In recent months, Rock and Roll has lost a few of its legends and icons. Unfortunately, Tom Petty is now amongst them. Tom Petty of “Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers” suffered from a fatal cardiac arrest on Monday the second of October. The rock legend was sixty-six years old when he passed away.

 In 1970 the Florida born Petty decided to follow his aspirations and his interest in music releasing his first single in 1975 with little success. Based off the music of the previous decade, Tom Petty took great influence in his songwriting and added a modern style to a form of Rock and Roll. Petty was very much influenced by bands like The Beatles, the Rolling Stones and many of the other world famous groups who came up changing music forever in the 1960’s. Tom Petty and his band the Heartbreakers formed in 1976 with reluctance from Tom Petty to start his own solo career.

After years of famous hits such as “Free Fallin,” “Don’t Come Around Her Anymore,” and “Into The Great WIde Open,” his career stayed active even selling out shows in 2017. Petty played the 2008 Super Bowl Halftime show, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002. He never narrowed his scope on different forms of rock and roll and worked with many other famous artists from many different legends of Rock and Roll. Following many successes, he would help form the super band the traveling Wilburys with music greats such as Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Roy Orbison and Jeff Lynne. Following Petty’s death Bob Dylan stated, “It’s shocking, crushing news. I thought the world of Tom. He was a great performer, full of the light, a friend, and I’ll never forget him.”