Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

From Mudcrutch to the Hollywood Bowl

Thomas Earl Petty was born October 20, 1950 in Gainesville. Mudcrutch, formed in 1970 by Petty and Mike Campbell with Benmont Tench joining in 1972, moved to Los Angeles in 1974 and signed to Shelter Records; the single "Depot Street" did not chart. The Heartbreakers formed in 1976 with Petty, Campbell, Tench, Stan Lynch and Ron Blair. The debut came out on November 9, 1976, and was weak in the US at first, the UK following after "Anything That's Rock 'n' Roll" on Top of the Pops; "Breakdown" became a US top 40 hit in 1978 after the film FM. You're Gonna Get It! (1978) was their first gold record.

In 1979 ABC Records, Shelter's distributor, was sold to MCA, and Petty refused the move and filed for bankruptcy as a tactic, ending up on MCA's Backstreet label. Damn the Torpedoes (October 19, 1979, produced by Jimmy Iovine and Petty) was blocked from number 1 for seven weeks by Pink Floyd's The Wall, and went triple platinum. In 1981 Petty publicly opposed MCA's $9.98 list price for Hard Promises, which was dropped. Howie Epstein replaced Blair in 1982. Later records include Southern Accents (1985), Let Me Up (I've Had Enough) (1987), Into the Great Wide Open (1991, produced by Jeff Lynne), Echo (1999), The Last DJ (2002), Mojo (2010) and Hypnotic Eye (2014), the only Petty album to reach number one. Petty's solo Full Moon Fever (1989) and Wildflowers (1994) featured the band. Lynch left in 1994 and Steve Ferrone took over.

They toured with Bob Dylan in 1986 and 1987, played Live Aid in 1985 and the Super Bowl XLII halftime show in 2008, entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002 and ended the 40th Anniversary Tour with a final show at the Hollywood Bowl on September 25, 2017, closing with "American Girl". Tom Petty died on October 2, 2017. Peter Bogdanovich's documentary Runnin' Down a Dream premiered in 2007. In 2026 the estate announced the Origins 1971-1978 box set for November 6, and the surviving original members reunited at the Americana Honors and Awards on September 16, 2026. Setlist.fm counts 1,316 setlists between 1976 and 2017.