I  didn’t want to post this tribute/obit to Tom Petty right away ’cause I was waiting for official confirmation on what was going to happen to him. Yesterday evening, there was a big debate in social media on whether or not Tom Petty was dead. Rumours were swirling social networking that he died after being hospitalized due to being in full  cardiac arrest. The media rushed in to announced his death without official confirmation which helped sparked the debate on whether he was dead then the media retracted the death reports after TMZ stated he was still clinging to life. Later on that evening, Tom’s manager and family confirmed his death and the Heartbreakers officially announced it themselves on their FB page.

Like most, this is a heartbreaker for me too. Tom Petty was a hero of mine musically. He was a big influence in my own singing and songwriting. Yeah, Tom was a hitmaker for sure. He wrote a lot of great hits, but he has tons of other great obscure songs that were never played on the radio. Do you listen to Tom Petty for the hits or for his albums? Well, I listened to him for his albums ’cause he was a phenomenal songwriter. I’ve listened to his music for years. Heard every studio album he did. Shamefully, I never got to see him live in concert when I always wanted to.

Tom Petty got his start in music when he formed his first band called, Mudcrutch. The band Mudcrutch signed a record deal, but it didn’t go so well for them ’cause their first single bombed in sales. They were forced to break-up, and this lead to Tom Petty forming the Heartbreakers later. The Heartbreakers released 13 albums with Tom, and Tom released 3 solo albums. Tom also did two records with the Travelling Wilburys (a supergroup he formed with Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, George Harrison and Jeff Lynne), and then Tom reunited Mudcrutch not too long ago and they released two albums together. Yes, The Mudcrutch album, Mudcrutch 2 was Tom’s final project before he passed. Tom was a pretty hard working musician over the years of his life. Making records and touring pretty heavily; that was pretty much all he did.

I had great respect for him immensely. He was part of the reason I wanted to write my own songs. If you want to know more about Tom Petty’s life and career, watch the “Running Down a Dream documentary on Netflix. Tom Petty was a rock n’ roll genius for sure… everything he did was so good.

Will Tom’s record labels release one more Tom Petty album whether it will be with the Heartbreakers or his solo stuff? We’ll wait and see. I’m sure we will get one more Tom Petty studio album. I’m sure the Heartbreakers are gonna search in their vault ’cause I’m sure the band have plenty of songs that they threw away. They’ll do something for him.

Enjoy my Tom Petty cover tribute video below where I cover the song, “You Wreck Me”. I’m thinking of doing a few more Petty covers too.

RIP Tom and thanks for the kickass music.

Kev