Tom Petty Has Died

October 2, 2017 / Posted by:

UPDATE: CBS News reported that Tom Petty had died and his death had been confirmed to them by the LAPD. But CBS News has snatched that confirmation back. The LAPD is now telling everyone that they have no information about Tom’s condition. TMZ says that a chaplain was brought in to Tom’s hospital room this morning. Their sources say that he’s still clinging to life, but it’s not looking good and “is not expected to live throughout the day.” What a mess. I hope Tom finds out about the messiness of this reporting and gains enough strength to slap us all down. I’ll keep updating as more info comes in.

UPDATE II: After the back and forth sloppy reporting about Tom’s condition, his rep issued a statement saying that he died tonight. So today was the kind of extra horrible day where Tom Petty died twice.

“On behalf of the Tom Petty family we are devastated to announce the untimely death of our father, husband, brother, leader and friend Tom Petty. He suffered cardiac arrest at his home in Malibu in the early hours of this morning and was taken to UCLA Medical Center but could not be revived. He died peacefully at 8:40p.m. PT surrounded by family, his bandmates and friends.”

My original post is after the cut.

Here’s further proof that this day week month year decade is just one humongous pile of steaming awful. The Los Angeles Police Department confirmed to CBS News that Tom Petty died today. He was 66.

Earlier today, the world sang, “intooo the great wide nooooo,” after TMZ first reported that Tom was taken to the hospital by ambulance last night after he was found unconscious at his home in Malibu, CA. Tom was apparently not breathing and was in cardiac arrest. EMTs were able to get a pulse. He was put on life support when he got to UCLA Santa Monica Hospital. But Tom’s time on life support wasn’t long. A quick minute after TMZ posted their first story, they updated with the worst update of all updates. They claimed that a decision was made to take Tom off life support because he had no brain activity.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers just finished up a summer tour last week after performing three shows at the Hollywood Bowl.

Wikipedia tells me that Tom Petty was born and raised in Gainesville, FL, and at the age of 17, he said fuck it to graduating high school so he could join his first band called Epics. Epics later evolved into a band called Mudcrutch. Mudcrutch had a following in Gainesville, but they never really made it to the mainstream. The band broke up and Tom went on to do his own thing, which led to him forming the Heartbreakers.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers put out 13 studio albums from 1976 to 2014. Those albums produced several songs that you and your mom love to loudly sing together in between fighting during a road trip. Songs like Free Fallin’, American Girl, Don’t Do Me Like That, Learning To Fly, Don’t Come Around Here No More, Into The Great Wide Open, Mary Jane’s Last Dance, You Don’t Know How It Feels, etc…. Tom Petty didn’t only write classic songs that work in any decade, he also had a gift for bringing you and your fighting relatives together through song!

In the late-80s, Tom joined the supergroup of the Traveling Wilburys with George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Jeff Lynn and Roy Orbison. They released two albums. Tom also got back together with Mudcrutch in 2007.

At the time of Tom’s death, he was married to his wife of 16 years Dana York Epperson. Tom had two daughters with his first wife Jane Benyo, as well as a granddaughter. And no, none of his daughters are Lori Petty for the ten millionth time.

And I’m ending this sad post with this masterpiece of a video, because in the year 1985, nothing wowed my young mind quite like this video did. This video was my first taste of acid.

Rest in peace, Tom Petty.

(Note: This post was reworked from a shorter post about Tom Petty being in the hospital)

Pic: Getty

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