Musically, Petty stretched the band’s sound with help from Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics on the “Southern Accents” album and partnered with ELO producer/leader Jeff Lynne on his initial solo work.

Memorable clips included the surreal “Don’t Come Around Here No More” that featured Petty as a Mad Hatter in an Alice In Wonderland-type story the creepy “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” with actress Kim Basinger as a corpse and Petty as a morgue employee and the futuristic “You Got Lucky” starring Petty and the Heartbreakers. Petty and the Heartbreakers certainly didn’t have matinee idol looks, but still embraced music videos when MTV exploded in the early 1980s. “It was more than commerce, it wasn’t about that. And to us, in the era we came up in, it was a religion in a way,” he said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, a few days before his death on Oct. “We’re a real rock ’n’ roll band - always have been. “He hewed to a narrow but brilliantly realized vision of rock ’n’ roll,” noted rock critic Greg Kot.Īs a rock purist, he knew what he did well and didn’t try to be something he wasn’t. Listeners got what they wanted with Petty’s music, whether he was with the Heartbreakers, solo or even with the Traveling Wilburys. A few reasons for his longevity and success: His ability to hold on to a genuine persona for decades after he reached stardom in the late 1970s holds lessons for marketers. Why did he have such strong staying power? The quality of his music, obviously, but also the power of his brand. During Petty’s almost 40 years in the limelight, he was respected by a range of listeners, from die-hards who knew every song to casual fans who sang along to “Free Fallin” in their cars. The one positive thing we can all agree on? We like (or at least don’t viscerally hate) Tom Petty.Įven though he was kidding, it’s tough to argue with that premise. People can’t even agree on basic facts, and each side thinks the other is ill-informed. A couple of weeks ago I heard a comedian ruminate about how the U.S.

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