Tom Petty
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Thomas Earl "Tom" Petty (born October 20, 1950 in Gainesville , Florida ; † October 2, 2017 in Santa Monica , California ) was an American musician who initially worked with his band Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers and later as a solo artist was successful.
Life
Petty graduated from high school in 1968 and attended college for a year . His first band The Sundowners was renamed Epics. She quickly became known locally. In 1970 the band was renamed Mudcrutch. She often appeared with the also emerging group Lynyrd Skynyrd . Mudcrutch had their own music, combining the influence of British bands with the Californian style of The Byrds , Buffalo Springfield and Flying Burrito Brothers . In 1974 they got their first record deal, and Petty became a professional musician.
From 1974 to 1996 Tom Petty was married to Jane Benyo. The marriage resulted in two daughters. He was married to Dana York since 2001. Petty last lived in Malibu .
On October 2, 2017, Tom Petty was admitted to a hospital in Santa Monica after suffering cardiac arrest , where he died. According to the autopsy report published in January 2018, the strong pain relievers oxycodone and fentanyl from the group of opioids were detected in his blood . According to Petty's family, he died of an accidental pain medication overdose . His family said they hope the report could help fight more resolutely against rampant opioid abuse in the United States. Petty suffered from emphysema and knee problems as well as a broken hip and became dependent on the medication prescribed for him. In his biography Petty: The Biography from 2015, he had stated that he had been dependent on heroin - also an opioid - at times in the 1990s .
Career as a musician
The real career began in 1976 with Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers and the band's debut album of the same name. Six more studio albums and a live album followed. In 1987 Petty went on a world tour with Bob Dylan and in September played as his opening act together with the Heartbreakers in front of around 80,000 spectators in Treptower Park in East Berlin .
In 1989 Petty released his first solo album, Full Moon Fever , co-produced by Jeff Lynne (his partner on the Traveling Wilburys with Bob Dylan, George Harrison and Roy Orbison ) and Mike Campbell . The hits on this album were I Won't Back Down , Free Fallin ' and Runnin' Down a Dream ; The album also features a cover version of Byrds' I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better . It reached third place on the US album charts and went five times platinum , marking Petty's commercial breakthrough. In 1989, Petty received a Grammy Award for his work with the Traveling Wilburys .
In 1990, Ringo Starr , along with Tom Petty, Joe Walsh and Jeff Lynne for a television program to commemorate John Lennon the Beatles -Titel I Call Your Name on. 1994 released Petty's second solo album, Wildflowers , for which he received another Grammy award. Among the hits on this album, whose guest musicians also included ex-Beatle Ringo Starr, were You Don't Know How It Feels , You Wreck Me and It's Good to Be King . On November 29, 2002, exactly one year after the death of George Harrison, Petty took part in the memorial concert for his former companion in London's Royal Albert Hall . In July 2006 the album Highway Companion was released , again produced by Jeff Lynne.
Petty was friends with the American singer Stevie Nicks , with whom he released the hit Stop Draggin 'My Heart Around in 1981 . She accompanied him at many of his concerts. He was also friends with Johnny Cash , whose backing band for the last albums in the American Recordings series had consisted largely of members of the Heartbreakers since 1996. Last but not least, Cash also published his own versions of Petty's Southern Accents and I Won't Back Down there .
In 1997, he starred in a small guest role alongside Kevin Costner in the film Postman . In 2002 he made a guest appearance on an episode of The Simpsons , in which he spoke his cartoon character. In February 2008, he appeared with the Heartbreakers on the Super Bowl XLII halftime show . In April 2008 a new album was released, a reunion album by his former band Mudcrutch . In Rolling Stone , Petty is listed 91st of the 100 greatest musicians and 59th of the 100 best songwriters of all time .
Discography
Solo albums
| year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 DE
|
 AT
|
 CH
|
 UK
|
 US
|
|||
| 1989 | Full moon fever |
DE41 (18 weeks) DE |
AT73 (1 week) AT |
- |
UK8th  (16 weeks)UK |
US3  × 5
(77 weeks)US |
|
| 1994 | Wildflowers |
DE15 (18 weeks) DE |
AT13 (16 weeks) AT |
CH17 (10 weeks) CH |
UK36  (4 weeks)UK |
US8th × 3
(57 weeks)US |
|
| 2006 | Highway Companion |
DE12 (8 weeks) DE |
AT60 (3 weeks) AT |
CH44 (3 weeks) CH |
UK56 (3 weeks) UK |
US4th (14 weeks)US |
|
Solo singles
| year | Title album |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
DE
|
CH
|
UK
|
US
|
|||
| 1989 | I Won't Back Down Full Moon Fever |
DE66 (10 weeks) DE |
- |
UK28 (11 weeks) UK |
US12 (15 weeks) US |
|
| Runnin 'Down a Dream Full Moon Fever |
- | - |
UK55 (5 weeks) UK |
US23 (14 weeks) US |
||
| Free Fallin ' Full Moon Fever |
- |
CH86 (1 week) CH |
UK59 (8 weeks)UK |
US7 (21 weeks) US |
177th place in the Rolling Stone 500
|
|
| 1990 | A Face in the Crowd Full Moon Fever |
- | - |
UK93 (2 weeks) UK |
US46 (8 weeks) US |
|
| 1994 | You Don't Know How It Feels Wildflowers |
- | - |
UK91 (1 week) UK |
US13 (22 weeks) US |
Grammy (rock performance, male)
|
| 1995 | You Wreck Me Wildflowers |
- | - |
UK88 (1 week) UK |
- | |
| It's Good to Be King Wildflowers |
- | - | - |
US68 (8 weeks) US |
||
| 2006 | Saving Grace Highway Companion |
- | - | - |
US100 (1 week) US |
|
More singles
- Mind Your Own Business (with Hank Williams Jr. , Reba McEntire , Reverend Ike, and Willie Nelson ; 1987)
- Yer So Bad (1989)
Awards for music sales
|
Note: Awards in countries from the chart tables or chart boxes can be found in these.
| Country / Region |
silver |
gold |
platinum
|
Sales | swell |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Awards for music sales (country / region, awards, sales, sources) |
|||||
 Canada (MC)
|
- | - |
8 × platinum8th
|
800,000 | musiccanada.com |
|
United States (RIAA)
|
- |
gold1
|
8 × platinum8th
|
8,500,000 | riaa.com |
|
United Kingdom (BPI)
|
silver1
|
2 × gold2
|
- | 560,000 | bpi.co.uk |
| All in all |
silver1
|
3 × gold3
|
16 × platinum16
|
||
literature
- Warren Zanes: Petty: The Biography , Henry Holt & Co, New York 2015, ISBN 978-0805099683 .
- Paul Zollo, Tom Petty: Conversations with Tom Petty. Omnibus Press, New York 2005, ISBN 1-84449-815-8 .
Web links
- Official website (English)
- Tom Petty at Discogs (English)
- Tom Petty at Allmusic (English)
- Tom Petty at laut.de
- American Defiant Head , Obituary, Spiegel Online
- Tom Petty's channel on YouTube (VEVO)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Kory Grow: Tom Petty, Rock Iconoclast Who Led the Heartbreakers, Dead at 66. In: Rolling Stone. October 2, 2017, accessed October 2, 2017 .
- ^ Paul Zollo, Tom Petty: Conversations with Tom Petty. Omnibus Press, New York 2005, ISBN 1-84449-815-8 , pp. 155-157.
- ↑ Tom Petty: 1950 - 2017 , accessed on October 2, 2017 (English)
- ↑ Tom Petty died of an overdose of painkillers In: sueddeutsche.de , January 20, 2018, accessed on January 20, 2018.
- ↑ Marwa Eltagouri: "Tom Petty died of an accidental drug overdose His family shared the news to. 'Save lives.'" Washington Post on January 19, 2018
- ↑ Fabian Broicher: Tom Petty talks about his heroin addiction for the first time in his biography in: Musikexpress from October 9, 2015.
- ^ Stasi documents about the concert in Treptower Park in 1987
- ↑ SWR3 Daily Pop: Tom Petty with first album without the Heartbreakers , April 4, 1989
- ↑ www.nytimes.com: The Stubborn Voice of a Troubadour . , January 16, 2011
- ↑ Nashville's Leadon reunites with Petty on album and film ( Memento of 14 April 2008 at the Internet Archive )
- ↑ 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. Rolling Stone , December 2, 2010, accessed August 7, 2017 .
- ↑ The 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time. Rolling Stone , August 2015, accessed August 7, 2017 .
- ↑ a b Chart sources: DE , AT , CH , UK , US
- ↑ Sources for awards: UK US CA
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Petty, Tom |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Petty, Thomas Earl |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American musician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 20, 1950 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Gainesville , Florida |
| DATE OF DEATH | 2nd October 2017 |
| Place of death | Santa Monica , California |