Of the hundreds of kids who graduate from Gainesville High School every year, relatively few (I’m guessing) are aware that they attended the same school as the late, great Tom Petty. (My son Connor definitely was aware because I was constantly reminding him of it, to his annoyance. LOL.) Petty is still Gainesville’s most famous native son, and with good reason. He was one of the greatest rock musicians of his generation. In fact, I think of him as America’s version of David Bowie—brilliant, inventive, always changing and yet always the same.
(Fun fact: one of Gainesville’s other famous sons, Don Felder, taught Petty how to play piano, or guitar, depending on who you ask.)
My favorites of Petty’s songs are the early classics like this one, “Listen to her Heart.” If you’ve ever feared losing a lover to a rival with a lot of money and cocaine (and who hasn’t?), this song is for you.
Rock on…
Ash Clifton, Writer 
Peter Bogdonavich’s long documentary about Tom Petty goes a lot into his early days with Mudcrutch in Gainesville. It’s fascinating. They took a beat up car to LA and someone (the devil?) offered them a roll of cash. Somehow, rockstars were born. My one gripe with the movie was it didn’t include a full length concert, but I’ve got another, Live at the Olympic, that’s fantastic. I was lucky enough to see Tom live twice, once at the Bridge School benefit on Halloween 2000 (I swear they were all wearing costumes, but there were mushrooms involved) and at the Convention Center in Reno.
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That’s amazing! Thanks for sharing that!
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Hey Ash, nice call on Jeremy Brett. My dad was a long time Sherlockian, and Brett was also his favorite actor to ever play Sherlock. His least favorite was Will Ferrell, by far.
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