All language subtitles for How.It.Really.Happened.S05E09_English

♪♪

I pinch myself all the time

because I have
such a charmed life

that I feel almost guilty
about it at times

because things have really
worked out well,

and I really enjoy my life
and what I'm doing.

♪♪

♪♪

Hey, everyone.

Welcome to
"How It Really Happened."

I'm Hill Harper.

Tom Petty is
an American music icon

whose brand
of classic rock 'n' roll

with his band of musical
brothers, the Heartbreakers,

spoke to millions
for over 40 years.

Songs like "American Girl"
and "Free Fallin'"

are the soundtrack to the lives
of fans around the world.

Though a rock god to many,
he was as mortal as any of us --

afflicted with the very human
traumas of childhood abuse,

depression,
divorce, and addiction.

In 2017, he embarked on
a gruelling six-month tour.

One week after his triumphant
final show, he was dead.

Tonight,
Tom Petty's mysterious ending,

and how it really happened.

[ Cheers and applause ]

Petty: I wanna thank all of you
for coming out tonight!

[ Cheers and applause continue ]

We love you dearly.

I want to thank you for 40 years
of a really great time.

This was an opportunity
to sort of say thank you

to all their fans who had
supported them over 40 years.

Scott: It was like
the pinnacle of Tom's career,

knowing that this might be
the last concert tour ever.

It was huge.
They were selling out.

McKittrick:
The 40th anniversary tour

ended with three shows
at the Hollywood Bowl.

50,000 people each time --
bigger than a small town.

Just huge crowds.

[ "American Girl" plays ]

Fittingly, the last song
was "American Girl."

♪ Well,
she was an American girl ♪

♪ Raised on promises ♪

Halperin:
People loved it.

They gave him a rousing ovation.

He loved his fans -- really,
seriously loved his fans --

and they loved him back.

♪ She was ♪

♪ An American girl ♪

These shows were fantastic, but
I think it put pressure on him.

He wasn't in great
physical shape at that time.

Thank you so much!

[ Cheers and applause ]

God bless ya! Good night!

I didn't realize
that he was in a lot of pain.

[ Cheers and applause continue ]

When he leaves the stage,
you can see he's limping off.

♪♪

Something wasn't right.

♪♪

Sad news to report
this morning --

rock legend Tom Petty has died.

Scott:
We were watching TV.

A bulletin came over saying
Tom Petty had passed away.

Woman:
He passed away Monday

after being rushed
to a Los Angeles hospital.

He was found unconscious
in his Malibu home Sunday night.

I'm like, "That's impossible.

He -- He was there a week ago."

DeCurtis:
It shocked me.

When I heard that he had died,
I was just floored.

Leadon: It's just really hard
to comprehend that

that person that is such
a big part of your life is gone.

Harben: I wish I could have been
there somehow to help him.

That it was -- possibly
could have been prevented.

Greene: How is this possible?
He just played a concert.

How can he go from two hours
at Hollywood Bowl

to dead in seven days?

Petty: I wanna thank you for
40 years of a really great time.

[ Cheers and applause ]

Elam:
Tom Petty was basically a poet.

He wrote these beautiful lyrics
that you could think,

"Well, that applies to my life."

[ "American Girl" plays ]

George-Warren:
When I heard "American Girl,"

that was it for me.

That became my song.

♪ Well,
she was an American girl ♪

The lyrics really spoke to me.

♪ She couldn't help thinkin'
that there ♪

♪ Was a little more to life ♪

♪ Somewhere else ♪

♪ It was a beautiful day ♪

I'm a huge fan of
"Running Down a Dream."

♪ I had the radio on ♪

♪ I was drivin' ♪

Just such a -- such a rush.

♪ Yeah, runnin' down a dream ♪

♪ That never would come to me ♪

"Refugee" was special.

♪ It don't really matter to me,
baby ♪

It's real rock 'n' roll,
but great rock 'n' roll.

♪ You see you don't ♪

♪ Have to live like a refugee ♪

He distilled so much
of the country

and its history into his songs.

♪ And I'm free ♪

DeCurtis:
"Free Fallin'," I think,

is just an extraordinary song.

♪ Free fallin' ♪

DeCurtis: It captures,
in a very concise way,

that combination of feelings
that you're both free

and you're in free-fall.

♪ Free fallin' ♪

♪ Free fallin' ♪

Scott: Tom's greatest talent
in the world --

he could write songs
under three minutes

that meant something
to most everybody.

DeCurtis:
There's a reason why those songs

meant something
to so many people,

and that's because he said it,
he meant it, and you felt it,

and, you know, that's what
any art sets out to do.

Zollo: I definitely think Tom
will be considered

one of the great champions
of rock 'n' roll,

and his music
will live on forever.

[ Cheers and applause ]

♪♪

Tom said time spent
with his dad --

a lot of it, he felt scared.

Elam: The abuse,
both physical and emotional,

started very young.

♪♪

Generations of fans are mourning
the loss of Tom Petty,

the singer/songwriter
once described as a quiet,

unassuming rock legend.

The 66-year-old was reportedly
rushed to a Los Angeles hospital

Sunday night
in full cardiac arrest.

Just a few hours ago, a family
spokesman confirmed he had died.

♪♪

Elam: Tom Petty was born
on October 20, 1950,

in Gainesville, Florida.

He had a younger brother

who was about
eight years younger than him.

Gainesville was a very sleepy,
little college town.

Halperin: It was a very
working-class town.

It was an amalgamation
of students and farmers,

and there was
a big music scene.

♪♪

Harben: We had all the freedoms
in the world as children.

We ran in the woods.

We played
a little baseball together.

We played football --
just having a great time.

Leadon: He was
a natural-born entertainer.

Even if you were just there
hanging out,

just you and him,
he was doing his very best

to make sure
you were entertained.

He was very dry
but also very funny.

♪♪

Elam: Tom's mom, Kitty, worked
in a tax collector's office,

and his dad, Earl,
was a traveling salesman.

Leadon: Kitty was a real sweet,
soft-spoken,

really Southern woman.

His father was more traditional,
small-town Southern,

and they didn't get along at all
in many ways.

His dad was just a wild guy,

and Tom said time spent
with his dad --

a lot of it, he felt scared.

Leadon:
Kitty was his rock.

She was the one
who really believed in Tom.

Halperin: His mother
fought numerous ailments

throughout her whole life --
epilepsy and bouts of cancer --

and Tom would always try to do
the best he could for her.

♪♪

I remember my uncle got a job --

because he was
in the film business locally --

on a movie set with Elvis on a
film called "Follow That Dream."

My aunt drove up and said,

"Would you like
to go see Elvis?"

And I said sure, you know?

And so, I went down,
and we did see Elvis.

He really was just taken
by Elvis Presley

and his performance
of songs like "Hound Dog."

♪ You ain't nothin'
but a hound dog ♪

♪ Cryin' all the time ♪

♪ You ain't nothin'
but a hound dog ♪

♪ Cryin' all the time ♪

Harben: I was there waiting
when he came home,

and he told me, "Hey,
I got to see Elvis Presley."

And it was such a thrill to Tom.

And I said, "Well, Tom,
my older sister, Linda,

has a little rack
of 45 RPM records, all Elvis."

So we made a trade,
and we traded for a slingshot.

And that's when he became kind
of first obsessed and realized,

I think, the power of music,

when he got those early
Elvis records.

Zollo: He got to learn
that early rock 'n' roll,

and he loved it.

He learned those songs
even before he could play them.

Harben:
That following Christmas,

he got an acoustical guitar
from Santa Claus.

And he taught himself
how to play the guitar,

and he played
and played and practiced.

Zollo:
He learned four chords

and almost immediately
started writing songs.

Elvis kind of launched
the journey for Tom.

I just played Elvis records
most of the time,

and then when The Beatles
and The Stones

and all that came along,
my father actually thought

I had gone very strange
because I stayed in the house

listening to records
all the time.

Leadon: His father was
a hard-nosed Southern guy

that had grown up in the
swamp country of north Florida

next to
an alligator-filled lake.

He was into hunting
and fishing and boozing.

Tom was a sensitive,
artistic soul,

and he had a very strong sense
of right and wrong.

Harben: He was a gentle person,
and I don't know if that's

because of his mother being such
a big influence on his life

and maybe being his protector
from his fairly rough father.

Tom said that sometimes,
he would just pop you.

The abuse, both physical and
emotional, started very young.

I think when he was 5 years old,

Tom had been playing
with a slingshot

and hit a pebble
into a Cadillac.

Elam: When his father
found out about it,

apparently, he took a belt
and just beat Tom to the point

that he had welts
all over his body,

his mother and his grandmother
having to tend to him.

And he would say that his mom
would often step in the way

to try to stop this abuse
against Tom from his father.

Leadon: I didn't witness
the abuse that Tom spoke about,

but I knew
they didn't get along,

that there was a vibe there.

I kind of escaped
into that world

of just listening
very intently to these records.

Looking back, I think it was
probably a safe place mentally

for a really abused child.

For Tom Petty, music --
rock 'n' roll --

became really an escape hatch.

♪♪

Ladies and gentlemen,
The Beatles!

When The Beatles appeared
on "The Ed Sullivan Show,"

Tom Petty was watching.

They played
"I Want to Hold Your Hand."

♪ I think you'll understand ♪

♪ When I ♪

♪ Say that somethin' ♪

♪ I want to hold your hand ♪

♪ I want to hold your hand ♪

Tom said as soon as he saw it,
he knew that was it.

He never wanted to be Elvis.

He wanted to be the Beatles.

My picture of Elvis
was the American dream.

I mean, this was a kid
from the South

who had broken all the rules.

But that didn't look like
something you could be to me --

you know, to be Elvis.

But The Beatles,
that looked like something

that could be done to me.

Zollo: It was about having
a real band with, you know,

the visceral energy
of rock 'n' roll.

To Tom, that's what
it was all about.

♪♪

Leadon:
I was with Tom

when he had heard
she was on her deathbed

and there was nothing anyone
could do, and he was devastated.

♪♪

Woman:
The autopsy on rocker Tom Petty

has not revealed
a cause of death.

The coroner is now awaiting
toxicology results.

The 66-year-old
was found unresponsive

and in cardiac arrest on Sunday.

Foul play is not suspected.

♪♪

As a teenager, all Tom
wanted to do was play live

and learn music.

Tom Petty's first band
was with a few local lads

in Gainesville
called The Sundowners.

We all got together in Tom's
living room and set the band up.

Zollo:
Tom said the first time they
plugged in and played together,

he said,
"Biggest rush of my life."

And once Tom got this little
group together, that was it.

It was practice every day.

Leadon: I just was really struck
with how good he was onstage,

how much charisma he had.

Zollo: Very early on,
they got offered a weekly gig

where they were making money
as The Sundowners,

and Tom said it started there
and never stopped.

Elam:
Well, later, he gets into

a bit of a rift
with The Sundowners,

and he leaves the band and joins
another band -- The Epics.

Eventually, the name "The Epics"
just started seeming to be

out-of-date with the music,

and finally,
Tom came up with Mudcrutch.

♪♪

Greene: Mudcrutch --
it was a lineup

that changed over the years,

but crucially, he met
Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench,

who were a huge part
of the Heartbreakers later.

Halperin:
They attracted a huge following.

They had no discrimination
where they played.

They were even playing
in topless bars.

Leadon: We played five nights
a week, five hours a night,

so it was a great education.

♪♪

Roberts: Tom started writing
some great rock,

and it kept getting
harder and harder.

It was pretty amazing.
He was a great writer.

They play a lot
at the "Mudcrutch Farm,"

as they called it.

Boulware:
It's like a mini Woodstock.

Everyone showed up
with their sleeping bag,

and the band set up and just
played until they got tired.

Roberts:
We started talking about,

"Well, we got to do something.

We got to do a demo tape, and
let's try to get a record deal."

♪♪

Petty: In Gainesville
at the time, there was no --

probably still,
there's no recording studio.

There's no way to really
get anything together

beyond playing
the college gigs and the bars.

And so,
we'd play all over the South,

and after a while I said,
"Well, I want to make a record."

So I went out here.
I drove out here.

♪♪

Roberts:
We drove three days nonstop.

We're like a bunch of explorers,

'cause we're going across
the desert for the first time.

And we're like,
"Wow, man, cactuses."

Greene: When they go to LA,
it's the ultimate small fish in,

now, in the big pond,
and there's sharks everywhere.

We started going to payphones
and get the yellow pages

and go to record companies.

And finally,
we got an appointment

with Shelter Records.

Denny Cordell owned the label
with Leon Russell,

and he was like,
"Okay, I want to sign you guys."

In the studio, they recorded
their first single,

"Depot Street", in 1975,

and the single
didn't do anything.

Greene: I mean, they're this
huge Gainesville band.

They cut one single
that was barely released,

and then the whole thing
just collapsed.

Elam: And at this point,
the record label, it's like,

"We're done with you."

But they realize that they have
a great talent in Tom Petty,

so they want to keep him.

But it wasn't working.

Tom didn't want to be
a solo artist.

He knew he needed a band --
his surrogate family.

So that's when he forms
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

with ex-Mudcrutch members
Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench

and two other
Gainesville musicians --

drummer Stan Lynch
and bassist Ron Blair.

Once Tom formed
the Heartbreakers,

they went into the studio,

and everything
that wasn't working for them

as Mudcrutch
was working for them now.

DeCurtis:
That first Tom Petty record,

it was such a distinctive sound.

There was a sense in which
Petty, you know,

tapped into whatever the deepest
sources of rock 'n' roll are.

It was both instantly familiar
and very distinctive.

♪♪

McKittrick:
The unfortunate thing is

they recorded this great album,

they put it out in the world --
it did not sell.

But meanwhile, across the pond,

they were doing
fantastically well.

They broke in England first.

McKittrick: Their music
was actually on the charts.

So Tom Petty
and the Heartbreakers

did a tour over there,

and they had a top-40 hit with
"Anything That's Rock'n'Roll,"

which they played on BBC's
"Top of the Pops."

♪ Girl, you better grab hold ♪

♪ Everybody's got to know ♪

♪ Anything that's
rock 'n' roll's fine ♪

♪ Anything that's
rock 'n' roll's fine ♪

♪ Anything that's
rock 'n' roll's fine ♪

They felt like rock stars

because their music
was being played on the radio.

They were on covers
of magazines.

They were in the music papers.

But when they came back
to Los Angeles,

they were barely known.

They had the album out there,

and it just simply
was not selling.

♪♪

George-Warren: It only takes
one person to believe in you,

and luckily for Tom Petty
and the Heartbreakers,

they would meet Jon Scott.

This is my friend
Jon Scott here.

Hey, now!

We call him
"Sizzlin' Memphis Jon Scott."

Scott:
I got a job

as head of national
album promotion for ABC Records,

and I sat and listened
to this record.

I'm kinda going,
"This is pretty good."

And then "Breakdown" came on...

[ "Breakdown" plays ]

...and every hair
on my body stood up.

I get chill bumps, and I said,
"This is a hit record."

♪ Baby ♪

♪ Breakdown ♪

♪ Go ahead and give it to me ♪

♪ Breakdown ♪

♪ Now I'm standin' here,
can't you see? ♪

Side two ended with
"American Girl."

♪ Well,
she was an American girl ♪

♪ Raised on promises ♪

Scott: At that moment,
I was in a trance

because this music
hit me so hard.

I got up and ran
to my boss' office and said,

"Who are these guys?"

Well, he said,
"Oh, this is that punk band,

Tom Petty
and the Heartbreakers."

And I looked at him, I said,
"What do you mean, 'punk band'?

This is a rock 'n' roll band."

He's laughing,
"Look at this guy.

He's got
black leather jacket on,

bullets around his neck.

Radio stations are telling us
it's a punk band,

and so we're gonna drop him
from the label."

I said, "Don't drop him.

Just give me six weeks to try
and get this record played."

McKittrick:
He actually went to the band

after one of their shows
at the Whisky a Go Go.

Scott: And I said, "Tom,
have you ever heard your record

on the radio in Los Angeles?"

And he went, "No, why?"

I said, "Well, you're gonna
start hearing it Monday morning

once an hour, every hour,
on a new rock station."

And he went, "Bullshit."

And for some reason,
I just turned around and said,

"Tom Petty, I'm gonna break
your career wide open."

♪♪

Welcome back to
"How It Really Happened."

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

release their self-titled
first album,

and after a slow start,
their songs were charting.

They were on their way
to becoming superstars --

that was,
until Tom Petty decided

to stand up
to his record company

and take on a fight
he wasn't sure he could win.

♪♪

Elam: Tom Petty and the
Heartbreakers are riding high.

1978, they come out with
"You're Gonna Get It!,"

and then they're working --
just the next year, 1979 --

on "Damn the Torpedoes."

This is really feeling like
one of their best albums.

Greene: They worked for months
on that record

and had songs like "Refugee"...

♪ You see you don't ♪

♪ Have to live like a refugee ♪

♪ Don't have to live
like a refugee ♪

Greene: ...and that record was
the culmination of everything

that he'd been working for
for his whole life.

Just every song was great.

♪ Here comes my girl ♪

Zollo: "Here Comes My Girl" was
also on "Damn the Torpedoes."

♪ Here comes my girl ♪

It just shows that early on,
Tom got good as a writer.

He was writing classics
from the beginning,

and he had a lot of diligence
and great work ethic.

But it all came down
to the passion.

That's what drove him.

Elam: They're in sync.
They're gelling.

They're loving this third album
that they're putting out,

but before it comes out,

the record label
that they're with

gets sold
to another record label,

and during that time
is when he realizes

how slimy
the music business could be.

♪♪

As a young kid
signing this contract,

he did not understand

that he was signing away
publishing rights.

He didn't know that meant

that he wouldn't
have ownership of it.

So he decides that
he's going to fight

the big, bad music company.

He goes so far
to file for bankruptcy

to make it really clear

that he was not going to
take this deal

without having the rights
to his own music.

Halperin:
They sued him.

It ended up in court --
a lot of litigation.

In fact, he actually did a tour
just to pay for his legal bills.

When they went on tour
during the trial,

they called it
the "Lawsuit Tour."

Halperin:
He wouldn't back down.

He really wanted justice

and he wanted
to be paid properly,

and in the end, he won.

And that was a seminal point
in the music business

because that created a lot
of precedent for other artists

to stand up
to their record labels.

♪♪

That was one of
the hardest parts for him

when he was fighting
all those fights at that point.

It really drained his spirit.

There were times when
he could have lost everything

or he could have given up,
but he never gave in.

He fought those fights.

♪♪

During this time, in 1980,
Tom's mom passes away.

She's been battling epilepsy.

She has been sick for so long.

She eventually gets cancer.

She was only 53 years old.

Leadon:
I was with Tom

when he had heard
she was on her deathbed,

and there was nothing
that anyone could do.

Elam:
It's a massive loss for Tom.

It was a little bit
of an untethering for Tom

because she was his angel.

Leadon: He knew that he had
her total support and love.

She really believed in him
as a person and as an artist.

She loved him unconditionally.

He was devastated.

♪♪

Zollo:
During the early '80s,

that was a crazy time
in his life.

It was also the start of MTV.

♪♪

DeCurtis: Many artists
of Tom Petty's generation,

you know, kind of rolled
their eyes when MTV came along.

You know, there was
this element of, you know,

"I'm a rock star.
I'm not an actor."

But I think Petty thought,

"You know, let's see
what we can do here."

And when you think about
those videos like

"Mary Jane's Last Dance"...

♪ Last dance with Mary Jane ♪

♪ One more time
to kill the pain ♪

...and "Don't Come Around Here
No More,"

they're like watching
little movies.

♪ Don't come around here
no more ♪

Zollo: MTV just made them
even more famous.

♪♪

They were really
on a roller coaster there

for a while where they would
do another album and a big tour,

and another album,
and it never really stopped.

And that's when there was
a lot of cocaine,

and, you know, even when
they were partying all the time,

they didn't just get crazy.

They liked to party
and then do good music.

I mean,
it was always about that,

and Tom would come up
with great stuff.

♪♪

Greene:
No one knew at the time,

but the late '90s was
a really dark period.

George-Warren: Heroin was just
this blanket of numb,

and I think, horribly,
that was the enticement.

♪♪

♪♪

McKittrick:
With this great success on MTV,

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

were also having great success
on radio and in album sales.

One album after another
were major hits on the charts.

"Long After Dark,"
"Southern Accents,"

"Let Me Up (I've Had Enough)."

It enabled the Heartbreakers

to do these massive
concert tours.

After the Heartbreakers had

an extremely successful
1980s decade,

Tom Petty was ready
to do something different,

and it soon became apparent
that "Full Moon Fever"

was not going to be
a Heartbreakers album.

It was going to be a Tom Petty
solo album -- his first.

This was something
that did not sit well

with the other Heartbreakers,

particularly with Stan Lynch,
the drummer.

Zollo:
After "Full Moon Fever,"

you know, he played again
with the Heartbreakers.

That's who he was.

His solo work was tremendous,

but he always came back
to the band.

They're the Heartbreakers,
after all,

some of the great musicians
of our time.

Tom Petty -- he was the boss
in the band, in a sense.

He really had a musical vision

and he had big ears
in the studio,

but there was acrimony
between him and the drummer,

Stan Lynch, who had been
in the band since the beginning.

He and Stan did not get along.

They were always arguing.

But he loved Stan's playing,
especially live.

♪♪

But Tom realized,
"As great as he is,

I don't want to argue
all the time."

And he had to fire Stan,
and that was very hard for him.

During this entire period,
Tom Petty is still married

to his high-school sweetheart.

He and Jane have two daughters.

Leadon:
Jane loved the band.

She was the perfect companion
for Tom for many years.

I think, personally, that it's
hard on a relationship

when they're spending
a lot of time apart,

as Tom had to do when he went
on the road so much.

Elam: They weren't
making each other as happy,

and it was clear
that changes needed to be made.

Tom moved out of their house
in Encino and moved to a house

that he would later call
the chicken shack.

And what was good and bad
about that situation

is it gave Tom
a lot of opportunity

to write songs by himself,

but the bad part about it is
he was alone.

He was in a difficult place
in his life,

and he had no one to turn to.

Even though he did feel,
from my understanding,

that the marriage was over,

leaving the family --
that's hard for anyone.

He was a loving dad.

He adored his girls.

After the divorce,
it was a tough time.

George-Warren:
Tom Petty's album "Wildflowers"

is really the mirror
to his soul,

I think, in that period
of the mid-1990s.

He was in his mid-40s then,

and that kind of change
is massive.

And I think he was dealing with
all these things by crafting

this amazing record --
"Wildflowers."

Songs like "Time to Move On" and
"You Don't Know How It Feels."

♪ You don't know how it feels ♪

♪ No, you don't know
how it feels ♪

♪ To be me ♪

George-Warren: You get all these
different kinds of emotions.

You get this
bittersweet sadness.

You get this anger.

You get this resentment.

♪ Rescue me ♪

George-Warren:
"You Wreck Me."

You know, you get the anger.

"You wreck me, baby."

♪ You wreck me, baby ♪

♪ Yeah, you break me in two ♪

♪♪

Elam:
So, his marriage

and Stan's relationship
with the Heartbreakers,

they're breaking up
at about the same time.

These losses hit Tom Petty
pretty hard,

and so he descends
into a clinical depression.

He knows he needs to get help,

but he's relying on
self-medicating with heroin.

And his addiction
gets really bad.

It's a dark time.

I did see him
during that period.

He was not the happy Tom I knew,
and it was tough to see that.

He just seemed
really despondent.

I didn't know
if he was on something --

I wasn't sure -- but I sensed
something was going on.

Elam: Tom hadn't taken the time
to deal with the battle scars

that he had built up
throughout his lifetime --

dealing with the relationship
he had with his father

and the emotional baggage

that had weighted him down
through all of these years.

Leadon: Tom never really
reconciled completely

with his father.

His father would come
to the concerts,

and Tom would give
his father money.

I didn't think Earl ever really
gave Tom his approval.

His dad had his gold
and platinum records

all over the walls,

but Tom thought
he just liked the status

of being the dad of Tom Petty.

I think he just had
a hard time showing it.

I tried to talk to him later,
after his dad had died,

and he just didn't think his dad
really cared about him.

George-Warren: Heroin was just
this blanket of numb,

and I think, horribly, that was
the enticement for Tom Petty.

Elam: Tom had a lot
of self-realization to do

to get off of heroin.

He went into extreme clinical
therapy and hospitalization,

and he was able to kick it.

♪♪

There's so many painful things
that we all go through in life,

and they become a load
that you carry around.

When you forgive those things,

you can drop that load
and move forward.

Elam: He kicked heroin
and restarted his life,

and he found the love
of his life -- Dana York.

When he was with Dana,
he became a happy man again,

and she helped him
in so many ways.

She was a really genuine,
wonderful person,

and it was lucky
that he met her.

McKittrick: They got married
at Petty's Malibu house,

which was actually administered

by none other
than Little Richard,

which Tom Petty being
such a huge rock 'n' roll fan,

was just over the moon about.

♪♪

[ Cheers and applause ]

Halperin: Tom Petty had never
seemed happier

to people who knew him.

Completely different person.

Completely different outlook
on life.

Tom Petty was back.

♪♪

[ Cheers and applause ]

When he leaves the stage,

you can see he's limping
off the stage,

and that's the only indication
that something wasn't right.

♪♪

I love to play.

I love it when we all walk out
and start to play,

so I'm not ready to say that
it's time to close the book.

I'm just lucky to be here.

Glad to be here.

♪♪

McKittrick: In 2008,
Tom Petty put together a reunion

at what he would later call

"the least-requested reunion
in rock history"

of his original band, Mudcrutch.

I thought we were just gonna go
jam, maybe, for the weekend,

but I talked to Tom
several times and he said,

"At some point, I'm sure
there'll be a record deal."

And I'm like, "Wow,
we're gonna do a record."

Boulware: I think he realized
that his own roots

were something he wanted
to re-explore

and that he had some
great music to be made

that didn't exactly fit
the Heartbreakers format.

♪♪

The whole experience
was just amazing.

Tom did that whole thing --
the whole Mudcrutch thing --

for love, for brotherly love,

and for good music
and good times.

♪♪

I wanna thank all of you
for coming out tonight.

[ Cheers and applause ]

40 years with almost the same
bandmates is remarkable.

It says a lot about Tom Petty
and what kind of leader he was.

As you've probably heard,
we're celebrating

our 40th year on this tour.

[ Cheers and applause ]

It became one of
the highest-grossing tours

in recent times,
mainly because people were just

still so infatuated
with Tom Petty.

And at the end of the tour --
which makes sense,

because Tom Petty has made
Los Angeles his home --

he ends at the Hollywood Bowl.

And he's there onstage.

It's September.
It's a beautiful night.

People being there,
celebrating them.

Tonight is the very last show
of a very long tour.

[ Cheers and applause ]

George-Warren:
I would say there's probably

three generations of fans

that were at those Tom Petty
and the Heartbreakers shows.

I think that thought probably
made him very, very happy.

His married life is great.

He's a grandfather.

He's got all of these things
that are just right in his life.

Good night!

But at the same time,
when he leaves the stage,

you can see
he's limping off the stage,

and that's the only indication
that something wasn't right.

♪♪

It turns out that
he had fractured his hip

many months earlier,

and he went on tour this whole
time with this fractured hip.

Leadon:
They had a motorized cart,

and they'd take him
from the dressing room

to the stage stairs,
help him up the stairs.

But he would never let on,

when he was onstage,
anything was wrong.

But you see that he's
having trouble moving around.

George-Warren: And then,
Tom found out that

what he thought
was a partial fracture

was a full-on break in his hip.

I can only imagine the sort
of pain that he was suffering.

Man: From the entertainment
world, we have just learned

that legendary
rock singer Tom Petty

has been rushed
to the hospital.

Woman: Petty, who is 66, was
found unconscious earlier today.

It was like, "What?

What? Are you sure?"

Freeman: According to reports,
rocker Tom Petty

of Tom Petty
and the Heartbreakers,

was found unconscious
from heart failure.

My son texted me like,
"Did you hear?"

Halperin: He suffered from
numerous physical ailments...

And I just was,
"This has got to be a hoax."

Halperin:
...emphysema, knee injury...

"This can't be real."

Just didn't seem possible.

And then he had
this really bad hip.

I'd seen him very sick on
some of the tours, and he said,

"When you have a tour like that
booked, you go."

He never wanted to disappoint
his fans by canceling a concert.

♪♪

[ Voice breaking ]
He'd been at the hospital.

♪♪

I'm gonna get emotional.

I can't get through this
without getting very emotional.

Tom had had cardiac arrest
and wasn't going to make it.

He was on life support.

Doctor said they were just
kind of keeping him alive

until the family
could get there.

And they finally took him off
life support,

and he passed away.

♪♪

Fans are shocked and heartbroken

over the sudden death
of rock legend Tom Petty.

According to his manager,
Petty suffered cardiac arrest

and could not be revived.

He was just 66 years old.

And I'm just like, "What?

He just played a concert.

How is this possible?

How can he go from two hours
at Hollywood Bowl

to dead in seven days?"

It just made no sense.

♪♪

Elam:
When the autopsy comes out,

that's when everyone learns
that Tom Petty

had a mix of different types
of fentanyl in his body.

He had a prescribed patch,
but then there was also

two other kinds
that were in his body.

Woman:
The Los Angeles medical examiner

says musician Tom Petty
died of an accidental overdose

of several medications,
including fentanyl.

An autopsy revealed
prescription opioids

were in his system, along with
sedatives and an antidepressant.

Elam: There was a whole cocktail
of drugs in his system,

and who knows how these drugs

may have been interacting
within his body.

Fentanyl is about 100 times
more potent than morphine,

50 times as potent as heroin.

Fentanyl is used in
anesthesia procedures

all the time, in surgeries,

for things like
chronic back pain,

hip pain, knee pain.

But it leads to a cycle where
now you're controlling the pain,

but then you go out
and do your rigorous tour

or working or sports,

and it's kind of
masking the pain.

So the root problem's
still there.

Then when the pain medication
wears off,

the person's oftentimes left
in a more painful state.

So then they require more
pain medication to manage it.

Halperin:
He wore a fentanyl patch.

But then, we later learned
that he had two

non-prescription fentanyl doses
in his system.

It was very similar to Prince.

When Prince died,
he had a bad hip,

he resorted to fentanyl,
and here we go.

Another rock star dies.

Woman: Petty's wife and daughter
said the musician was suffering

from a fractured hip
that only got worse.

They released this statement
saying,

"On the day he died,
he was informed his hip

had graduated
to a full-on break

and it's our feeling that
the pain was simply unbearable

and was the cause for his
over use of medication."

I felt guilty that I wasn't
there with him.

He may not have wanted me
to be there,

but I felt like

there could have been something
I could have done.

This is my friend
Jon Scott here.

Scott:
It's tough.

It's really tough when you have
a friend like that for 40 years,

and it's just --

you saw him a week ago,
and the next week, he's gone.

That's all I can say.
It was just --

I still don't believe it,
to be honest with you.

Leadon: For me, he was always
that teenage guy, you know?

I remember him smiling

the last time I saw him
as he was driven away.

It's the same smile, you know,
that I used to always get

if he was happy,
you know, and glad to see me.

♪♪

DeCurtis:
Tom Petty's legacy is his songs.

There's no doubt about that.

Tom Petty's songs come across
as powerfully now,

when you hear them,
as when you first heard them.

Greene: Tom will be seen as
one of the great songwriters

of the 20th century.

Just somebody that tapped into
something so American.

It's a remarkable gift.

Scott: Tom Petty was the
greatest rock 'n' roll singer,

rock star,
that I've ever known in my life.

And he was my hero,
and he always will be.

I can't think of anybody
that could replace him.

Songs mean something to people,
and what more can you ask for?

You know, if you're gonna be
a songwriter

and have a rock 'n' roll band,
what more can you ask for

than for those songs
to touch somebody that way?

It's just beautiful.

During his career,
Tom Petty made 13 studio albums

with the Heartbreakers.

In addition,
he released three solo albums,

two albums with
the Traveling Wilburys,

and two with Mudcrutch.

To say he was a prolific artist
is an understatement.

In 2018,
a year after Petty's death,

his family put out a tribute
collection of his music,

which included unreleased songs.

His daughter Adria
called the collection

"an American treasure"
because, she says, he was one,

and we couldn't agree more.

Thanks for watching.

Good night.

♪♪