• Faith: Atheist
• Career: Musician
• Birthday:  September 20, 1950
• Date of Death:  October 02, 2017

Tom Petty was a singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He was the leader of the rock bands Mudcrutch, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and a member of the late 1980s supergroup the Traveling Wilburys. Petty was also a successful solo artist. Throughout his career, Petty sold over 80 million records. His hit singles with the Heartbreakers include "Don’t Do Me Like That,” “American Girl,” “Refugee," "Don’t Come Around Here No More,” “and “Learning to Fly.” His solo hits include “Free Fallin’” and “You Don’t Know How It Feels.” Petty and the Heartbreakers were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.

Petty was honored as MusiCares Person of the Year in 2017 for his contributions to music and for his philanthropy. He also acted in a recurring role as the voice of Lucky Kleinschmidt in the animated series “King of the Hill” from 2004 to the show’s end in 2009. Petty was born in 1950 in Gainesville, Florida, the oldest son of Kitty and Earl Petty. His brother Bruce is seven years younger. He grew up in the Northeast Gainesville Residential District, known as the Duckpond locally. He attended Howard Bishop Middles School, where he played Little League baseball and basketball. Then, he attended Gainesville High School, where he graduated in 1968. Petty’s interest in rock and roll music started when he was 10 years old when he had a chance to meet Elvis Presley.

In the summer of 1961, his uncle was working on the set of Presley’s movie “Follow That Dream” in nearby Ocala and invited Petty to watch the movie’s filming. He instantly became a Presley fan. When he returned, he was greeted by his friend Keith Harben and traded his Wham-O slingshot for a collection of Elvis 45s. After that meeting with Presley, Presley said, “Elvis glowed.” In 2006, Petty said he knew he wanted to be in a band the moment he saw the Beatles on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” Petty said, “The minute I saw the Beatles on the ‘Ed Sullivan Show,’ and it’s true of thousands of guys, there was a way out. There was a way to do it. You get your friends, and you’re a self-contained unit. And you make the music. And it looked like so much fun. It was something I identified with.” Petty later said that the Rolling Stones inspired him by showing that he and musicians like him could make it in rock and roll.

In 2017, Petty died of an accidental overdose at 66 years old, one week after the end of the Heartbreakers’ 40th Anniversary Tour.  

What religion was Tom Petty?

Petty identified as an atheist, saying he was raised “unconvinced” around Southern Baptists. In a Billboard interview, he said, “Religion seems to me to be at the base of all wars. I’ve nothing against defending yourself, but I don’t think, spiritually speaking, that there’s any conception of God that should be telling you to be violent. It seems to me that no one’s got Christ more wrong than the Christians.”