's Last Dance" and
Thunderclap Newman's "
Something in the Air". This was Stan Lynch's last recorded performance with the Heartbreakers. Petty commented "He left right after the session without really saying goodbye." The package went on to sell over ten million copies, therefore receiving diamond certification by the RIAA.
1991–2017: Move to Warner Bros. Records in
Indianapolis in 2006 in
Bristow, Virginia in 2006 In 1989, while still under contract to MCA, Petty secretly signed a lucrative deal with
Warner Bros. Records, to which the Traveling Wilburys had been signed. His first album on his new label, 1994's
Wildflowers, Petty's second of three solo albums, included the highly beloved title track, as well as the singles "
You Don't Know How It Feels", "You Wreck Me", "It's Good to Be King", and "A Higher Place". The album, produced by
Rick Rubin, sold over three million copies in the United States. In 1999, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers released their last album with Rubin at the helm,
Echo. Two songs were released as singles in the US, "Room at the Top" and "Free Girl Now". The album reached number 10 on the US album charts. Petty's 2002 release,
The Last DJ, was an album-length critique of practices within the music industry. The title track, inspired by Los Angeles radio personality
Jim Ladd, bemoaned the end of the freedom that radio DJs once had to personally select songs for their station's playlists. The album peaked at number nine on the
Billboard 200 album chart in the United States. In 2005, Petty began hosting his own show "Buried Treasure" on
XM Satellite Radio, on which he shared selections from his personal record collection. In 2006, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers headlined the fifth annual
Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival as part of their "30th Anniversary Tour". Special guests included Stevie Nicks,
Pearl Jam,
the Allman Brothers Band,
Trey Anastasio,
the Derek Trucks Band, and
the Black Crowes. Nicks joined Petty and the Heartbreakers on stage for several songs including "
Stop Draggin' My Heart Around". In July 2006, Petty released a solo album titled
Highway Companion, which included the hit "
Saving Grace". It debuted at number four on the
Billboard 200, which was Petty's highest chart position since the introduction of the
Nielsen SoundScan system for tracking album sales in 1991.
Highway Companion was briefly promoted on the tour with the Heartbreakers in 2006, with performances of "Saving Grace", "
Square One", "Down South" and "Flirting with Time". During the summer of 2007, Petty reunited with his old bandmates
Tom Leadon and Randall Marsh, along with Heartbreakers Benmont Tench and Mike Campbell, to reform his pre-Heartbreakers band Mudcrutch. The quintet recorded an album of 14 songs that was released on April 29, 2008 (on
iTunes, an additional song "Special Place" was available if the album was pre-ordered). The band supported the album with a brief tour of California in the spring of 2008. In 2007, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers contributed a cover of "
I'm Walkin'" to the album ''
Goin' Home: A Tribute to Fats Domino''. The album's sales helped buy instruments for students in
New Orleans public schools and contributed to the building of a community center in the city's
Hurricane Katrina-damaged
Ninth Ward. On February 3, 2008, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers performed during the halftime-show of
Super Bowl XLII at the
University of Phoenix Stadium. They played "American Girl", "I Won't Back Down", "Free Fallin" and "Runnin' Down a Dream". That summer, the band toured North America with
Steve Winwood as the opening act. Winwood joined Petty and the Heartbreakers on stage at select shows and performed his
Spencer Davis Group hit "
Gimme Some Lovin'", and occasionally he performed his
Blind Faith hit "
Can't Find My Way Home". In November 2009 the boxed set
The Live Anthology, a compilation of live recordings from 1978 to 2006, was released. The band's twelfth album
Mojo was released on June 15, 2010, and reached number two on the
Billboard 200 album chart. To promote the record, the band appeared as the musical guests on
Saturday Night Live on May 17, 2010. The release of
Mojo was followed by a North American summer tour. Prior to the tour, five of the band's guitars, including two owned by Petty, were stolen from their practice space in
Culver City, California in April 2010. The items were recovered by Los Angeles police the next week. In 2012, the band went on a world tour that included their first European dates in 20 years and their first ever concerts in the Canadian provinces of
Nova Scotia and
Newfoundland and Labrador. On July 28, 2014,
Reprise Records released Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' thirteenth studio album,
Hypnotic Eye. The album debuted at number one on the
Billboard 200, becoming the band's first album to top the chart. On November 20, 2015, the Tom Petty Radio channel debuted on
SiriusXM. In 2017, the Heartbreakers embarked on a 40th Anniversary Tour of the United States. The tour began on April 20 in
Oklahoma City and ended on September 25 with a performance at the
Hollywood Bowl in Hollywood, California. The Hollywood Bowl concert, which would ultimately be the Heartbreakers' final show, ended with a performance of "American Girl". On September 28, 2018, Reprise Records released
An American Treasure, a 60-track career-spanning box set featuring dozens of previously unreleased recordings, alternate versions of classic songs, rarities, historic live performances and deep tracks. The box set was preceded by the first single, "Keep A Little Soul", in July 2018. The song is an unreleased outtake originally recorded in 1982 during the
Long After Dark sessions. In July 2024, the Petty estate signed a deal with
Warner Chappell Music to distribute Petty's entire catalog.
Acting Petty's first appearance in film took place in 1978, when he had a cameo in
FM. He 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. Petty appeared in the 1997 film
The Postman, directed by and starring
Kevin Costner, as the Bridge City Mayor (from the dialogue it is implied that he is playing a
future history version of himself). 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. ==Views on artistic control==