Tom Petty has been rocking arenas and stadiums throughout the world for over four decades, but how much do you know about this Rock Hall of Famer?

Part of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame class of 2002, Tom Petty grew up on Gainesville Florida and started playing in bands as a teenager, so here are five facts you may not know about Tom Petty.

 

  1. He met Elvis: Tom was 10 years old when his Uncle was working on the set of an Elvis Presley movie in Florida and introduced him to the King, Tom has been an Elvis fan since that day in 1961.
  2. He never finished school; Despite writing some of the biggest rock songs in history Tom Petty was a high school drop out, he joined a rock band and never returned to get his high school diploma.
  3. He was a cartoon character: Tom provided the voice of ‘Lucky’ on the popular fox series ‘King of the Hill’ in 28 episodes from 2004 to 2009 (according to IMDB)
  4. His 1989 album ‘Full Moon Fever’ featured legendary musicians, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne and Roy Orbison, and collaborated with Bob Dylan.
  5. He refused to release an album until the label lowered the cost: Tom’s record label MCA wanted to charge a buck more than the standard price of an album back in 1981 for his ‘Hard Promises” LP but Tom didn’t want his fans to pay more for his music so he would not release the album until the label agreed to lower the price.

We have a bus trip going to Hunter Mountain on June 17th to see Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers  at Mountain Jam, sign up for Whale Nation HERE and get the special code that will reduce the price of our Bus Trip.

 

[via IMDB]

[via Wikipedia]

 

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