In final interview, Tom Petty talks about songwriting, touring and the holiness of the Heartbreakers
After finishing a marathon 40th anniversary tour, Petty speaks about learning to rest, how he’s almost never been sick and the excitement that comes writing and recording a new song. A few days later he died of a heart attack
This is not the Tom Petty story that I had intended to write.
Though I was more than thrilled to catch up with Petty, whom I had interviewed before, I had no clue that this would turn out to be the last, for me and for him – that he would die just a few days later on October 2 at the age of 66.
This is not the way things were supposed to happen.
It was a triumphant stand particularly rewarding to Petty, a Florida transplant who considered himself and his band mates California adoptees.
“This year has been a wonderful year for us,” he said. Above his head hung a framed illustration of his departed friend and boyhood idol George Harrison, created by artist Shepard Fairey and presented to Petty by Harrison’s son, musician Dhani Harrison. “This has been that big slap on the back we never got,” he said, referring to the popular, critical and financial affirmation that wasn’t always apparent throughout the group’s hard-working history.