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The first thing I thought to myself was the same thing that Jerry Garcia is rumored to have said when Pig Pen died: “That fucker. Now he knows.” At first, nobody was sure Tom Petty had really died. There was another time the celebrity gossip press declared him deceased and it wasn’t true. This round, my newspaper students actually scooped me on it, for which I paused long enough to be proud of them before kind of mourning. It was confirmed at the time that he was taken off life support, but not that he actually died.
I fell asleep on Atlanta time that night while Petty played Schrodinger’s cat in Los Angeles. Of even the most basic facts, with Petty, you could never quite be certain. He really liked that about himself, I’ll bet.
I wouldn’t exactly know because we never met and now it seems like we probably won’t, but Petty is possessed of some of that type of fan who has advanced beyond mere biographical litanies to a space of psychoanalysis and ultimately commiseration that borders on a lifetime parasocial partnership. I mean like prophets have. He seldom capitalized on that, even though he could’ve been an out and out preacher alongside Bruce Springsteen if he’d wanted. He just kept his head down, always working, to a point where despite the uncertainties generated by his ornery personality, the steadfastness of his labor was mythic. A happy Sisyphus.
Petty would probably appreciate his properly due headlines being overshadowed by news of the worst mass shooting in American history. Is he going too gently into that good night if we’re focused on another massive tragedy? The BBC had good, immediate coverage, which is fitting because he was famous in England first. Other than not parking his demise on the front page, Petty basically picked a great time to go. Just one week after the wrap on his 40th anniversary tour, a victory lap if ever there was one. His ideas for the rereleasing Wildflowers already thoroughly on record, enough has been done for that launch to go on as he wished. His revival of Mudcrutch included a surprise hit single. He was honored just a few months ago as MusiCare’s Person of...