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Tom Petty music biography continued...

dropped out of high school to join the band Mudcrutch with future Heartbreakers Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench. The band moved to Los Angeles to pursue their musical ambitions, but soon after broke up, leaving Petty with a solo recording contract. In 1975, Petty heard a demo that Campbell and Tench were working on with Ron Blair and Stan Lynch. The quintet became The Heartbreakers and would release their first self-titled album off Shelter Records, Petty's label, in 1976. The Heartbreakers toured England, opening for Nils Lofgren. Within weeks, they were headlining and the album was on the British charts. ABC then rereleased "Breakdown" in the U.S., and the single cracked the Top 40 nearly a year after its initial release. After a legal battle with his record label, Petty signed to Backstreet Records, a new MCA affiliate. His triumphant return, the now-classic Damn the Torpedoes, hit number two, selling over 2.5 million copies, and yielding such hit singles as "Don't Do Me Like That" (number ten, 1979) and "Refugee" (number 15, 1980). The 80s saw a sting of Petty hits with and without The Heartbreakers, including "The Waiting (1981), "You Got Lucky" (1982), "Don't Come Around Here No More" (1985) and "Free Fallin" (1989), which made Petty a superstar. In 1988, Petty took a break from The Heartbreakers to perform and record with The Traveling Willburys, which consisted of his heroes George Harrison, Bob Dylan and Roy Orbison; staking his claim to classic rock royalty.



Petty & the Heartbreakers "rejoined" in 1991 and released Into the Great Wide Open, which spawned the hit singles "Learning To Fly" and the title track. In 2006, Petty and The Heartbreakers celebrated thirty years of making music together. As of 2009, Petty had racked up 19 Grammy nominations, winning on several occasions including his latest victory in 2009 for "Best Long Form Music Video" for the Peter Bogdanovitch documentary, Runnin' Down a Dream. In 2002, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In December 2005, Petty received the Billboard Century Award for his lifetime achievements in the music industry. Petty had indeed run down his dream, as cheering fans at sold out concert appearances continue to remind him.