1980s
The Petty Archives

Showbits: Rock star Petty punches wall, broken bones put tour on hold
Winnipeg Free Press - Thursday, October 18, 1984

LOS ANGELES -- A winter concert tour for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers is on hold after the rock star punched a wall, breaking several bones, "in an act of unthinking artistic pique," a spokesman said.

"The doctors don't know what is going to happen," publicist Paul Wasserman said.

"They can't say whether he will be able to play the guitar professionally again."

Petty and the Heartbreakers were working on Southern Accents, their first album in two years, and had completed recording when Petty smashed the wall last Thursday, Wasserman said.