An Honest Tribute: Tom Petty

All Photos are Courtesy of Tom Petty's Website.

I have struggled all week to really verbalize how I feel about Tom Petty's passing. I think often  I think my idols will live forever because at some point I put them in a non-human category in my heart. I am going to try my very best to articulate all the mixed feelings I have.

A childhood dream-
I always snuck into my dad's vast CD collection and listened to his 80's CD's. I know the reason I love music is due to this early exposure to rock music from my father. My dad had a lot of different music but I was drawn to the Tom Petty songs early on. I cherished those CD's and once I knew how to burn copies of CD's I did that with some Tom Petty ones. I was not adult enough back then to understand the genius of Petty's lyrics but I loved the guitar riff's and interesting twang of his voice.

We all "Free Fall" into being adults-
My adulthood started with the introduction of IPod's and portable music devices I could fit into my pocket. I always had Petty in the mix on every portal device I had. I started to really get into his lyrics and truly feel the music. No matter what sort of day you were having you could find a song that fit that mood. It was in adulthood that rumors started that maybe Petty had not really written all original music that some of his maybe "borrowed" from others. I still to this day have mixed feelings about this because what he made was pure genius to me. Many of his records do not have a bad song on them which is hard to achieve. A couple of years ago I got another bad taste in my mouth when he sued Sam Smith for one of his songs claiming Sam ripped off one of his songs. It made me a little mad at him for a while. I could not stray from his music for too long though it was too good.

Recently-
I watched this documentary series on HBO called "The Defiant Ones".  To my pleasant surprise a large part of it features Tom Petty and how he really has helped shaped other's careers. I then go to see Stevie Nick's in August and she tells a really cool story about Tom Petty and how she was star-struck meeting him. He is just constantly in my life as a constant undertone it appears.

I cannot imagine a world where Tom Petty is not quietly influencing others and making beautiful music. He was not a huge character yet everyone seems to have been touched by him in some indirect way. I only wish I saw him in concert at some point. I had to post some thing about him. I had to write my thoughts out and get them out of my head. I will never forget how he has influenced my life and I will continue to collect his records when I find them in dusty little shops. Although I may have to pay more for them now.