The first time he got paid, his mum looked at the money and thought he’d stolen it. I set about scouring the neighbourhood for people who had instruments.”Īt the age of just 14 Petty was in a band called The Sundowners playing at gatherings hosted by fraternities attached to the University of Florida. “Dad threw down $35 for an electric guitar because I wouldn’t shut up about it. “When they played the Ed Sullivan show it all became clear.
“Then the minute I saw The Beatles on Ed Sullivan – there was a way to do it.” How did you suddenly get a mohair suit and an orchestra?” But being a rock n roll star? “I just didn’t understand how you got to be one. The Byrds hadn’t yet written a song telling him what to do. I just loved to listen to it.”Īlthough Petty wanted to be like Elvis, he couldn’t see how he could be a rock n roll star. Even the other kids thought it was weird. My parents thought there was something wrong with me. “When I went home the next day I was looking for Elvis records” which he traded a box of slingshot for. His uncle introduced him, and Petty and Presley shook hands. “He didn’t look like anyone I had ever seen” said Petty. Petty’s Aunt Evelyn asked the ten year old Petty, would he like to join some of his cousins in the town of Ocala and meet Elvis?Įlvis emerged from a fleet of white Cadillacs on Ocala’s Main Street. Petty’s uncle Earl worked with film crews who came to Florida for location work and he was working on the Elvis film, Follow That Dream. Words like “chemotherapy” didn’t go unnoticed by the young Tom. Meanwhile, Tom’s mum was suffering from cancer. Like swinging a snake around his head to snap it’s neck. Tom was just five years old when that happened.īeyond the abuse, Tom’s dad had unusual ways of “toughening up” and impressing his son. “He beat me so bad that I was covered in raised welts”. Petty remembers being beaten by his dad with a belt after hitting a passing Cadillac with slingshot from his catapult. Said Tom about watching TV: “what I noticed on television was that families were nothing like ours”. Earl Petty, perhaps like many fathers of the time, put food on the table, but didn’t provide much nurture to his family. And so he hid his past, in order to not be an outsider. He saw how white people were treated better. His father was born half Cherokee, half white and experienced first hand what it meant to be not-white. Part 1: “…and you tell that to kids nowadays, they don’t believe you” The second is the story of Wildflowers, Petty’s 1994 solo album which remains his finest accomplishment, songs of sadness and hope written during a tremendously difficult time. How and why a dirt-poor kid from Florida builds a band, writes incredible songs and sells millions of records. In the words of Petty biographer Warren Zanes, while Springsteen might have “loved the music hillbillies played…he sure didn’t know what it was like to be one”.
They’re having fun, but there‘s a crucial difference between the two men. There they are, two happening young rock stars, listening to The Rolling Stones on an eight track through the car’s frankly incredible quadraphonic speakers. Petty has just bought a red Camaro with the whole of his first royalty cheque – the princely sum of $7,000. Bruce Springsteen, seeing a kindred spirit, has called the latest guy to be called the future of rock n roll, Tom Petty, to see if he wants to hang out. ( 9 ) L to R Mike Campbell, Tom Petty and Steve Ferrone at The Isle of Wight Festival, 2012 Just how did a boy from hillbilly country meet Elvis, Brian Wilson and George Harrison before even releasing a record? The story of Tom Petty is one that defies all the odds….The Story of Tom Petty and His Greatest Albumīy Every Record Tells A Story on Novem Home › Music › The Story of Tom Petty and His Greatest Album
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