Legendary Rocker Tom Petty Is Dead at 66

by Jim Casey | @TheJimCasey | October 2, 2017

Tom Petty, 66, died on Monday, Oct. 2.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member was rushed to the UCLA Santa Monica Hospital from his Malibu home after being found unresponsive on Sunday, Oct. 1. He died Monday evening at 8:40 p.m. PT.

Petty’s death was confirmed by Tony Dimitriades, his longtime manager.

“On behalf of the Tom Petty family, we are devastated to announce the untimely death of of our father, husband, brother, leader and friend Tom Petty. He suffered cardiac arrest at his home in Malibu in the early hours of this morning and was taken to UCLA Medical Center but could not be revived. He died peacefully at 8:40 p.m. PT surrounded by family, his bandmates and friends,” Dimitriades said in a statement.

Petty rose to fame in the 1970s as the frontman for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, selling more than 80 million albums over his 40-plus-year career and recording such hits as “I Won’t Back Down,” “Runnin’ Down a Dream,” “Free Fallin’” and more.

Petty won Grammy Awards in 1990, 1996 and 2009. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.