Latest / DISGRACELAND / Tom Petty: House Fires, Hiding a Heroin Habit, and Run-Down Dreams

Transcript

Tom Petty: House Fires, Hiding a Heroin Habit, and Run-Down Dreams · DISGRACELAND

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Disgraceland as a production of Double Elvis. The stories about
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Tom Petty are insane. He barely escaped his life when
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: his house was burned to the ground by a mystery arsonist.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: He hit a heroin addiction throughout the nineteen nineties, which
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: drove him into a pit of isolation from his family,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: his fame, and his bandmates. Speaking of bandmates, his bass
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: player Howi Epstein wasn't so lucky. And even after Tom
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: Petty outran his heroin habit, his unexpected death in twenty
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: seventeen rocked the global music community to its core. It
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: rocked the music community because Tom Petty didn't just make
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: great music. He made some of the greatest music of
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: all time. Unlike that music I played for you at
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: the top of the show. It wasn't great music. That
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: was a preset loop from my mellotron called crazy like
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: a Fox Trot MK one. I played you that loop
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: because I can't afford the rights to with or without
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: you by you too? And why would I play you
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: that specific slice of leather vested ponytail cheese. Could I
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: afford it? Because that was the number one song in
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: America On May seventeenth, nineteen eighty seven, and that was
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: the day that the first phase of Tom Petty's career
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: burned to the ground, setting the stage for descent into depression, dependency,
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: and then a triumphant return. On this episode house Fires,
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: Hidden heroin Addictions, Isolation, and America's number one heartbreaker, Tom Petty.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: I'm Jake Brennan, and this is Disgraceland. The melting rubbers
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: scorched Tom Petty's skin. Little blisters bubbled up on his
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: palms between his fingers. He fumbled with the molten garden
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: hose in his hands, aimed it at the hell fire
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: eating away at his home, and the heat from the
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: towering flames chapped his cheeks, cracked his lips, dried his eyes.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: Before he could shed a tear over his house crumbling
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: to the ground, the melted hose only spit a sad dribble.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: More flames burst through the windows, scaled the second floor,
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: consumed the roof until it collapsed in on itself. Tom
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: Petty's hopes of saving his home wilted, along with the
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: useless rubber hose in his hands, and the scream of
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: the fire engine siren emerging from the background was his
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: last hope. The local fire department pulled into the driveway,
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: armed and ready to douse the fireball that was now
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: Tom's home, but it was too late. The flames had
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: already fanned, and from the street, Tom Petty and his
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: wife Jane, and their young daughter Anakim watched their lives
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: collapse into heaps of ash. The Enzeno, California home was
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: the Petty's one residence. Tom Petty was famous, but he
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: hadn't gone full superstar. The Heartbreaker's last album, Let Me
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: Up I've Had Enough, was their first album in eight
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: years to not crack the Billboard Top ten. He didn't
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: have residences scattered all across the country on shoreline city
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: streets and tucked into scenic mountains. This was his one house,
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: his one home, and now it was toast. So too
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: was all the irreplaceable Heartbreaker's memorabilia, more than a decade's
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: worth memories of Tom's band burned to a crisp. The
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: only room to make it out unscathed was the basement,
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: where Tom kept some at home recording materials, and the
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: rest was gone, roughly one million dollars in damages. Annie Lennox,
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: then visiting Dave Stewart, Tom's neighbor in the other half
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: of Annie's band, the Arrhythmics, came by with some spare
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: clothes and stood with the family in somber solidarity. May seventeenth,
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty seven. It had started over breakfast. Tom sat
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: down with his bacon and eggs. Jane nursed a coffee
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: in a bowl of oatmeal, anakin just a small child,
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: munched away on some cereal. But as soon as their
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: meal started, Tom caught a whiff of smoke. Odd nothing
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: was on the stove, nothing in the oven either, which
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: could only mean Jane bolted out the front door with
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: Anna Kim in her arms. Their housekeeper exited with flames,
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: lifting her hair to Tom circled the backyard to grab
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: the garden hose in vain. What went down next was
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: the petty household up in flames. But as he would
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: soon learn, Tom wasn't the only person who had crept
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: into the backyard that day. Shortly after the fire, Arson
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: investigators walked Tom around the back of his home and
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: pointed to a spot where someone had poured a hefty
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: helping of kerosene along the back staircase. This hadn't been
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: an Aaron house fire. Someone wanted to burn Tom Petty's
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: house down, and they wanted Tom and his family to
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: be home when it happened. The investigation rattled Tom. It
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: rattled a much worse than losing his material possessions. It
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: was one thing to have a chapter of your life
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: out of the blue. It was another to know that
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: that chapter had been closed by a stranger who wanted
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: you dead. Construction on a new house and the exact
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: same spot began in Earnest, but with no place to
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: call home, the Petty family packed up to join Tom
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: on the road that year with Bob Dylan. Tom didn't
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: realize this would be some of his family's final moments
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: of true togetherness. As the tour bus hit the road,
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: only one thing was for sure. In more ways than one,
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: Tom Petty was about to start all over. Tom snickered
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: from behind his plastic slingshot. He had good aim for
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: a kid, but great aim for a five year old,
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: so good that he had just successfully redecorated the fin
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: of a passing stranger's fifty five caddy with a handful
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: of rocks he had dug up in the backyard. Nailed
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: him on the first track he chuckled to himself. He
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: couldn't understand why the red faced driver of the Cadillac
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: felt the need to pull over and shake his fist
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: at him. Tom stared back with his boyish blue eyes,
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: totally blank faced, no remorse, A five year old, a
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: born rebel. The driver beyond pissed. He slammed the heavy
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: door of the Cadillac and marched up to the Petty's
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: front steps, pounded his meaty hand against the door. The
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: man's rage alerted Tom's mother to the scene. She listened
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: to the driver's of sanity laced ramp before profusely apologizing
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: for her son's who could behavior. Your father's not gonna
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: like this, she warned Tom, and he didn't. Tom's father,
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: Earl Petty, didn't even speak to him when he arrived
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: home from work that day, didn't offer any words of admonishment.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: He entered the living room with his belt in his hand,
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: already undone from the loops of his jeans. His knuckles
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: went white around the leather. Before Tom's heart froze. It
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: skipped half a dozen beats. That remorse was coming, after all.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: His father raised the belt buckle over his head like
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: he was winding up for an all star pitch, and
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: he struck Tom on the back, on the legs, on
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: the arms, on the ass, on the chest. By the
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: time Earl Petty was finished with the punishment, Tom Petty
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: could hardly walk to his room as he was ordered to.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: His mother and grandmother came in later to tend to
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: the purple welts that had sprouted all over his body.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: Dousing him with ointments and gauze. Nursing him back to
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: health was a two woman job. Tom had suspected it before,
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: but now he really knew it. His father, Earl Earl Petty,
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: was a man driven by rage, a rage that had
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: been simmering just below boiling since he himself was a boy,
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: since back when he was no more than Tom's age. Now,
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: it was hard to be half white in America, even
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: harder to be half white in the South. Earle's mother
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: was Cherokee. Earle's father a white lumber worker from Georgia.
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: He took his new bride to Reddick, Florida, where they
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: fostered a self sufficient, albeit poor, farming life. The walls
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: of their shack were covered not with wallpaper but newspaper.
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: They trudged through the dirt just to use the outhouse
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: the smell of chicken shit in the air. Earle's mother
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: almost never left their humble homestead. Her skin was far
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: too dark to show around town, where any shade beyond
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: lily white raised eyebrows and inevitably raised some fists too.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: So home is where she stayed every day, at all hours.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: She was so much of a family secret that Tom
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: wasn't even sure of her real name, Sally. Maybe. Earl
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: and his twin sister, Pearl had to watch their backs
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: around town too. Half white meant you were half not white,
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: and that was an easy way to earn a random
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: ass whooping by some racist bastard was nothing better to do.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: These were not the makings of a happy young man,
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: and Earl Petty seemed to know it. As a young adult,
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: he uprooted his anger and started a new life in Gainesville,
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: but his contemptful disposition followed him into adulthood and into
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: fatherhood too. Earle was prone to anger, prone to knocking
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: back a few too many bottles, Prone to anger, especially
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: after knocking back a few too many bottles, Tom was
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: almost always his punching back. His relationship with his father
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: was little more than a formality. As far as young
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: Tom was concerned, that was normal. It wasn't until later
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: in life that Tom would realize that fathers were supposed
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: to do more than bring home bacon and beat their children.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: He didn't know any other way, though, But there was
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: one hand me down from Earl that Tom would put
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: to good use someday, such good use in more record
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: sales and royalties than almost any other musician in the country,
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: so good that Papa Petty would one day come crawling
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: back with a sudden change of heart. And that hand
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: me down was a rage. The feedback could pierce ear drums,
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: so too could the howl of the arena packed with
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: people shrieking his name out loud and enchanting the iconic
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: choruses of his songs. Tom Petty cut through the rumbles
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: of applause with a high voltage improvised guitar solo. But
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: now it was all absent, all lost in time, all silent.
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: The nineteen nineties were half over. Tom Petty was at
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: home in Pacific Palaces, California, nearly a decade after the
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: fire that destroyed his family's home. He was alone, no wife,
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: no children, scampering around the halls, no bandmates calling, no
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: buzz of a practice. Filling the silence. Tom hunched over
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: his half eaten Deli sandwich at his kitchen table and
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: recalled his day thus far. Woke up at nine, created
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: himself in bed till noon, roused himself from the smog
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: of depression to visit the local sandwich shop. Shuffled over alone, unrecognized,
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: brought his sub home, cut it in half with a
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: dirty knife, ate it slowly. He was in no rush.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: There was nothing much to do today, and there was
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: nothing much to do any day. It seemed. It was
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: nearly two o'clock now, and that was as long as
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: he could go without dipping into his stash, as long
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: as he could go without the new constant in his life, Heroine.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: The previous pillars of Tom Petty's life had crumbled. You
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: could say the house fire and Encino was a warning
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: for the demolition coming his way in just a few years.
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: It started with his divorce from Jane. That's what landed
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: him here in Palisades. A few years prior. He and
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: Jane had been drifting for a while before the lawyers
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: in legal paperwork entered the picture but finally pulling the
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: plug in the marriage that was pulling apart their family.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: That was the hardest part. Tom's time in the studio
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: also pulled them away all too frequently, ever since the
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: marathon sessions in nineteen seventy nine with Jimmy Iavine for
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: his breakthrough record Damned the Torpedoes, the one with his
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: first major hits, incredible songs, Really Refugee and Don't Do
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: Me Like That. Tom had sought perfection in the studio,
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: no matter how long it took to find it, and
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: if he gets stuck on a song, he keep working
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: until he was unstuck. Now Tom was the one who
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: was stuck at home alone, addicted. The isolation kept his
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: memories healthy, fresh, incubated the bittersweet ones about when his
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: family was still together, the bad ones about his father's
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: fists from when he was just a boy. In the
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: years since Tom's ascent to Anthemic American Icon status, Earl
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: Petty reconsidered the way he felt towards his son, likely
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: fueled by his new status as Tom Petty's dad, a
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: title that opened doors and blouses for him all over Gainesville.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: But it was too late. Tom saw through his father's
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: sudden smiles worse, He also saw unlikely parallels between the
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: two of them. Sure Tom never raised a hand to
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: any of his children as his father did to him,
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: but he did diffuse his anger with his fists on
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: a few unlucky walls. And Tom didn't throw back drinks
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: like this old man did. But it's not like shooting
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: Heroin was a healthy alternative. Heroin was the new constant
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: in his life, his sole consolation. That and maybe the
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: Deli sandwiches. So before the silence could close in on
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: him completely, that afternoon, Tom found a clean needle and
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: sunk into a different kind of quiet, just a little
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: something to force a sense of content. Being alone hadn't
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: always been so ugly. Tom parted from the Heartbreakers for
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: a spell in nineteen eighty seven, and after a creative
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: rebirth as Charlie T. Wilbury Junior alongside his idol Roy
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: Orbison in the classic rock supergroup The Traveling Willbury's with
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: Bob Dylan and George Harrison and Jeff Lynn, Tom came
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: down with full moon fever. Most of the band hadn't
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: been thrilled about his sudden decision to go solo. If
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: only temporarily. He brought the Heartbreakers on that tour with him, though,
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: and the public didn't seem to put up too much
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: of a fuss. When the record dropped in nineteen eighty nine,
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: Tom Petty's career exploded under the guidance of his solitary vision.
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: Name the first three Tom Petty songs that come to mind,
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: and one of them is likely on Full Moon Fever,
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: free Falling, Running Down a Dream, I Won't Back Down,
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: classics must knows in the rock and roll cannon. These songs.
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: They are so ubiquitous that they are impossible to not know,
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: and for good reason, they are FM dial pop song.
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: Gold Critics called it his commercial peak. Full Moon Fever
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: might not only be Tom Petty's commercial peak, it might
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: be FM radio's commercial peak. Never before had an artist
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: raised on FM radio so fully mastered and exploited FM radio.
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: Everything Tom learned from his days listening to the radio
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: as a boy in Gainesville, from Elvis Presley and Little
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: Richard to the Birds, the Rolling Stones, all of it
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: is synthesized on Full Moon Fever into the perfect combination
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: of pop creativity in commercialism. The blueprint. Hank Williams started
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: pop songs too catchy for radio to ignore and too
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: deep to not be listened to repeatedly. Is refined and
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: perfected on Full Moon Fever, and FM radio benefited from
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: it as much as Tom Petty did, as listeners flocked
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: to the dial repeatedly to tune him in. In the
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: summer and fall of nineteen eighty nine and even into
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: the spring of nineteen ninety for a year, Full Moon
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: Fever dominated the airwaves from coast to coast. The album
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: was on the charts for seventy seven weeks. It spawned
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: six singles, five of which charted, and three of which
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: went to number one on Billboard's Top Mainstream Rock Songs chart.
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: Over thirty years later, its songs remain a staple of
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: FM radio and it continues to sell, having gone five
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: times platinum in both the US and the UK. With
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: Full Moon Fever, Tom Petty had reached the top of
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: the commercial mountain, and in nineteen ninety four with Wildflowers,
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: Tom Petty reached the top of the creative A masterpiece,
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: possibly Petty's finest full length, produced in collaboration with heavy
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: metal and hip hop guru Rick Rubin. The songs on
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: Wildflowers are that of a songwriter at the peak of
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: his powers, walking the creative tightrope of risk without a net,
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: and too confident to give a fuck. The songs on
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: Wildflowers rock effortlessly in one moment and roll over easy
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: in the next. You know, rock hand roll, but either way.
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: Tom Petty put his rage at front and center when
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: he recorded rage from his father's abuse, rage over the breakup,
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: rage over the record companies that had once tried to
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: bend him over and screw them, And when he couldn't
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: get a song to sound the way he wanted it
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: to sound, he responded with rage. Back in the fall
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: of nineteen eighty four, when recording a previous master Stroke
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: Southern Accents, it was late or early, it didn't matter.
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: It was four am, but it felt like four pm.
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: Thank you very much, cocaine. It was taking forever to
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: get the songs right. They sounded nothing like the demo recordings,
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: and the more he worked on matching the raw emotional
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: impact of the demos, the further he got away from it.
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: And maybe he should just trash the songs. Weeks of
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: work down the fucking drain. Tom stood up in the
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: control room and began to walk to the next room.
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: His frustration boiled over fuck. The frustration made his arm hot.
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: Without thinking, he cocked his arm back quickly and swatted
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: the back of his hand against the wall concrete. Tom
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: heard bones crack. He felt the crunch of his fingers
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: all the way into his molars. His knuckles were red
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: with blood. The surgery took four hours. Doctors filled his
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: hand with wires and pins, and they told him he
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: never play guitar again, Never play again. Tom felt the
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: rage bubble up again. He would prove the doctor's wrong,
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: and he did. Rage got him in this predicament, but
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: it also got him out. He took it day by day,
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: chord by chord, played through the pain. He got his
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: tendons and muscles moving again. Soon he was playing entire
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: songs again, in writing songs too, and the songs were
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: often sweeter than expected, especially some of the more tender
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: songs on Wildflowers. But they were sweet only because so
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: many parts of Tom's life had already gone sour. And
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: despite those sweet solo successes, there was such a thing
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: as too much independence, too much alone time. And though
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: fellow Heartbreakers Mike Campbell and bem On Tench did play
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: on Wildflowers, just as they had on Full Moon Fever.
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: Tom was ready again for the full band experience and
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: to reconnect with the entire band as a creative unit.
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: But their reunion immediately after the release of Wildflowers got
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: off to a bumpy start. Their nineteen ninety six album,
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: A soundtrack to the movie She's The One, was a
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: colossal commercial failure. It wasn't the band's fault. When the
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: release of the Ed Burns written and directed indie films
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: starring Jennifer Aniston and Cameron Diaz was pushed back nearly
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: three weeks. No one bothered to push back the soundtrack too,
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: and who wanted a soundtrack to a movie that didn't
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: even exist yet. She's The One sold only four hundred
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: and ninety thousand copies, pitiful in comparison to Tom Petty and
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: the Heartbreaker's sales track record. So much for a triumphant
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: heartwarming Heartbreakers reunion. Heartbreaker's bassist at the time, Howie Epstein,
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: was faring worse than anyone. How he was using heroin,
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: unlike Tom's more secret habit. How he had nothing to hide.
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: How he had used since the Southern accent days more
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: than ten years ago. At this point, and from what
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: Tom could tell, things weren't looking up for Howie. Not
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: only was using heroin a dangerous dance, but both he
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: and Howie were older, in their forties, ancient in the
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: world of junkies. If twenty somethings rarely made it out
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: from under heroin addictions, how could they expect to? How
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: could they even step outside to take their next record
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: echo on the road. If drugs kept Tom glued to
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: the dull safety of his home and kept Howie glued
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: to a needle no matter where he went. Tom had
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: spent enough time at home, enough weeks motionless in bed,
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: enough hours gazing at the same four walls but glazed
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: over her eyes. The studio and the tour bus were
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: the only places he had ever truly felt secure, satisfied, happy.
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: Heroin didn't actually give him those things. It was an
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: empty illusion, faker than his father's sudden admiration, the feeling
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: of the road, the roar of the stadium crowd that
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: was real, raw righteous. Tom was joning for those feelings
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: more than an anything. Heroin be damned. He fell into
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: this dependency alone, started shooting up alone, lived alone, languished alone.
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: He couldn't hold out like this forever alone. The time
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: for Tom Petty to commit to recovery, and only then
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: could he feel free. We'll be right back after this
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: word word word. Tom Petty wasn't scared, but he did
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: ask the doctor to explain the procedure again. He wanted
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: to make sure he understood before he fully surrendered. First,
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: the doctor said, Tom would fall asleep. Then the doctor
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: would administer a drug, a special drug, one powerful enough
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: to force the remaining heroin in his body out through
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: muscle spasms. Gnarly that that's what it took to get
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: clean before the Heartbreaker's echo tore. Then that's what Tom
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: was going to do. For years, his hero addiction have
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: been a very private affair. Who wasn't about to pack
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: it up and take it on the road with him
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: like his favorite Rickenbacker. I had to go, especially since
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: producer Rick Rubin had gone behind his back and told
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: his daughters about his little issue such a below the
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: belt move, and from a close friend too. It infuriated Tom,
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: but his fury from the situation moved his recovery forward.
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: He decided to undergo treatment professionally from a hospital bit
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: armed with the right tools and medical personnel. Going cold
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: Turkey hadn't cut it, so he brought in the big
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: guns rather the big drugs. Tom wouldn't feel so much
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: as a tick off, the doctor promised, But when it
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: came time for the treatment to begin, Tom didn't even
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: feel himself fall asleep. What was sleep? Anyway? You were
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: too bold to ever fully give yourself over to it.
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: And thus the weight, the heaviness, like a thick, heavy
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: blanket bearing down on you. It kept you still, kept
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: you grounded, be honest, you liked it was a marked
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: difference from reality, a high wire act of rock and
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: roll up, up in a way, floating, always in the ascendant.
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: At least that's what it looked like to everyone else. Anyhow,
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: you knew the truth. It was sometimes a mirage. Sometimes
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: you were free falling, but sh don't tell them that.
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: Quiet the crowd, just like on stage, stretch your arms
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: out like wings, float, bring a single finger to your
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: lips and they'd respond because they didn't know. Neither did
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: some of your contemporaries, nor your heroes. Dell didn't know.
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: Poor bastard Bob didn't care Prince knew it in his bones,
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: and it was this. If you weren't on the rise,
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: then you were on the decline. That's the nasty little
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: bit about pop music. There is no status quo, there
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: is no leveling out. It's all up, up and away.
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: Running down a dream sounds poetic, but it's fucking exhausting.
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: The run bit. That's what they don't tell you. It's
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: an endless marathon. The sleep, or your version of it,
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: it helped in this time in more ways than one.
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: When Tom Petty opened his eyes again, he felt like
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: he was emerging from a healthy hibernation. His eyes shifted
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: to the nearby nurse. Did it work, he asked, Oh,
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: it worked all right. How long have I been out? Two?
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: The nurse replied, two hours? Tom asked two days. The
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: nurse corrected him. Tom blinked at her in shock. Two
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: fucking days. That's one way to set out the worst
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: to the withdrawals. With the right medical team literally by
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: his side, Tom halted his heroin use entirely. After the
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: two day knockout that had cleaned the dope from his system.
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: He established a new routine. Once a day, a doctor
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: or nurse would come by with a special pill for Tom,
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: specifically to block the effects of opioids. It would block
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: any temptation to relapse, too, and there was no use
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: shooting up if all you could feel was the prick
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: of the needle and the sting of remorse. And after
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: he took the pill, the doctor would fetch a flashlight
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: and take a peek inside Tom's mouth to make sure
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: that he did, in fact swallow it and wasn't hiding
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: it under his tongue or in the pocket of his
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: cheek to spit out after they left, just like a
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: rebellious little kid at the doctor's office. It was a
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: ritual that Tom came to appreciate. It provided real proof
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: that things were turning around, that he was closer to
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: feeling like himself again, that he was closer to the
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: road again, closer to hearing life and surround sound again.
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: But he had to start that journey from where it
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: was the most quiet work his way back to the
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: deafening roar of a stadium show, and the treatment was
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: reinvigorating his musical dreams. He would be fifty, soon able
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: to enter the great wide open of performing live once again,
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: and he only hoped his basis to would be able
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: to do the same. After fifty six shows in four
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: months on the road, the Echo tour ended in October
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety nine, and so did Howie Epstein's time as
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: a heartbreaker. Two planes awaited the band in Indianapolis. One
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: pointed towards the sunny shores of the Bahamas, where how
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: He could check into rehab and check out of his
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: rock and roll lifestyle for a spell, the preferred choice.
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: Another plane was headed for Van Nuys, California, home, the
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: opposite direction from recovery, the wrong choice. The goal was
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: to make choosing recovery as easy as possible. Who could
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: say no to the Bahamas? Who could say no when
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: that private jet was right there in front of you?
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: How he could actually and how he did repeatedly for
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: an hour? No number of examples, Why could sway him,
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: no number of wake up calls? The fact that how
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: he wasn't even on the cover of Echo, He had
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: unabashedly missed the cover shoe for fuck's sake, how he
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: had just spent a good chunk of a year touring
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: for an album, that his face was completely missing from
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: how he blew it, or when the rest of the
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: Heartbreakers got together to shoot that now iconic group black
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: and white photo and Fields of Gold. They did it
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: without how He. The band didn't need an explanation. They
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: didn't know where he was or who he was with,
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: but they knew exactly what he was doing. They knew
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: what he was choosing over the band, where his priorities lied,
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: how he hung Heroin over Heartbreakers, and with everyone already
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: in position, the other Heartbreakers moved forward with the shoot.
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: On the final cover art, the band's bodies appear slightly
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: blurred from behind the barren branches in front of them,
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: with one familiar face noticeably absent. How He's disconnect from
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: the band was on display right there on the cover
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: for the world to see. But even when he was present,
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: he required upkeep, more upkeep than the usual for someone
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: of his time to your rock stature, crew members were
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: hired not just to push cases, but to placate Howie
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: during the inevitable withdrawals It booke ended shows in interstate travel.
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: Unlike Tom, how He had no shame. As the band bickered,
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: the promise of the Bahamas grew cold. It was clear
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: that how He wouldn't budge this habit. This indulgence of
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: more than a decade was ingrained in him. It was
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: a package deal, Howie and heroin till the end. When
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: how He boarded the plane, the van Nives for all
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: intents and purposes, he departed the Heartbreakers for good. Drug
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: counselors advised the band to let him go. They explained
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: how the quote unquote rock and roll lifestyle would make
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: it harder for him to quit, even though Tom himself
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: wasn't using anymore. Heroin was only presented because how He
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: insisted upon it. How he could argue with the band
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: all he wanted, but the band couldn't argue with his counselors.
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: The decision to fire how He hurt, but if it helped,
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: that's all the band wanted. At this point, however, Heartbreaker
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: or not, Howie Epstein was beyond help. When Howie Epstein
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: heard the police siren, he didn't have to look in
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: the rear view mirror to see if it was him
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: that the cop was tailing. He just knew it's over.
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: Carlene pulled the car over, he instructed from the passenger seat.
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: The car's tires kicked up red dust as it pulled
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: over on Air State twenty five, somewhere under the moonlight,
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: cloaking Albutquerque, New Mexico, June twenty sixth, two thousand and one.
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: Howie Epstein and Carlene Carter had been romantically and professionally
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: involved since the late eighties, shortly after Carlene's divorce from
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: the Jesus of Cool Nick Low. Carlen was the daughter
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: of June Carter Cash and country singer carl Smith. That
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: meant her stepdad was none other than Johnny Cash. She
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: seemingly inherited the Cash family's long standing outlaws swagger, which
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: Howie witnessed firsthand when the Heartbreakers backed The Man in
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: Black for his nineteen ninety six album Unchained. Technically, Carlen
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: was pulled over for speeding, but speeding was the least
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: of the pair's worries. Right now, Carlen and Howie had
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: two things to hide. One, Carlen was driving a stolen car,
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: a two thousand and one Jeep Grand Cherokee that they
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: had lifted from a car dealership in Santa Fe three
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: months ago, and there was no way that could fly
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: under the radar. Not of the cop asked for the registration, which,
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: of course he would two. Carlen had a hefty drug
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: stash hidden among her clothes in the back seat, just
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: waiting to be uncovered. But stash was putting it mildly.
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: Carlene was packing two point nine grams of black tar heroin,
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: along with an assortment of drug paraphernalia. Maybe, just maybe
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: that would go unnoticed, but not likely. Once the pair
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: was booked for the stolen car, the cops turned the
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: jeep's interior inside out. Carlen took the rap for the
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: drugs and claimed sole ownership for the stash, but it
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: almost didn't matter. It was all over the news that
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: Howie Epstein, former bass player for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers,
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: was caught red handed in a stolen car with Johnny
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: Cash's stepdaughter and enough heroin to be strung out for
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: a century. Nobody cared who was charged with what the
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: public knew why he left the Heartbreakers, or more accurately,
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: why the Heartbreakers had left Howie. Now, he was only
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: proving the band right. He was forty five years old,
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: a grown man, and still nothing but trouble, still a junkie,
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: junked by one of the greatest rock groups of all time,
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: The headlines prepared the world for what they're about to see.
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: A year later, when Howie Epstein appeared with the Heartbreakers
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: at the band's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony,
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: it was just what everyone expected. How He was wiry
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: and worn, beaten down by nearly twenty years of heroin use.
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: His cheeks sunk into his sallow face. His hair was
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: disheveled and greasy, but not in that cool rock and
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: roll refugee sort of way, more like the I didn't
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: look in the mirror today kind of way, that I
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: need help way, and that ashen image would be the
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: snapshot that lingered in everyone's mind. When the news broke
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: on February twenty third, two thousand and three, Howie Epstein
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: was dead. He was forty seven years old, young even
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: by aging rocker standards. Tom Petty had chills. He mourned
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: in his own way from afar. He didn't attend how
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: his funeral, didn't make the trip up to Milwaukee to
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: pay his respects, and the heartache over losing a heartbreaker
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: was well heartbreaking. He could hardly believe he had been
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: on the same track only a few years ago, that
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: he had been able to escape Heroine's sole sucking grip.
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: But that how he hadn't How he didn't live to
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: see Tom return to the Rock Hall, this time to
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: pay tribute to George Harrison alongside Prince. How he didn't
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: get to see the sweat trip down the Heartbreaker's faces
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: on live television as the band took the stage in Glendale, Arizona,
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: for the honor of playing the Super Bowl forty two
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: halftime show. He never heard the solid late career releases
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: that were Mojo or a Hypnotic Guy the band's final
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: studio sessions. Tom Petty reaped all of this, the many
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: rewards of recovery, but then the opiates came for him too.
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: It was nothing, not a big deal, just to cracked
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: him a little slip during a big rehearsal, a rehearsal
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: for the Heartbreaker's fortieth anniversary tour in twenty seventeen. Tom
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: Petty wasn't about to cancel fifty plus shows and disappoint
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: three generations of Heartbreakers fans over what a little fall.
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: Tom was sixty six, but he wasn't feebly yet quite
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: the opposite. He was tough as hell. He survived forty
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: years of this rock and roll life. The anniversary was
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: proof of his stamina musically and physically. Doctors claimed Tom
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: had a choice, that he could bail on the tour,
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: undergo hip replacement surgery, and stay cooped up in recovery,
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: twiddling his thumbs until he could perform again, and he'd
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: be at home alone. Now no more of that. Tom
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: was going out on tour the way he saw it.
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: There was no other option, backing down met letting down
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: literally thousands of people. Tom Petty played all fifty three
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: shows while nursing a fractured hip. The pain pierced through
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: every performance. The painkillers numbed some of the sensations, but
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: they couldn't quiet the dreaded sounds of his injury, the
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: bones grinding, clicking, cracking, overtaking the music. In Tom's mind,
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: the rage boiled in his brain, and that his fortieth
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: anniversary tour had to be spent like this, in complete agony.
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: Since the relief from the fentanyl patch he had been prescribed,
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: it had never lasted long enough. He wins through the
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: pain radiating from his hip into his abdomen, the pain
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: pulsing down his leg, Pain in Dallas, pain in Nashville,
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: pain in Tampa, pain and Napa, pain in Pittsburgh, pain
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: in Cleveland, pain in Boston, painted the Hollywood Bowl, and
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: then overnight there was no pain at all and there
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: was no Tom Petty to complete the tour in New York.
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: Crisis for legendary singer Tom Petty to Petty, the rock
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: star best known as the front man of Tom Petty
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: and the Heartbreakers, is on life support tonight. He was
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: rushed to the hospital after he was found unconscious in
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: his home. He apparently suffered a full cardiac arrest the
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: Cardiac or West and may still be on life support. Unfortunately,
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: we have some more breaking news to tell you tonight,
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: the death of a rock and roll icon, Tom Petty,
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: died tonight at the age of sixty six after suffering
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: from cardiac arrest. Tom Petty, the longtime manager of Tom
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: Petty and the Heartbreakers, confirming his death just a few
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: minutes ago. Though Tom Petty was sixty six, he survived
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: by his wife and two daughters. Had two daughters.
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: First came the cardiac arrest, which left him unconscious at
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: home in Malibu. Then came the sickly beap of his
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: life support at UCLA Medical Center, and then Tom Petty
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: circled back to silence forever his rage ran dry. Doctors
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: blanded on a fatal mix of medications fentanyl, oxycodone, tamazipam
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: a praslam a seat to feanyl despropiano fetanyl, all circulating
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: in Tom's veins when he died. According to a report
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: from Rolling Stone Magazine, those last two drugs, both derivatives
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: of fentanyl, were illicit black market fodder. Tom's family declined
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: to comment, instead pointing their fingers strictly at his fentanyl patch,
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: both prescribed and palliative. Fentanyl in opiate just like heroin,
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: except thirty to fifty times stronger. Now it was the
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: fans turned to feel that feeling, that rage, And they
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: felt it when they thought about a life gone too soon,
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: and they felt it when they thought about a life
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: that didn't have to end that way. And Tom Petty
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: had fought to end his free fall towards an early death,
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: and he won, or so he thought, and the fans
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: were left with his music and his memory, but also
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: with rage that can never be resolved. It would never
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: bring him back, and that is a disgrace. I'm Jake
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: Brennan and this is Disgraceland. Disgraceland was created by Your
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: Truly and is produced in partnership with Double Elvis. Credits
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: for this episode can be found on the show notes
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: page at disgracelampod dot com. If you're listening as a
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: Disgraceland All Access member, thank you for supporting the show.
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: We really appreciate it, and if not, you can become
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: a member right now by going to disgracelampod dot com
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: slash Membership. Members can listen to every episode of disgracelan
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: ad free, plus you'll get one brand new exclusive episode
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: every month, weekly unscripted bonus episodes, special audio collections, and
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: early access to merchandise and events. Visit disgracelampod dot com
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: slash Membership for details, Rate and review the show, and
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and Facebook at disgracelampod
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: and on YouTube at YouTube dot com slash at disgracelampod.
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: Rock a Roller, He's an