Tom Petty: Heartbreaker

Over the holiday, my family and I watched four-hour rock doc opus/slog “Runnin’ Down A Dream,” the story of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. I’m a default Petty fan—it happens a few years into listening to “Full Moon Fever” on every family road trip since 1989.

Tom Petty’s got a lot of songs about women. Pretty much all the songs—the ones that aren’t about smoking weed, road trips, rock, or vague generalities—are about girls. So, what women inspired Petty? Runnin’ Down a Dream—while completely awesome—doesn’t offer many clues. These are the only mentions I could find of women in Petty’s life:

- Vague reference to heading out on the road with the band “a couple days” after getting married to a woman, whereupon:

- she is never mentioned again, even when Tom Petty’s house burns down and it’s revealed he has two daughters with her, whereupon:

- Petty delivers a heartfelt testimonial about how much he loved his dear mother, who died too early in his life, whereupon:

- Stevie Nicks keeps asking Petty to let her join the Heartbreakers but he won’t because “there are no girls in the Heartbreakers,” whereupon: Read More “Tom Petty: Heartbreaker” »