49 Fun Facts About Tom Petty

Which Florida city was Tom Petty born and raised in?

Gainesville. On what would have been his 68th birthday, the city renamed the park he often visited as a boy Tom Petty Park.

On the first Traveling Wilburys album, Tom Petty was billed as which Wilbury brother?

Charlie. In full he was Charlie T. Wilbury Jr., but only for one record: on the next album the four remaining members all took new names and Petty became Muddy.

Which Wilburys song was originally meant as a B-side for a George Harrison single?

Handle with Care. George Harrison took the title from a box he spotted in the garage studio where the five wrote it, and Warner executives ruled the song too good for a B-side.

What did the Traveling Wilburys jokingly title their second album?

Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3. The band never released a Vol. 2: a bandmate recalled that the jump was George Harrison's idea, proposed with the words 'Let's confuse the buggers.'

What was the title of Petty's 1989 debut solo album?

Full Moon Fever. MCA at first turned the album down, saying it couldn't hear a hit, and it went on to be certified five times platinum in the US.

Who co-produced Petty's 1989 solo debut with him and Mike Campbell?

Jeff Lynne. The ELO leader and Petty wrote and recorded Free Fallin' together in two days, the first song finished for the album.

Which actress plays the dead woman whom Petty's morgue attendant takes home in one of his best-known videos?

Kim Basinger. Petty wanted a great beauty in the part so viewers would see why his character keeps the body around, and the clip won MTV's Best Male Video award.

Who appears on drums in the video for Petty's first solo single, though the part was played by Phil Jones?

Ringo Starr. He only mimed for the camera; at the real session George Harrison treated Petty's heavy cold by boiling ginger root and having him breathe the steam before singing.

Which producer made Wildflowers and two further albums with Petty?

Rick Rubin. He and Petty wanted Wildflowers to be a double album until the head of their record label talked them out of it.

Which 2020 set released Wildflowers' cut songs?

Wildflowers & All the Rest. Petty had planned the expanded set himself and badly wanted it finished, so his family and bandmates completed it three years after he died.

Which Wildflowers outtake became a hit the next year for Rod Stewart?

Leave Virginia Alone. Petty dropped it for sounding too close to one of his earlier hits, and Stewart admitted he had to be persuaded to record it.

What was the name of Petty's pre-Heartbreakers band, reformed in 2007?

Mudcrutch. The band split in 1975 after a single flopped and its album went unreleased, so the reunion, 32 years on, finally produced a debut album.

Which 1991 thriller plays Petty's American Girl in a young woman's car just before she is abducted?

The Silence of the Lambs. The driver is a senator's daughter, and her kidnap by the killer Buffalo Bill puts Clarice Starling's hunt for him on a deadline.

Which rock star co-founded Shelter Records, the label that signed Petty's pre-Heartbreakers band in 1974?

Leon Russell. His label put out just one single by the band before it fell apart, but it kept Petty and went on to release the Heartbreakers' debut album.

Tom Leadon, Petty's bandmate before the Heartbreakers, was the brother of a member of which band?

Eagles. Bernie Leadon was a founding member, while Tom went back on the road with Petty decades later, when their old band reunited for albums and tours.

Which future Eagle claimed to have been one of Petty's first guitar teachers?

Don Felder. He made the claim in his memoir, but Petty remembered it differently: the lessons he got from Felder, he said, were on piano.

As a boy, Petty met which star on the set of the film Follow That Dream?

Elvis Presley. Petty's uncle was working on the shoot and took him along, and Petty said he caught the fever that day and never got rid of it.

As a boy, Petty traded which toy for a box of 45s after meeting a star?

A Wham-O slingshot. The swap began a record habit that turned serious quickly: by the age of 14 he had formed his first band.

What odd job did Petty briefly hold as a young man?

Gravedigger. He also worked on a university grounds crew, where a tree he is said to have planted is named after him, though Petty said he didn't remember planting anything.

Which 1979 album was the Heartbreakers' breakthrough, with Refugee and Don't Do Me Like That?

Damn the Torpedoes. The title borrows Admiral Farragut's Civil War battle cry, and the album spent seven weeks at number two, kept off the top by Pink Floyd's The Wall.

What did Petty file for in May 1979 to avoid being transferred to MCA without his consent?

Bankruptcy. The filing was a tactic to get out of his old contract, and it worked: the fight ended with a richer deal on a newly created MCA label.

Which album did Petty threaten to title Eight Ninety-Eight in a price fight?

Hard Promises. MCA meant to price it at $9.98, a dollar above the norm, so Petty took his objections to the press and threatened to withhold the record, and the label backed down.

Petty's first duet, Insider, was with which singer?

Stevie Nicks. Petty wrote Insider for her solo debut, but she could tell he loved it too much to part with it, so she handed it back and took Stop Draggin' My Heart Around instead.

A misheard remark by Petty's first wife inspired the title of which early-1980s hit?

Edge of Seventeen. Jane Petty had said 'age of seventeen' in a strong Southern accent, and the song the singer planned about the couple became an elegy after her uncle and John Lennon died.

In the Don't Come Around Here No More video, Petty dressed as which character?

The Mad Hatter. His tea party turns on its guest: Alice is transformed into a cake, sliced up and eaten.

Which bassist replaced Ron Blair in the Heartbreakers for 1982's Long After Dark?

Howie Epstein. He stayed for two decades, until his drug problems forced the band to let him go in 2002, and the man who came back to replace him was Ron Blair.

Who invited the Heartbreakers to back him on the True Confessions Tour in 1986?

Bob Dylan. The tour led to more: he co-wrote Jammin' Me, a hit for the band the following year, and by 1988 the two were bandmates in the Traveling Wilburys.

Which Philadelphia venue hosted the Heartbreakers' four-song Live Aid set in 1985?

John F. Kennedy Stadium. They opened with American Girl, and partway through it Petty smiled and gave someone the finger, live on a broadcast watched around the world.

Which two actors appeared in the music video for Into the Great Wide Open?

Johnny Depp and Faye Dunaway. Depp plays Eddie, a kid fresh out of school who becomes a rock star and then watches his career collapse, with Dunaway as his manager.

Which animated series featured Petty as the voice of Lucky Kleinschmidt from 2004 to 2009?

King of the Hill. Lucky is Luanne's boyfriend and later her husband; Petty's earlier cartoon outing, on The Simpsons, had him play himself teaching Homer to write lyrics.

In which Kevin Costner film did Petty play the Bridge City Mayor?

The Postman. The big-budget epic took under $18 million at US cinemas and then swept the Golden Raspberries, winning all five it was nominated for, Worst Picture among them.

The Heartbreakers played four songs at which February 2008 event?

The Super Bowl. It was halftime at Super Bowl XLII in Arizona, and one of the four songs, Free Fallin', suited the night: the unbeaten New England Patriots led at the break and went on to lose.

Which 2014 album was the Heartbreakers' first to top the Billboard 200?

Hypnotic Eye. The band had waited almost four decades for a number-one album, and it proved to be their last studio record: Petty died three years later.

Which 2002 Heartbreakers album was a broadside against greed in the music industry?

The Last DJ. Its title song mourns disc jockeys who chose their own records and was inspired by the Los Angeles host Jim Ladd, who was himself laid off nine years later.

Where did the Heartbreakers play their final concert on September 25, 2017?

Hollywood Bowl. Three nights there closed the band's 40th-anniversary tour, which Petty had expected to be his last big one, and he died a week after the final show.

Which singer agreed to add Petty to the writing credits of a 2014 hit?

Sam Smith. Stay with Me recalled one of Petty's 1989 hits, yet no lawsuit was ever threatened: Petty said such things can happen and that 'Sam's people were very understanding.'

Which band did Petty say had borrowed from American Girl?

The Strokes. Their singer freely admitted the lift in Last Nite, and Petty said the confession made him laugh out loud; it didn't bother him, and he didn't much believe in lawsuits over pop songs.

Which tire company did Petty sue in 1987 over a commercial that resembled Mary's New Car?

B.F. Goodrich. Its ad agency had asked to use the real song and been told absolutely not, so the commercial used a soundalike, and a federal judge ordered it off the air.

Which 1989 Petty hit did he write in the aftermath of the arson attack that burned down his home?

I Won't Back Down. Petty, his family and their housekeeper were inside when the fire was set and got out; he said it left them shaken for years, and the song was his answer.

Who officiated at Petty's 2001 wedding to Dana York?

Little Richard. He could conduct it because he had walked away from rock and roll in 1957 to attend Bible college and had been ordained a minister.

Which Johnny Cash album featured Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers as his backing band?

Unchained. Cash's previous album had been just his voice and guitar, so the full band was a change of course, and it won him the Grammy for Best Country Album.

Petty's 1996 soundtrack was for which film starring Cameron Diaz and Jennifer Aniston?

She's the One. Petty built part of the soundtrack from leftovers, reworking songs he had cut from Wildflowers two years earlier for Edward Burns's film.

What was the name of Petty's long-running satellite radio show?

Buried Treasure. Rather than his own hits he dug out old rock and roll, garage and blues records from his collection, promising listeners 'the best in rock, rhythm, and blues'.

Which Petty song soundtracked the first Grand Theft Auto VI trailer in December 2023?

Love Is a Long Road. The 1989 album track was never a single, but the trailer sent its streams soaring within days, and Petty's estate welcomed 'a new legion of fans'.

Who directed the 2007 documentary Runnin' Down a Dream about Petty's career?

Peter Bogdanovich. His film runs about four hours and covers thirty years of the band, and the length did it no harm: it won the Grammy for best long-form music video.

Which university, where Petty had once worked on the grounds crew, gave him a posthumous honorary doctorate?

University of Florida. Petty never enrolled there; he tended its grounds while trying to make it in music, and the trustees voted him a doctorate in music four years after his death.

Petty's 1993 Greatest Hits album included which newly recorded song?

Mary Jane's Last Dance. It started out as a song called Indiana Girl, until Petty decided he couldn't sing that chorus with conviction and came back a week later with a new one.

Which 2000 presidential candidate did Petty force to stop playing his music at campaign events?

George W. Bush. A legal threat ended it, and on the night the disputed election was finally conceded, Petty played the very same song at Al Gore's home.

Which guitar maker built the 660/12TP, a limited-edition 12-string that carried Petty's signature?

Rickenbacker. Only 1,000 were made, and Petty had the neck built to his own demands, slightly wider than the company's usual.