In the mid-eighties, already a rock icon, Tom Petty invited twenty-two-year-old Warren Zanes and his band the Del Fuegos to open for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers on a three-month summer tour. At the time, Zanes would’ve never guessed that thirty years later he would pen Petty’s biography with the artist’s full cooperation and unguarded honesty.
Known for his reclusive ways, Petty wrote timeless songs that gave us some beautiful clues about his life, but in PETTY: The Biography (Henry Holt; on sale November 10, 2015) Zanes, an acclaimed musician, writer, filmmaker, and a former vice president of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, fills in the rest of the story.
Born in Gainesville, Florida, with more than a little hillbilly in his blood, Petty was a Southern shitkicker, a kid without a whole lot of promise. But a handshake with Elvis and a dream of something better changed the course of his life and of American music.
Through years of interviews conducted at Petty’s Malibu home, many of which lasted up to six hours, Zanes recorded the insights and arguments, regrets and lasting ambitions, and details of Petty’s life on and off the stage. For the first time, Petty speaks about the disorientations of success, tensions within his band, childhood abuse, heroin use, and his long but troubled first marriage. Petty’s family, his producers (including Rick Rubin, Jimmy Iovine, and Jeff Lynne), and his bandmates past and present all weigh in as well. Several interviews, including those with former Heartbreaker Stan Lynch and hidden circle crew members, shed new light on the inner world of a group widely considered the best American rock and roll band to have emerged in the 1970s, a band that continues to sell out arenas.
PETTY has all the richness and darkness of a great American story, but this one comes with a soundtrack. Like Petty’s music, this book is intimate and resonant, with recognizable characters, tragedy, loss, hope and success. Zanes’s transporting, evocative prose gives us the dramatic and inspiring ballad of Petty’s life and rise to stardom.
About the Author: Warren Zanes holds a PhD in visual and cultural studies from the University of Rochester. He was a member of the Del Fuegos, and continues to record music. His work has appeared in The Oxford American, and he has served as a V.P. at the Roll Hall of Fame and is currently the Executive Director of Steven Van Zandt's Rock and Roll Forever Foundation.