Tom Petty met Elvis Presley when he was just 10 years old, got his first guitar two years later, and the rest is (music) history.
His songwriting was so prolific that millions of listeners found themselves free fallin’, wandering through wildflowers, and dancing with Mary Jane across his catalog. Generations of fans admire the rock ‘n’ roll icon for his talent, collaborative spirit, and his undeniably chill approach to stardom.
Petty rose to fame in 1976 with his debut album, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Throughout his career, he gifted the world 16 studio albums, 13 with his band and three solo projects. His 1981 collaboration with Stevie Nicks landed them near the top of the Billboard charts with “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” four years after his first top 10 hit, “Don’t Do Me Like That.” “Free Fallin’” was the band’s last top 10 hit in 1989.
In the late 1980s, Petty joined the supergroup The Traveling Wilburys alongside Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, and Roy Orbison, penning classics like “Handle With Care,” “End of the Line,” “Last Night,” and “Congratulations.”
He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002 and passed away in 2017 at 66.
The world loves his music, but what were Tom Petty’s favorite (and least favorite) Tom Petty tracks?
"Southern Accents"
In 2002, Petty spoke with the Los Angeles Times about his catalog and named “Southern Accents,” the title track from his 1985 album, as his favorite, citing its connection to his southern roots.
"That may be my favorite among my songs, just in terms of a piece of pure writing. I remember writing it very vividly. It was in the middle of the night, and I was playing it on the piano at home in Encino. I was just singing into my cassette recorder, and suddenly these words came out. I was at the point in my career where I was very much trying to find some new ground. I thought I had used up what I had started with, and I wanted a new direction."
He also explained how the song tied into his childhood and family life.
“We had lived in California for about 10 years at that point, and I started thinking about growing up in northern Florida, which is a lot different from Miami Beach. It’s close to Georgia, and I came from a real Southern family, and I wanted to address that world. Once I came up with this song, I decided to write an entire album about the theme."
“Make It Better (Forget About Me)"
Before his passing, Petty sat down with author Paul Zollo for a series of in-depth conversations published in Conversations With Tom Petty in 2020. In one of those chats, Petty was very honest about a song he "hated," calling it “trash.”
"I hate that song; it’s just trash,” he said, referring to “Make It Better (Forget About Me)." "It was Dave just trying to get me to knock a song out—just write a song for the sake of writing one—and I think that’s what it sounds like to me."
The track, written in the ‘80s and featured on Southern Accents, only reached number 54 on the Billboard Hot 100.