Born Thomas Earl Petty on October 2, 1950, at Alachua General Hospital, Tom Petty grew up in Gainesville, where his uncle Earl Jernigan took him to Ocala to meet Elvis Presley on the set of the film "Follow that Dream," inspiring him to pursue music. He was in the Boy Scouts, attended Sidney Lanier Elementary School, received an electric guitar from his father at 13, formed his first band, The Sundowners, won the Moose Club's Battle of the Bands, and by 15 had become a professional musician with The Epics. After graduating from Gainesville High School and working as a groundskeeper for the city and the University of Florida, he played with Mudcrutch, which performed for The Rose Community at the University Florida, held shows at Dubs, and toured throughout Florida and the region before he moved to California in 1974 to seek a record deal. In 1975, he formed Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, whose sound was influenced by Gainesville and its community of exceptional musicians, and the band released 13 studio albums. Throughout his career, Petty championed artists' rights, refusing to release Damn the Torpedoes after his label sold the band's contract without his permission in 1979 and declaring bankruptcy, then fighting and defeating another lawsuit two years later when the label tried to raise the price of Hard Promises to $9.98 and he tried to name the album $8.98. He also recorded 3 solo albums, including Full Moon Fever and Wildflowers, joined George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison and Jeff Lynne in the supergroup Traveling Wilburys, won his first Grammy with them in 1989 and a second in 1995 for Best Rock Vocal Performance, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002, headlined the Super Bowl XLII halftime in 2008, and entered the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2016. Shortly after completing his 40th anniversary tour, he died on October 2, 2017, at age 66. Since his passing, his anthem "I Won't Back Down" has been played at all University of Florida sporting events and became a fan-favorite sing-along at home football games, and in May 2022 the University of Florida honored him with a Doctorate of Music and created the Tom Petty Endowment for Guitar and Innovation.
