Talk:Tom Petty

American Girl

As a student at the University of Flordia, I have heard many rumors circling around the song "American Girl". Can anyone confirm that this song is about a young woman who jumped off a balcony at Beaty Towers (a dormatory atthe Univeristy of Florida in Gainesville)? Tom makes a reference to "441" which is the highway that runs in from of these buildings, but from my observations, it doesnt look like Beaty Towers has any balconies...

Birth year

I went to Howard Bishop Jr. High and Gainesville High school with Tom(my) and my wife's family grew up next door to him. He was our age, and we both were born in 1950. mccislcm.

Was Tom Petty born 1950 or 1953? Google doesn't help, giving many sources for each version. Dbenbenn 01:47, 25 Dec 2004 (UTC)

I did some checking, and there are a lot of sources saying that he was born in 1953, as well as in 1950. However, there are more than a few sources which agree with the below that he graduated from high school in 1968, but I couldn't find any suggesting that he graduated 1970-1972. This seems like pretty good evidence that 1950 is right, unless we find something that says he graduated three years early. - Nat Krause 19:33, 13 August 2005 (UTC)

=== Tom Petty was born === in 1950. Tom graduated in 1968 one year ahead of my sister Carolyn and me from Gainesville High School. My sister was born in 1951 and I was born in 1952. My sister and I were in the same grade because I skipped third grade. My mother and I did a radio talk show in Gainesville, Florida for ten years on 97X radio station called "Down The Street". We had the pleasure of interviewing Tom's father Earl Petty several times. We also went to school with Tom's two cousins Sadie and Norma Darnell.

Tom is a wonderful person and an incredible muscian and songwriter. Always has been, always will be.

Bonnie Mountain ==

movie left out?

he also starred in the postman.. didnt see that mentioned anywhere. not sure if its significant tho.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119925

• • I've added the two movies he appeared in, plus a link to his imdb page. Phileas 07:02, 18 November 2005 (UTC)

Memories

T.P. is my all time favorite singer. His best song was Rebels. I went to the True Confessions tour in '86 when he, Bob Dylan, and the Grateful Dead were featured. That was my first and only encounter with the "dead heads". The albums done post-"Pack Up The Plantation" just weren't my cup of tea.

Principal authors need to address these topics

I was impressed with the article overall- I went through it and made some minor corrections -- spelling, syntax, a minor fact here and there.

Topics that are conspicuously absent from the article:

• The departure of Stan Lynch from the Heartbreakers in 1994.
• Didn't Tom do the soundtrack for a movie - the songs Zero from Outer Space and (She makes me feel like an) Asshole- are on there. I can't think of the name of the movie, but that seems significant and should be mentioned in the article.
• A sentence or two on the death of Howie Epstein.

Hokeman 05:33, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

For the second point, Tom did the soundtrack to She's the One. To be honest, this article seems to omit a lot of his late 90s-2000s musical work (awards and TV appearances notwithstanding). I'll try and add some stuff. Phileas 01:19, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

I've added what I know, but if anyone has any more details on these more recent albums it would make the end more beefy. Reading it back, the article seems to lack a decent structure, though. Maybe the 'Biography' section needs to be split up further, into a section on Tom's history, the progression of the band and Tom's TV appearances. What do other people think? Phileas 01:43, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

Shelter?

The second paragraph says: "Shortly after its release the band was dragged into a legal dispute when ABC Records, Shelter's mother company, was sold to MCA Records."

My question is, what's Shelter?? The article doesn't say. Is Shelter Petty's record company? This needs some explanation in the article. Dismas|^(talk) 19:31, 28 April 2006 (UTC)

fan comment

I just want to say that as an abused child living in a dysfunctional group home in New York, Tom Petty's songs were a salve to a shredded soul. I never heard a more truer rendition of what such a person feels, as they are trying to make their way in a mad world. and that's all, and I hope some day he can read this, and know that his songs gave hope to one without hope.

I have Full Moon Fever and love it, can anyone recommend another album? Thunder Cat 11:56, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

Plagiarism

Shouldn't we include something about Red Hot Chilli Peppers stealing from him? I think there's quite a bit of infomation on the internet. Thunder Cat 09:21, 27 May 2006 (UTC)