People die every day, of course. This one caught me by surprise and hits kinda hard.

Very grateful my wife and I caught his show on the tour a couple years back --- really bounced back from some blasé previous years and was he performing at a very high level. Entire band was firing on all cylinders. Sounds like he was in a good place late in life, and just wrapped up his last show of his final tour last Monday night at the Bowl.

Always felt Wildflowers was a sublime and dynamic study. And with the possible exception of Who's Next, there's no greater album side of no-let up quality rock & roll than side 1 of Full Moon Fever.

Still remember the first time my friend put Rockin Around With You on the turntable back in '77 and I'll never forget his performance at the benefit concert days after 9/11/2001, a gutsy rendition of I Won't Back Down.

Thanks Tom for being a good guy and great rocker, and you will be missed.

Really regret never taking the opportunity to go see one of his shows. One of my all time favorites.

I always said that i had a theory that no one hates Tom Petty. I have yet to be disproven.

It’s not possible to not sing along to Free Fallin’.

One of the true greats. First time I saw Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers The Replacements were the opening act. Still one of the best shows ever. Probably only behind Bruce and E Street on the recent River anniversary tour and Joe Strummer with The Pogues

Man those Rickenbackers never sounded better. Gonna miss Tom Petty

Same. Bummed I didn't get to see him live

Agree w/everyone here.

Great words, great songs, great sound, and good man.

Saw Petty with Pearl Jam back about 10 years ago.

Petty has been one of my favorites probably since high school. Everyone should own at least his Greatest Hits album.

I will always remember him for his role in what may be the most underrated movie of all time....Postman.




His music was really great though. A shame.

RIP, was a huge fan.

RIP.

Had some great tunes over the years and I agree about Free Fallin. If that tune is on and you're not singing it you should really get your shit together.

Very few performers, maybe only a handful or a bit more, who fans of different genres and age groups universally agree was great.

Concert I was at about 10 years ago, there was a kid maybe 14-15 with his parents....knew every word to every song.

This one is another one of those, damn not him or her moments.

RIP Tom, loved all your work HB, Solo, Duets and Wilburys

Been a fan of Tom Petty since his Album Damn the Torpedoes. Refugee, Don't Do Me Like That, Here Comes My Girl many days listening to that album in risk of being in trouble by my older sister who's album it was.

Any way, Always Sad when one of the greats passes away. Will be missed. Rest In Peace.

Side Note:
Those were the days..., in a time when believe it or not Disco was still dominating, The Steelers were also dominating ..., Tom Petty shared the radio with bands like ABBA, John Lennon/Ono, Paul McCartney & Wings, AC/DC, Boston, Rolling Stones, Steve Miller, Foghat, Elton John, Eric Clapton, Billy Joel, Rod Stewart, Kiss, The Police, Deep Purple, Foreigner, Queen, The Who, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Led Zeppelin, Sabbath, Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac, Stevie Wonder, Eagles, The Knack, The Kinks, ELO, Blondie, Cheap Trick, Journey, Toto, David Bowie, The Cars and many, many others were all on the FM dial. VanHalen had just started on the scene in 1978 and was the new kid on the block. Back in the day when most cars still had AM radio's only. Was in the 70's more and more cars began coming with both AM & FM because the sound quality was lightyears better with FM. 8 track tapes were still in production. FM had started taking over the radio waves and was still a new version of radio to me. Anyway, if you didn't have any vinyl album/8 track tape collection(s) you had no choice but to listen to the FM dial. So later on in the 1980's I would take a cheap cassette tape recorder and record songs off the radio. Now that I've aged myself...

Even if most of the fans only know the chorus, this is still really cool:

Hey Spike

This is a true shame and loss -- Mr Petty along with Bob Dylan is America

Gord Downie from the Tragically Hip lost his battle with cancer yesterday. Been a rough two or three weeks for great lyricists, and the music world in general.