RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Singer and songwriter Tom Petty died last night at the age of 66.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "FREE FALLIN'")
TOM PETTY: (Singing) And I'm free, free fallin'.
MARTIN: Music critics use the term Americana to describe Petty's music. In other words, he wrote songs that are, at their core, optimistic, the kind of song that makes you feel like despite what's going on in your life, you could hop in a car, roll down the window, play Tom Petty and feel like it was all going to be OK - at least for a little while. NPR's Andrew Limbong has this appreciation.
ANDREW LIMBONG, BYLINE: In 1987, someone tried to burn down Tom Petty's house in LA. He and his family were inside. They lost everything in the house, but they all survived. He told WHYY's Fresh Air in 2006 that it was a defining experience.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)
PETTY: I felt really elated that they didn't get me, you know? Like, I kind of just - that was the thought that was going through my head as well - you bastards, you didn't get me.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I WON'T BACK DOWN")
TOM PETTY AND THE HEARTBREAKERS: (Singing) Well, I won't back down. No, I won't back down.
LIMBONG: The incident inspired one of Petty's most personal and popular hits, "Won't Back Down."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I WON'T BACK DOWN")
TOM PETTY AND THE HEARTBREAKERS: (Singing) Hey, baby, there ain't no easy way out. Hey, I will stand my ground.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)
PETTY: It's very bold and very blunt. And it's turned out to be maybe, you know, the one song that's had the most influence on people that approach me on the street or talk to me in a restaurant or wherever I go or mail that I've gotten over the years. It's - it's been really important to a lot of people in their lives.
LIMBONG: His connection with his fans was tight. In a documentary about him from 2007 called "Runnin' Down A Dream," he performs a song, "Learning To Fly." He steps back and puts his hands up and the crowd instantly responds.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "RUNNIN' DOWN A DREAM")
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: (Singing, unintelligible).
TOM PETTY AND THE HEARTBREAKERS: (Singing) But I'm learning to fly.
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: (Singing) But I ain't got wings.
LIMBONG: The documentary's director, Peter Bogdanovich, spoke to NPR in 2007.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)
PETER BOGDANOVICH: I would watch Tom and he'd lift his hands over his - his arms over his head and he'd clap his hands. And I'd look - just pan my eyes over to the right and there's 80,000 people doing exactly the same thing. I thought, I'm in the wrong business.
(SOUNDBITE OF TOM PETTY SONG)
LIMBONG: Thomas Petty was born in Gainesville, Fla., in 1950. As a kid, he was into Westerns, cowboys, outsiders, that sort of thing. But his origin story as a rock 'n' roll guy really began in 1964 when the Beatles played "The Ed Sullivan Show." Here's Petty on FRESH AIR again.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)
PETTY: When I saw the Beatles, it sort of hit me like a lightning bolt to the brain, that, oh, I see, you know. You have your friends and you all learn an instrument, and you're a self-contained unit. This is brilliant. This looks like a great, great job to me.
LIMBONG: Petty's first record came with a band made up of fellow Floridians called Mudcrutch. That band fizzled out, but members of it ended up forming Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers. Their first single was "Breakdown."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BREAKDOWN")
TOM PETTY AND THE HEARTBREAKERS: (Singing) Baby, breakdown, go ahead and give it to me. Breakdown, honey, take me through the night. Breakdown, breakdown, now I'm standing here, can't you see?
LIMBONG: Petty was making his mark on music, but the big record, the real big one, was album three, "Damn The Torpedoes." And it was an album that had trouble getting made. His label had sold Petty's publishing rights to MCA. Perry saw that as an injustice, so he claimed bankruptcy as a way of voiding his original contract - a tactic that worked. MCA gave him his publishing rights. It might not seem obvious from his music, but anger, a sort of righteousness, fueled a lot of his ambitions. This is from the 2007 documentary.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "RUNNIN' DOWN A DREAM")
PETTY: I just couldn't contain myself. And this comes from - from my dad just being so incredibly verbally abusive to me, and he was certainly physically abusive at times. He would give me pretty good beatings most of my life.
LIMBONG: Tom Petty had consistent success throughout the years, including forming a supergroup with Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, Jeff Lynne and George Harrison called the Traveling Wilburys.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "END OF THE LINE")
TRAVELING WILBURYS: (Singing) Maybe somewhere down the road aways, at the end of the line, you'll think of me and wonder where I am these days, at the end of the line.
LIMBONG: He won a few Grammys, got inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame. He continued playing and touring. During one of his final shows last month, he told a crowd at the Hollywood Bowl, I want to thank you for 40 really good years. Andrew Limbong, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF TOM PETTY AND THE HEARTBREAKERS SONG, "REFUGEE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
