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Established 1961 Lifestyle WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2017 A model wears a creation for the Chanel Spring/Summer 2018 ready-to-wear fashion collection presented in Paris. — AP Tom Petty, iconic rocker with dark streak, dead at 66 Tom Petty, the Southern-accented rocker whose clas- small-town Americans full of aspirations but running sic melodies and dark storytelling created 40 years of into a wall of setbacks-reflected the hardscrabble hit songs, died Monday of cardiac arrest, his family early life of Petty. said. He was 66. Petty, who sold 80 million records, His grandfather was a logger from Georgia passed away Monday evening surrounded by loved rumored to have fled south to Florida after axing a ones after a confusing day in which several media man to death in an argument. Petty was born in outlets reported and then retracted premature news Gainesville in northern Florida to a belligerently of his death. “On behalf of the Tom Petty family we drunk father who sold wholesale tobacco and candy. are devastated to announce the untimely death of our Petty recalled that his father, intoxicated and unim- father, husband, brother, leader and friend Tom Petty,” pressed by his son’s passion for music, once a family statement said. smashed up the boy’s record collection. The future Early on Monday, Petty suffered cardiac arrest at rocker said he told him, “Dad, if you’ll just leave me his home in Malibu, exactly a week after he tri- alone, I’ll be a millionaire by the time I’m 35.” And umphantly put on what would be his career-capping his remark proved prophetic. concert. The rocker had wrapped up a tour celebrat- ing 40 years of his band Rock as early escape The Heartbreakers Petty, speaking in with three sold-out 2015 to Men’s Journal, shows at the iconic “ credited his mother Hollywood Bowl. He Kitty with saving him In this June 16, 2006 file photo, Tom In this Sept 17, 2017 file photo, Tom Petty of Tom Petty closed the encore with So odd and by reading to him, Petty performs at the Bonnaroo and the Heartbreakers appears at KAABOO 2017 in San one of his earliest and introducing him to pop Music & Arts Festival in Manchester. Diego. — AP/AFP photos best-known songs- complex yet direct standards and show- “American Girl,” ing him “there was which tells of an ambi- “ all at once more to life than red- No More”-co-written with David A. Stewart of The was presented a lifetime achievement award at the tious girl “raised on necks.” But he Eurythmics and accompanied by an “Alice in Grammys, Petty said he owed his greatest debt to promises” but now remained haunted by Wonderland” themed video-cemented Petty’s stand- African Americans such as Chuck Berry who created contemplating suicide, his father and con- ing among stoners. “‘Don’t Come Around Here No rock ‘n’ roll. But he discovered rock ‘n’ roll thanks to set to electric guitar sumed by inner rage. More’ changed the way I looked at songwriting and Britain when he saw The Beatles perform on “The Ed harmonies from the golden age of rock ‘n’ roll. The “Any authority I didn’t agree with could just make me production. So odd and complex yet direct all at Sullivan Show” in 1964. song was one of many by Petty about struggling to go crazy,” he said of his early adulthood. He struggled once,” the indie rocker and producer Jack Antonoff “I had my eyes opened like so many others and I overcome long odds. “I Won’t Back Down,” perhaps with depression most of his life and formed an addic- wrote on Twitter. joined the conspiracy to put black music on the his best-known song, took on a second life as a US tion to heroin, although later in life his only substance popular white radio,” Petty said. In the late 1980s, patriotic anthem after the September 11, 2001 attacks. was marijuana and he calmed himself with transcen- Advocate for artists Petty joined one of The Beatles, George Harrison, in The singer and guitarist-recognizable for his dental meditation. Touring the United States for “Southern a supergroup, the Traveling Wilburys, that also fea- shoulder-length blonde hair-delivered his vocals in Petty embraced the American South, especially on Accents,” he pinned up a Confederate flag on stage- tured Bob Dylan. The project was short-lived after short punches that showed an underlying bitterness, his 1985 album “Southern Accents,” but with a sound a move he later regretted, telling Rolling Stone that the death of another member, Roy Orbison.—AFP such as on “You Don’t Know How It Feels,” or with a that was more Florida quirky than hillbilly. The “people just need to think about how it looks to a wistfulness as on “Free Fallin’,” a breakup story that album’s song “Rebels” spoke of Southern mischie- black person” as he likened the controversial symbol ends in loneliness for all. The rocker’s characters- vousness while the trippy “Don’t Come Around Here to a Nazi swastika. In a speech in February as he This file photo taken on March 15, 2004 shows Tom Petty(R) and Dhani Harrison, the son of the late George In this file photo taken on February 2, 2008 shows musi- Harrison, performing a song of George Harrison after the Candles and flowers are placed on the Hollywood Walk cian Tom Petty performing during halftime at Super Bowl late Beatle was inducted during the 19th Annual Rock of Fame Star of the late Tom Petty in Hollywood. XLII at the University of Phoenix Stadium. and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony..

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