Tom Petty, the heartland rocker whose classic melodies but dark storytelling created a string of hits over four decades, died Monday of cardiac arrest, his family said. He was 66.
His family confirmed that Petty passed away Monday evening surrounded by loved ones after a confusing day in which several media outlets reported and then retracted premature news of his death.
"On behalf of the Tom Petty family we are devastated to announce the untimely death of our father, husband, brother, leader and friend Tom Petty," a family statement said.
Petty early Monday suffered cardiac arrest at his home in Malibu, just a week after he closed his career in a triumphant fashion.
The rocker had played three sold-out shows at the iconic Hollywood Bowl to wrap up a tour celebrating 40 years of his band the Heartbreakers.
He closed the encore with one of his earliest and best-known songs -- American Girl, which tells of an ambitious girl "raised on promises" now contemplating suicide, set to guitar harmonies from the golden age of rock 'n' roll.
The song was one of many by Petty about struggling to overcome long odds. I Won`t Back Down, perhaps his best-known song, took on a second life as a US patriotic anthem after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
The singer and guitarist -- recognizable for his shoulder-length blonde hair -- delivered his vocals in short punches that let on an underlying anger, such as on "You Don`t Know How It Feels."
The rocker's characters -- small-town Americans full of aspirations but running into a wall of setbacks -- reflected the hardscrabble early life of Petty.
His grandfather was a logger from Georgia rumored to have fled south to Florida after axing a man to death in an argument. Petty was born in Gainesville, the university town in northern Florida, to a belligerently drunk father who sold wholesale tobacco and candy.
Petty once recalled that his father, intoxicated and unimpressed by his son's passion for music, once smashed up the boy`s record collection.
The future rocker said he told him, "Dad, if you`ll just leave me alone, I`ll be a millionaire by the time I`m 35." It was a prediction that proved prophetic.Petty, speaking in 2015 to Men`s Journal, credited his mother Kitty with saving him by making sure "to show us there was more to life than rednecks."
"She read to me a lot. And she liked music: She had a record player and would play Nat King Cole and the West Side Story soundtrack. I think of her every time I hear those songs," he said.
But he remained consumed by inner rage.
"Any authority I didn`t agree with could just make me go crazy," he said of his early life haunted by his father.
He struggled with depression most of his life and formed an addiction to heroin, although later in his life his only vice was marijuana and he instead embraced transcendental meditation to calm himself.
Petty embraced the country influences of the South, especially when he crafted the 1985 concept album Southern Accents.
Touring the United States, he flew a Confederate flag on stage -- a decision he later regretted, telling Rolling Stone that "people just need to think about how it looks to a black person" as he likened the controversial symbol to a Nazi swastika.
In a speech in February as he was presented a lifetime award at the Grammys, Petty said he owed a debt to African Americans such as Chuck Berry whom he credited as the creators of rock `n` roll.
But like so many music fans of his generation, he discovered rock 'n' roll via Britain when he saw The Beatles perform on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964.
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It was a rich career for Petty, who was born in Gainesville, Florida and became hooked on rock and roll when -- at the age of 11 -- he met superstar Elvis Presley on a movie set.
Petty joined his first band, The Sundowners, in high school at the age of 14.
After getting into an argument with the band's drummer, Petty quit and moved on to join a group called The Epics, which included Tom Leadon, a brother of Eagles guitarist Bernie Leadon.
"We realized Tom was the real musician of the band," their fellow band member Rick Rucker told the Orlando Sentinel in 2006.
The Epics later changed their name to Mudcrutch, and Petty traveled to Los Angeles in search of a record deal for the rock quintet.
Despite landing a deal, the group soon disbanded.
A new group that included Petty and two former Mudcrutch members formed in 1975, eventually becoming known as Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
After pioneering the heartland rock sound, Petty went solo in 1989 before regrouping with the Heartbreakers three years later.
He also found fame as an actor. His flair for drama was on display in his music videos for songs like "Mary Jane's Last Dance."
Petty starred with Kevin Costner in the 1997 film, "The Postman." He also had a recurring role as the voice of Elroy "Lucky" Kleinschmidt in the animated comedy series, "King of the Hill."
A 2015 biography on Petty documented a dark turn for the singer and his struggle with heroin addiction in 1997, following the collapse of his 20-year marriage and a failed album.
"Tried to go cold turkey, and that wouldn't work," Petty said in the book. "It's an ugly f***ing thing."
Petty told CNN in a 2007 interview that he loved music as much as it loved him.
"Music, as far as I have seen in the world so far, is the only real magic that I know," he said. "There is something really honest and clean and pure and it touches you in your heart."
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