Friday November 19, 2021 “American Girl” Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
OK maybe a little more subtle but this is definitely Bo Diddley-ish.
According to Tom, when he was 11 years old, his cousin took him to see Elvis Presley while the king of rock n' roll was filming the movie Follow That Dream in central Florida. Petty was able to meet Elvis for a brief moment before the singer returned to his trailer, and the experience is what first hooked him on music. Throughout his career, Petty credited meeting Elvis with creating his obsession with rock n' roll.
Something often forgotten about Tom Petty was that he dabbled a bit in acting over the years. Aside from his music videos and a stint on the animated King Of The Hill, he notably appeared alongside Kevin Costner in the very long and forgettable movie The Postman. The movie featured a humorous exchange in which Costner says he recognizes Petty from being famous.
"I was once - sort of," Petty replies.
While we are on the topic of borrowing music, in 2015, Sam Smith was forced to give Petty a co-writing credit on Smith’s hit song "Stay With Me" due to the similarities between the song and Petty's classic "I Won't Back Down." The process was very civil, and Petty said he chalked the issue up to an inadvertent similarity rather than theft.
In the world of urban myths, when Tom & the Heartbreakers were opening for Bob Dylan they wanted to go deep into Dylan’s catalog to honor him with a song in their set. When they told Bob what song of his they wanted to do, Dylan asked, “Whose song is that?”
Stay safe and well...and OK, Dylan has written more than 500 songs so it seems possible he might forget one or two of them.