On this day in Tampa history, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers played their last show in Florida.
When I was 15 years old, Jimmy Fallon made the announcement that I had been waiting for: The Florida-born Tom Petty, and the Heartbreakers, were going on a massive 2017 tour to celebrate 40 years of rock and roll. Yep, it had really been 40 years since “Breakdown” and “American Girl” debuted on the radio. Oh, and Joe Walsh would be opening. The Eagle, not the politician.
The day after Fallon announced the tour, I came to find that two cities in Tom’s home state of Florida, West Palm Beach and Tampa, were within the first 10 dates of the itinerary. Tom hadn’t been to Florida since the Heartbreakers’ 2014 Hypnotic Eye tour. Not even on his Gainesville-born band Mudcrutch’s reunion tour in 2016.
In spite of my plans to attend his grand return home, I wasn’t a diehard Pettyhead at that time. But the music was in my life from the very beginning. I remember my parents blasting “Don’t Come Around Here No More” when I was a toddler, since the “Hey’s” in the beginning made me laugh. Over the years, as my dad would be whipping together dinners, I’d often hear a Traveling Wilburys song, or the big three hits off of Full Moon Fever: “Free Fallin’,” “I Won’t Back Down,” and “Running Down A Dream.”
Sure enough, Tom and the guys’ stop at Amalie Arena sold-out within minutes, and I was gifted a nosebleed seat for Christmas a few days later. For months, the show was all I looked forward to. Even with other massive concerts such as Paul Simon and Paul McCartney on the calendar, being graced with Tom’s presence was what caused me to lose sleep between Christmas Eve and May 6.
The night the tour kicked off in Oklahoma, I was in a hotel room in Orlando, refreshing the show’s listing on setlist.fm repetitively. After months of binge-listening and rock and roll discoveries, the only song on the list I didn’t recognize was “Rockin’ Around (With You),” the first track from the band’s first album. Sadly, no Wilbury tunes made the list, but the list was still one that casual fans and die-hards could both agree on.
Finally, Tom arrived in town, and the sold-out crowd shuffled in for the 8 p.m. show. Joe Walsh’s set consisted of James Gang jams, and a “Take It To The Limit” tribute to the then-recently fallen Glenn Frey. And yet, it felt that the arena lay barren, with only about three quarters of Petty’s crowd enjoying an Eagle’s presence. An hour-and-45-minutes later, the lights went down for the second time. Some guys walked on stage, strummed a few chords, banged a few drums, and the guy with long, sandy blonde hair limped his way center stage. And there he was.
Petty once said that Elvis looked like he was a glowing, godly figure in the flesh. I don’t think I’d disagree if someone said the same thing about Tom, even if he was dressed in a simple button down and vest, and his eyes were obstructed by brown aviators.
“We’re bringing you 100% natural rock and roll, no artificial sweeteners!” He called out.
Though Tom had shown clear signs of having slowed down physically over the years, his ability to stay genuine toward his fans, and hit those high notes, had simultaneously remained with him all throughout. He got a number of his biggest hits out of the way early, too. “Mary Jane’s Last Dance,” which featured one of many frenetic solos to come from Heartbreaker Mike Campbell, was only the second song in the set, and I don’t think there was a voice in the house not singing the chorus to “You Don’t Know How It Feels.”
“I Won’t Back Down and Free Fallin’”—both played in their original keys—were back-to-back only six or so songs in. A short set of songs from Tom’s 1994 masterpiece Wildflowers would be presented, starting with “It’s Good To Be King,” followed by tear-jerker “Crawling Back To You,” and ending with the album’s acoustic title track. And a singalong of “Learning To Fly” was backed up by the band’s newest additions: The Webb Sisters, Charley and Hattie, who were fresh from Leonard Cohen’s last backing band. Tom said he was over the moon to have them on the road with him.
Petty mentioned many times how important Florida was to him, and how wonderful it was to be back home. And it wasn’t just him either. All Petty fans know that you just can’t forget the utmost importance of his longtime band, The Heartbreakers, which had more or less maintained the same lineup for all 41 years of existence. Mike and keyboardist Benmont Tench III were also born in Florida, and played alongside Tom in Mudcrutch. Tampa was as close to Gainesville as the guys were going to get on this tour, so this wasn’t just another tour stop wherever. He even turned around and smoked in between a few songs, so the pot smell in the crowd may not have been his devoted fans.
Tom sported a Firebird electric on “Running Down A Dream,” which closed out his main set. Once those lights dimmed, the cell phone flashlights flicked on, some fans began chanting his last name, and within minutes, everyone was back onstage for their unforgettable encore. “You Wreck Me” featured Mike and Benmont showing off their key-plinking and guitar-shredding mid-song, literally conducted by Tom, in his own ideal Tom Petty way.
Ending it all was perhaps Tom’s earliest hit, “American Girl.” During one final thank you, Petty made his last request to his home state.
“I want to hold the world record for the loudest sound ever made in this building.” Let’s just say that a loud sound we made, and a loud sound it was.
If you told me that night that in five months, Tom Petty would be dead, I would have called you crazy.
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This article appears in Apr 30 – May 6, 2020.