Great Moments in Vinyl plays Tom Petty

April 13, 2019 • 1101 W. Granville (Edgewater Artists in Motion), Chicago, IL

The people Tom Petty sings about are fighters. People who wrestle with the challenges that confront them and take them to the mat. Maybe it was because Tom Petty knew a thing or two about fighting back.

Born to a bleak existence in Florida, Petty found inspiration in a chance encounter with Elvis. Then along came The Beatles and The Stones to add fuel to his fire. With those two bands pointing the way, Petty had a road map to a new future. And he did what countless other young music fans did. He started runnin’ down the dream. He listened to his heart. It told him what to do. He was learning to fly. He wouldn’t back down. And deep inside he knew that while he might occasionally come up with the short end of the stick, even the losers get lucky sometimes.

When we pay tribute to Tom Petty, we’ll open the night with his breakthrough album with his band The Heartbreakers, Damn the Torpedoes, and then spend our second set reveling in the songs that were milestones throughout the rest of his 40 year career.