2010s
The Petty Archives

Tom Petty on lending a hand to underdog radio station KCSN-FM
By Randy Lewis
The Los Angeles Times - October 12, 2011

"Even the losers," Tom Petty sang in his 1979 song by that title, "get lucky sometimes."

That tune could become a theme song at radio station KCSN-FM (88.5) at Cal State Northridge, where Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Petty, a longtime champion of underdogs of every stripe, and his band the Heartbreakers will play at an Oct. 29 benefit for which tickets will be sold as part of the  station's fall pledge drive.

Tiny KCSN lost federal funding last year because it wasn't able to meet minimum fundraising requirements set by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.  Enter a new program director, radio industry veteran Sky Daniels, who has landed Petty to play the benefit show, and also has lined up some primo donations from U2, Coldplay, Mick Jagger, Sheryl Crow and others as outlined in a story appearing in Thursday's Calendar section.

"I feel like they're the underdog in this," Petty told me Tuesday. "They're trying to do something different and that means a lot."

Happy Birthday, Tom Petty: 5 Petty moments
By Victoria Miller
Philadelphia Examiner - October 19, 2011

It's hard to believe that that skinny blonde kid who emerged on to the rock scene the 1970's is in the over 60 sector now. Tom Petty, that Heartbreaker, is 61 years old on October 20th. Here we take a look back at five of our fave Tom Petty moments.

8.98 Debate
Back in 1981, Petty raised all kinds of hoopla when he protested the rising cost of record albums. When MCA wanted to release his "Hard Promises" album at the list price of $9.98, Petty refused--and even threatened to change the album title to "8.98." He won in the end, but so did the record company: "Hard Promises" went platinum.

Stop Draggin' Stevie Around
That same year, diehard Petty fans may have been a tad miffed when he teamed up with songbird Stevie Nicks for the duet, "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" back in 1981. Why? Because the song was featured on Nicks' "Bella Donna" album, not on a Petty album.

Happy Birthday, Tom Petty!
By David Von Bader
Broward-Palm Beach New Times - Thursday, October 20, 2011

Today we celebrate the birth of one of the most significant American-born rock 'n' roll artists of all time, Tom Petty. The term artist gets attached to musicians in the same way that you're forced to call a burger from McDonald's "food." However, Tom Petty has demonstrated over the course of a career spanning nearly 40 years what that term should truly entail.

Petty finds himself breathing some remarkably rare air these days. He still writes his own albums, still tours behind those albums heavily, hosts one of the best radio programs on the satellite airwaves, and manages to do all of these things at age 61 better than most "artists" perform at their peak. For more than 35 years, the man has led the Heartbreakers to unprecedented levels of commercial success via albums of bullshit-free, perfectly crafted songs, and he's done it all without selling (or renting) his soul for even a minute.

Live: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers bring a rebel spirit
By Randy Lewis
The Los Angeles Times - October 30, 2011

Tom Petty and his Heartbreakers band tie in last week's firing of longtime L.A. DJ Jim Ladd as part of the anti-indie pressures in radio today.
How's this for a screenplay idea?

Rock superstar with a soft spot for underdogs swoops in to headline a benefit for an idealistically ambitious but woefully underfunded public radio station in the same week that corporate overlords at a bottom-line-conscious media conglomerate fire a beloved veteran DJ at a crosstown station -- the same iconoclastic DJ who had championed the rock star when he was a nobody.

It sounds laughable even by Hollywood standards if things hadn't played out exactly that way this past week leading to Saturday and Sunday's fundraising shows Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers played for tiny Cal State Northridge-based station KCSN-FM (88.5).

Tom Petty to headline Isle of Wight Festival 2012
The Daily Telegraph - December 6, 2011

Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers and Bruce Springsteen have confirmed they will play at the Isle of Wight Festival in June next year.
The 61 year-old American singer will play his first UK concert in over 20 years. Petty, who sang alongside Bob Dylan and George Harrison in their Eighties supergroup the Travelling Wilburys, ranks among America's greatest living rock legends.

The band will play the opening night of the festival, which runs from 22-24 June 2012, the festival's website announced yesterday. They will be supported by Elbow, Example and Noah And The Whale. Tickets are on sale already.

Tom Petty to headline isle festival
Shropshire Star - Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Tom Petty is headlining the Isle of Wight festival
Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers are to play their first major UK show for 20 years after being announced as headliners for next year's Isle Of Wight Festival.

The band, whose well-known songs include Free Fallin', I Won't Back Down and American Girl, will top the bill on the main stage on Friday June 22.

The show also marks the act's first UK festival appearance.

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Halifax will be Free Fallin'
By Philip Croucher
Metro Halifax - December 9, 2011

Take it to the bank. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers will be rocking Halifax in 2012.

"There's no doubt about that," concert promoter David Carver said of the legendary rock band coming to the provincial capital next year.

In fact on Friday, @tompetty wrote on the bands official Twitter site: "We'll see you in #Halifax, cats out of the bag now."

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Tom Petty will play Halifax in spring
By Stephen Cooke
Halifax Chronicle-Herald - Saturday, December 10, 2011

The blond, guitar-playing cat is out of the bag: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers are coming to the Halifax Metro Centre this spring.

After running down the dream of presenting the Florida-raised rocker on his home turf for the past decade, East Coast concert promoter David Carver confirmed Friday that Petty and his legendary band will play their first shows in Halifax and St. John's in late May or early June 2012.

"I've been wanting to work with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and I've been speaking to their agent on and off for quite a while, but I've been more persistent in the past two or three years, " said Carver on the phone from St. John's.

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Heartbreakers headed here
Truro Daily News - Saturday, December 10, 2011

Tom Petty performs at Madison Square Garden in New York City in this June 17, 2008 photo. Petty and his band The Heartbreakers will be playing two shows next spring in Atlantic Canada -- one at the Halifax Metro Centre and the other at Mile One Stadium in St. John's, N.L. Specific dates haven't been confirmed, but the group will be coming in either late May or early June.