Tom Petty
In 2017, Tom Petty was inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame, a recognition that capped a career spent working at the heart of American rock music. It proved to be one of the final honors he received before his death on October 2 of that year at UCLA Santa Monica Medical Center.
Petty was born on October 20, 1950, in Gainesville, Florida, and attended Gainesville High School. He went on to work as a singer, guitarist, songwriter, composer, and record producer, building his career in the rock genre and performing in English throughout. His roles in the studio and on stage often overlapped — he wrote, produced, and sang the music he put out into the world, which was unusual in its range of creative responsibility.
He died at the age of 67, just days before what would have been his sixty-seventh birthday. The Florida Artists Hall of Fame induction stands as a concrete marker of the recognition he received from his home state, connecting his career back to the Gainesville roots where it all began.
Quotes by Tom Petty
Tom Petty's insights on:
My family wasn't involved in the college. They were more of just your 'white trash' kind of family. And so I have that kind of background, but I always kind of aspired to be something else, and I made a lot of different friends over the years that were passing through.
An average show is two hours. And that's usually right up to the curfew or the union triple time. I always feel like I could have played a little longer or something, but it's hard for me to pay attention to anything for longer than that.
I don't eat fish and chicken and all that. But I will have some eggs. So I'm not technically a vegan. But I eat pretty sensibly, and before a tour, I will usually work out a lot. I'll get a trainer, or I have a guy I've known a long time.
I've been more and more into production lately, and I really, really love that. I love recording.
It's kind of a lonely work, because you just have to keep your pole in the water. I always had a little routine of going into whatever room I was using at the time to write in and just staying in there till I felt like I got a bite.
It's hard for me... If I don't have a project going, I don't feel like I'm connected to anything. I don't even think it's that healthy for me. I like to get out of bed and have a purpose.
Rock isn't a young music anymore. I don't think it's necessarily even a youth-oriented music.
