Tom Petty

Thomas Earl Petty October 20 1950 October 2 2017 was an American singer songwriter and guitarist He was the leader and frontman of the rock bands Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Mudcrutch and a member of the late 1980s supergroup the Traveling Wilburys He was also a successful solo artist Over the course of his career Petty sold more than 80 million records worldwide making him one of the bestselling artists of all time His hit singles with the Heartbreakers include American Girl 1976 Dont Do Me Like That 1979 Refugee 1980 The Waiting 1981 Dont Come Around Here No More 1985 and Learning to Fly 1991 Pettys solo hits include I Wont Back Down 1989 Free Fallin 1989 and You Dont Know How It Feels 1994 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 February 2017 for his contributions to music and for his philanthropy He also acted he had a recurring role as the voice of Lucky Kleinschmidt in the animated comedy series King of the Hill from 2004 to the shows conclusion in 2009 Petty died of an accidental drug overdose in 2017 at the age of 66 one week after the end of the Heartbreakers 40th Anniversary Tour On December 4 2023 Pettys song Love Is a Long Road was used in the first trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI which is considered one of the most anticipated video games ever made This trailer gained over 90 million YouTube views within the first 24 hours Because of this immense bump in popularity the song itself gained nearly 1 million YouTube views in the same time span gained a 36979 increase on Spotify had almost 250000 searches on Shazam and ranked second on the worldwide iTunes chart