Tom Petty is a well-known US singer and guitarist who has produced numerous hit singles such as 'American Girl', the #7 hit 'Free Fallin', the #12 hit 'I Won't Back Down', and a 1981 #3 with Stevie Nicks on 'Stop Draggin' My Heart Around.' Petty has been supported by his band The Heartbreakers for the majority of his career. Since 1981 Tom Petty has been honoured with 17 Grammy Award nominations and in 2002 Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  Elvis changed Petty's life when one summer morning in 1961, an 11-year-old Tom Petty sat on pine straw in his front yard, wondering how he was going to spend his day. By the end of the afternoon, he knew how he would spend his life. For, by the end of the day, the young Petty would encounter none other than Elvis Presley, the swivel-hipped sensation who had already been crowned "The King of Rock 'n' Roll."

October 1, 2017 - Tom Petty has Died aged 66: Tom Petty has died after suffering a cardiac arrest. The singer, aged 66, was rushed to hospital unconscious. The iconic artist had suffered a full cardiac arrest in his Malibu home Sunday night and was found unconscious and not breathing. Petty was born in Gainesville, Florida on Oct. 20, 1950, into a rough childhood. He lived in poverty with an abusive, alcoholic father. An encounter with Elvis Presley in the '50s saw him gain an interest in rock music. Aged 17, he dropped out of school to play in a band. He would later rise to fame with his band Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in the 1970s. The band's self-titled album dropped in 1976, eventually going Gold and with two classic rock anthems, “Breakdown” and “American Girl”. It was the band's third album, 1979's Damn the Torpedoes!  which saw the band enjoy their breakthrough to mainstream success. The album went triple Platinum, producing two US top 20 hits with “Refugee” and “Don't Do Me Like That". They continued to perform over the past four decades, and played a sold-out show at BST Hyde Park in London this year. Petty's final concert was last week at the Hollywood Bowl concluding their 40th anniversary tour. He told Rolling Stone that he thought this would be the group's last tour together.

One summer morning in 1961, an 11-year-old Tom Petty sat on pine straw in his front yard, wondering how he was going to spend his day.  By the end of the afternoon, he knew how he would spend his life.

The difference made by that afternoon added another notch to rock 'n' roll history, and a tantalizing addition to Florida lore. For, by the end of the day, the young Petty would encounter none other than Elvis Presley, the swivel-hipped sensation who had already been crowned "The King of Rock 'n' Roll." And by that evening, the Gainesville youngster would be forever fascinated - and hooked - on rock 'n' roll.

"I caught the fever that day and I never got rid of it," Petty later said in Paul Zollo's book, "Conversations With Tom Petty." "That's what kicked off my love of music. And I'd never thought much about rock 'n' roll until that moment." Sadie Darnell, Tom's cousin who accompanied him to see Elvis that day, told The Sun that the meeting between The King and Gainesville's future rock 'n' roll son was a "life-altering moment" for young Tom.  "He was completely, completely enthralled," said Darnell, who today is also sheriff of Alachua County. "And Tommy told us as a family that he was going to be a rock star." On that day, as young Tom sat under a pine tree in the front yard of his Gainesville home, Presley was filming, appropriately enough, a movie called "Follow That Dream," with location shooting in Ocala, Tampa, Crystal River and other locations.

Petty's uncle, Earl Jernigan, owned a local film-developing business and worked on location shoots whenever filmmakers came to the area (Uncle Earl's proof included one item that had already gained young Tom's fascination: the rubber suit worn by the creature in "Return of the Creature from the Black Lagoon," which had been shot in Silver Springs).

So when Jernigan's wife, Tom's Aunt Evelyn, rolled into the driveway and asked her nephew if he'd like to "go and see Elvis Presley," he was licking his chops at what would in a few hours become the adventure of his young life.

"I remember this vividly," said Petty, who at that point primarily knew Elvis as a character who had "caused some controversy," likely due to those swivelling hips when Tom had been about 5 or 6 years old. 

"He was known to me as a fellow who wiggled," Tom recalled. "And I did a little impression with a broom of wiggling like Elvis." 

After driving 30 miles, Aunt Evelyn and Tommy, along with his brother Bruce and cousins Sadie and Norma Darnell, pulled up near the film set in downtown Ocala - where Elvis was to shoot a scene of him driving up in a car and entering a bank. "There was a huge crowd; the biggest crowd I've ever seen in the streets of Ocala," Tom said in "Conversations." 

"And then I swear to God, a line of white Cadillacs pulled in. All white. I'd never seen anything like that. And I was standing up on a box to see over everyone's head, because a big roar started up when the cars pulled in."

Guys in mohair suits and pompadours began bounding out of each car - to Tom's startled cry of "Is that ELVIS?" every time. 

While Presley's impact would later be carved into two halves, often referred to affectionately as "Young Elvis" or "Skinny Elvis" for his '50s persona, and "Fat Elvis" for his later days in the '70s, the character who appeared before Tom Petty in 1961 was firmly entrenched in an "Elvis No Man's Land" between the two.

Presley had long ago stormed the charts with "Hound Dog" and "Love Me Tender." But this was the era that saw the rise of "Elvis movies," celluloid affairs that ranged from the critically acclaimed ("Jailhouse Rock") to pure star vehicles ("Clambake," "Spin Out" and others) in which the Pelvis usually saved the day and got the girl (played variously by everyone from Ann-Margret and Nancy Sinatra to Mary Tyler Moore).

So when the real Elvis finally appeared, Tom knew. Immediately. 

"He stepped out radiant as an angel," Tom said. "He seemed to glow and walk above the ground. It was like nothing I'd ever seen in my life. At 50 yards, we were stunned by what this guy looked like. And he came walking right towards us." Elvis' hair was so impossibly black that it glistened a deep blue when the sunlight hit it. And that's when Elvis walked directly over to Uncle Earl, Aunt Evelyn and little Tom Petty.  "We were speechless," Tom said. As Uncle Earl introduced Elvis to his nieces and nephews, The King of Rock 'n' Roll smiled and nodded to each open-mouthed youngster.  "I don't know what he said, because I was just too dumbfounded," Tom said. "And he went into his trailer." Then, young Tom got "really excited" as hundreds of girls pressed against the chain-link fence. Many brandished album covers and photos, which one of Elvis' "Memphis mafia guys," as Tom described it, dutifully took into the trailer and returned, bearing authentic Elvis autographs.

Seeing the girls go wild over Elvis only added to the lasting impression on Tommy, his cousin Sadie said.  "My sister and I were excited to watch them film a movie. But Tommy got caught up in the moment. It was like he was  mesmerized with an imprint on his brain."

Tom and his cousins hung out the rest of the day and watched as the crew spent hours filming that one scene of Elvis getting out of the car and entering the bank. And every time Elvis' car rolled up, the crowd went "insane," breaking through the barricades and charging toward the star.

"And I thought at the time, 'That is one hell of a job to have. That's a great gig - being Elvis Presley,'" Tom said.
 
Young Tom began collecting anything he could find on Elvis. He ordered "The Elvis Presley Handbook" - which he had to send $1 for, all the way to England. And he stayed inside the house - constantly - and did nothing but listen to Elvis music.  "My dad was concerned that I didn't go outside, that I just played these records all day."

Three years later, like other musicians-to-be with Florida ties including Stephen Stills and Roger McGuinn, young  Tom became even more enamoured of rock 'n' roll when The Beatles arrived on American shores, appearing on "The Ed Sullivan Show" and performing in live concerts. 

But Tom Petty's fascination with music began with Elvis Presley in Ocala. And though he never saw Elvis again, the flames from that fire have never waned. "I learned all of those early Elvis songs," Tom said. "And having that kind of background in rock 'n' roll, of where it had come from, has served me to this day."  "It became an invaluable thing to have. So for that, I thank him."

Tom Petty's Top Ten Elvis Songs: With the sad passing of the respected Tom Petty we look back at when Rolling Stone asked him to pick his ten favorite songs for their special playlist series. In 1962 Petty’s uncle got a job on the film set of Presley’s film ‘Follow That Dream‘ and Petty had an opportunity to stop by for a visit. “He arrived in a fleet of white Cadillac’s and people were screaming, handing records over a chain-link fence for him to sign. I remember his hair was so black that the sunshine was glowing off of it,” recalls Petty. That moment was pivotal for Petty and it lit a fever in him to get every Presley record he could. Petty seems especially impressed by the fact that Presley knew some of the old songs he later made his own, such as the obscure ‘That’s All Right’ by Arthur Crudup and ‘Baby, Let’s Play House’. Petty prefers the pre-Army Presley and states that ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ could have been the national anthem.

Spotlight written by BILL DEAN. Sun entertainment editor. Gainesville.com

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