Distinguished Achievement Award - Gainesville Sun - In May, Petty will come back to Gainesville to accept a Distinguished Achievement Award from the University of Florida.

"I thought it was really sweet that a lot of people put my name up for this award, " Petty said, "for different things I've done over the years, charity work and such. It feels very nice to be noticed in that kind of way, and honored by the university. They used to pull the plug on us when we were playing too long."

"But God bless 'em. I do look forward to that, and I'll get to come back home and check it out.

"Every time I go there and drive around, I drive people crazy, saying 'This is where I did this,' and 'This is where I did that,' and of course no one cares. The kids are like, 'OK. When do we eat?' "

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Band of brothers - New York

For the duration of one four-minute song, it was 1976 all over again.

Tom Petty was onstage, singing his anthemic "American Girl" with the original Heartbreakers, all the guys who'd made Gainesville so proud when they broke through in the days of disco and punk with cool, uncompromising rock 'n' roll.

For the band's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Monday, Petty let years of water rush under the bridge, and the result was a joyous and spirited reunion of brothers both lost and estranged.

Putting the band back together, Petty said, "was really easy - like rolling off a log. We just did a quick rehearsal, and nothing had changed."

Along with Petty, Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench, who still record and perform together, the Hall of Fame Heartbreakers included Ron Blair, who quit the band in 1981, exhausted from years of touring, and Stan Lynch, whose less-than-harmonious departure eight years ago left a visible bruise on all concerned.

Monday night, everyone kissed, made up and shut up, letting the music say all that needed to be said.

"It sounds exactly like the Heartbreakers, Mark One version," Petty marveled. "It was incredibly fun. It was very strange in a way - but remarkable how it sounds exactly like that."

Petty, born in Gainesville 51 years ago, isn't one to dwell in the past - but the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, now that seemed like something worth celebrating.

"We've never put a lot of stock in awards and things, but I guess as awards go, if you're a rock 'n' roll band, this is probably the highest one you could get," he said. "So we're very grateful. We're grateful to all of our peers for voting us in. It's not a popularity award, it's about the work.

"So in that sense, I'm very honored to be in this hall with all the people I've admired all my life."

Petty's been re-evaluating a lot of things lately. Last June, he married his longtime girlfriend Dana (it was the second marriage for both), and her 9-year-old son, Dylan, lives with them in Los Angeles.

He has two grown daughters from his 22-year marriage to his Gainesville High School sweetheart, Jane Benyo. He spent most of those years working, on the road or in the studio.

"I never really thought much about this part of life, but it seems like a really nice one, " he said. "For me, anyway, it's working out pretty well. I'm pretty happy.''

For the first time in years, Petty intends to cut down on his musical workload.

It's a luxury he couldn't afford when he and his hometown buddies were barnstorming the planet, playing "Breakdown," "Refugee" and "Don't Come Around Here No More" 150 nights a year.

"I'm very proud that we're being inducted as a group, as Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers," he said in his Hall of Fame speech, " 'cause they're the best f---n' band in America.

"They are my family. We all have grown into manhood together, in the back of cars and planes and dressing rooms."

Getting there

Thomas Earl Petty and his younger brother Bruce grew up in a middle-class neighborhood in northeast Gainesville, a short bike ride away from Northeast Park. The boys' father, Earl Petty, drove a truck for the Eli Witt Company, and sold insurance; mother Katherine "Kitty" Petty worked in the Department of Motor Vehicles' tag office.

From the age of 10, Tom was consumed by rock 'n' roll - like so many American youngsters, Elvis was his king until the Beatles came along.

Petty graduated from GHS with the class of '68.

Two years later, Mike Campbell left Jacksonville to attend the University of Florida. The wiry young guitarist bought into Petty's dream of making original music, and he dropped out of school in favor of playing with Mudcrutch, Petty's band.

Ditto Benmont Tench, the son of a Gainesville circuit court judge. A classically trained pianist, Tench left school to play rock 'n' roll with Mudcrutch.

In 1974, weary of their status as the biggest bass in a small pond, the members of Mudcrutch caravaned to Los Angeles in search of a record deal.

They got one, on the basis of Petty's songwriting, but the band couldn't agree in the studio, and the Mudcrutch album never materialized.

Petty, Campbell and Tench stuck together. In L.A., they ran into two of their Gainesville running buddies: Drummer Stan Lynch and bassist Ron Blair. Their after-hours jams were so enjoyable, Petty adopted them as his new band. The Heartbreakers took over the about-to-expire Mudcrutch contract.

Life at the top

Soon came "Breakdown," "American Girl," "Refugee," "The Waiting" and the praise of millions of fans worldwide, who made Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers international stars. The band was often compared in the music press to such rock 'n' roll dynamos as Bruce Springsteen & the E-Street Band for their relentless and celebratory shows.

Petty entered the rock star stratosphere in 1988, when he joined forces with Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Roy Orbison and Jeff Lynne in the Traveling Wilburys.

Twenty-seven years after the ball started rolling, there is still a band, although it has changed considerably. Howie Epstein, the Midwesterner who replaced Blair in the early '80s, still performs with Petty, Campbell and Tench.

At Monday's event, this lineup performed "Mary Jane's Last Dance," Petty's most recent monster hit.

Ironically, that single was Stan Lynch's last hurrah as an original Heartbreaker. Feeling disenfranchised from the music, which he felt was growing stagnant, Lynch - never one to mince words - angrily left in 1994, burning a few bridges behind him.

The Hall of Fame induction and performance, Lynch said, was a form of closure for him. A successful songwriter and producer in his own right, he lives in Crescent Beach and rarely sees the other Heartbreakers.

Still, he said, they're all still brothers and were delighted to see one another and talk over old times. "I truly love all those guys," he said.

Being back with the boys, said Petty, inevitably makes him think about Gainesville.

"I'll always feel connected to it, in a huge way. Because I did grow up there and spent almost 23 years there. I'm very connected to it in that sense.

"I don't know many people there that well - most of the people I knew have moved on, or died or whatever. But I think it'll always be special to me."

He's currently finishing a new album, tentatively called "The Golden Circle," that he says will reflect his new, hard-won sense of optimism.

Tom's NEW House - LA Times - Rock star Tom Petty has purchased a home in Malibu for close to its asking price of $2.5 million.

The house, on a sandy beach, has three bedrooms, two of which face the ocean. Built in 1974, the house also has three bathrooms, three fireplaces, Malibu tiles, an open floor plan and a courtyard with a fountain.

Petty's band, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, has been together for nearly 30 years and sold more than 30 million albums. The foundation of the band's music has been classic rock, blues and soul of the '50s and '60s.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers--known for such songs as "American Girl," "Free Fallin'" and "Don't Back Down," as well as songs from the group's 1999 album "Echo"--will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Monday. Petty, a guitarist and vocalist, also won a 1989 Grammy for a performance with the Traveling Wilburys.

Petty, 51, was married last July at another home he owns in Malibu. Another rock 'n' roller, Little Richard, performed the ceremony.

No Backing Down - LA Times - Tom Petty has never given in to trends. It's clearly paid off, as he gets set to join the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Tom Petty's music has always reflected the purity and faith of a musician who had the courage and conviction to simply listen to his heart.

Rather than tailor his style to better fit critical or commercial trends, the singer-songwriter and his band the Heartbreakers have remained true, in themes and presentation, to the basic rock 'n' roll tradition that they learned from the records of such classic figures as Elvis Presley, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Byrds and Bob Dylan.

On Monday in New York City, Petty and the Heartbreakers will join those and other early heroes as members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Jakob Dylan will induct them in a ceremony whose taped highlights will be broadcast at 9 p.m. Wednesday by VH1. Other inductees this year include Isaac Hayes, Brenda Lee, Gene Pitney, the Ramones and Talking Heads. "I feel like a lucky man," Petty, 51, said this week at his home in Malibu, where he lives with his second wife, Dana, and her 9-year-old son from her first marriage. "A lot of people really struggle to find out what they want to do in life, but I knew as soon as I saw Elvis Presley, when I was 11. From that point, music became my religion, my nourishment.

"It was also a safe haven for me. My life was very turbulent as a child and a little scary, and music made everything seem right. It has also pulled me through some other dark times. It's very touching to be voted into the Hall of Fame because it's an award given by your peers, and it's a nice feeling to think you're going to be remembered."

Joining the Florida native on stage will be the original Heartbreakers lineup of Mike Campbell on guitar, Benmont Tench on keyboards, Stan Lynch on drums and Ron Blair on bass. Howie Epstein, who replaced Blair in the early '80s, will also participate.

It's easy to see why so many of Petty's songs, including "Refugee" and "I Won't Back Down," are anthems about struggling to pursue your dreams. He came into rock in the mid-'70s, a time when the pop airwaves were devoted to disco or bland pop-rock, and he subsequently went through some highly publicized battles with record companies to maintain his personal and creative independence.

Unlike most Hall of Fame inductees over the years, Petty is still a Top 10 album sales contender and a top arena draw. His next collection is due by the fall and he will continue to tour periodically with the Heartbreakers.

Petty, who also has two grown daughters from his first marriage, finds it hard to come up with a list of his own favorite compositions, but he agreed to comment on 10 of my Petty favorites. The songs are listed chronologically.

"American Girl"

Served up with guitar-driven textures so wonderfully Byrds-ian that Byrds leader Roger McGuinn quickly recorded the song, this 1976 number introduced Petty's key theme of struggle in pursuit of dreams. Key line: "Well, she was an American girl, raised on promises. She couldn't help thinking that there was a little more to life, somewhere else...."

Petty: "I wrote that in a little apartment I had in Encino. It was right next to the freeway and the cars sometimes sounded like waves from the ocean, which is why there's the line about the waves crashing on the beach. The words just came tumbling out very quickly--and it was the start of writing about people who are longing for something else in life, something better than they have.

"A lot of people think the girl in the song commits suicide, but it's not about suicide. It has also been interpreted as a statement about the country. I was watching the 9/11 concert in New York and the Goo Goo Dolls played 'American Girl.' I could see the crowd cheering in this really patriotic context. But it was just a story when I wrote it. In my mind, the girl was looking for the strength to move on--and she found it. It's one of my favorites, and we'll probably play it Monday."

"Listen To Her Heart"

From the exuberance of the music to the details of the lyrics, this 1978 tune felt like a companion piece to "American Girl." Here was someone else at a crossroads, but this time the ending was more obviously positive. Key line: "You think you're going to take her away with your money and your cocaine ... but she's going to listen to her heart, it's going to tell her what to do."

Petty: "This was a love song. I wrote it after my wife at the time told me about going to a party at [a famous musician's] house and there being all this cocaine around, and I think that kicked off the opening line of the song. There was a lot of resistance from radio to the word 'cocaine.' The record company wanted me to change it to 'champagne,' but that was a whole different image and I wouldn't do it. It started with this guitar riff I had. I was looking for something with the sound of the Searchers' record 'Needles and Pins.' I still love to play the song live."

"Refugee"

This 1979 hit single largely defined Petty's musical stance--the fighter who wouldn't give up, regardless of odds. It was an old rock 'n' roll theme, but Petty infused it with new energy and conviction. Key line: "Everybody's got the right to be free ... you don't have to live like a refugee."

Petty: "This was a reaction to the pressures of the music business. I wound up in a huge row with the record company when ABC Records tried to sell our contract to MCA Records without us knowing about it, despite a clause in our contract that said they didn't have the right to do that. I was so angry with the whole system that I think that had a lot to do with the tone of the 'Damn the Torpedoes' album. I was in this defiant mood. I wasn't so conscious of it then, but I can look back and see what was happening. I find that's true a lot. It takes some time usually before you fully understand what's going on in a song--or maybe what led up to it."

"The Waiting"

This 1981 song was another tale of struggle, but a more optimistic one.

Petty: "That was a song that took a long time to write. Roger McGuinn swears he told me the line--about the waiting being the hardest part--but I think I got the idea from something Janis Joplin said on television. I had the chorus very quickly, but I had a very difficult time piecing together the rest of the song. It's about waiting for your dreams and not knowing if they will come true. I've always felt it was an optimistic song."

"Straight Into Darkness"

This 1982 song spoke about the tensions of trying to keep your spirits up when everything around you is in turmoil. Key line: "I don't believe the good times are over, I don't believe the thrill is all gone."

Petty: "I like that song a lot. I don't know why it was never put out as a single. Maybe it was just a little too dark. There were a lot of tensions going on around me and I was trying to combat the pessimism. I wanted to say that love is the great redeemer. We played it quite a bit live, and it always went over well."

"Southern Accents"

"Southern Accents" may be Petty's most thoughtful and ambitious album. The 1985 collection is a sometimes affectionate, sometimes disheartened look at his Southern roots, and the way young people there have to battle stereotypes and peer pressure in trying to choose their paths. Key line: "There's a Southern accent where I come from--the young-'uns call it country, the Yankees call it dumb."

Petty: "That may be my favorite among my songs--just in terms of a piece of pure writing. I remember writing it very vividly. It was in the middle of the night and I was playing it on the piano at home in Encino. I was just singing into my cassette recorder and suddenly these words came out. I was at the point in my career where I was very much trying to find some new ground. I thought I had used up what I had started with and I wanted a new direction.

"We had lived in California for about 10 years at that point and I started thinking about growing up in northern Florida, which is a lot different from Miami Beach. It's close to Georgia and I came from a real Southern family, and I wanted to address that world. Once I came up with this song, I decided to write an entire album about the theme."

"The Best Of Everything"

Also from "Southern Accents," this is one of Petty's most compelling narratives--a more mature look at the kind of story he was telling in "American Girl."

Petty: "I wrote that before 'Southern Accents,' but Nick Lowe gave me the idea of putting it on the album. He said it sounded like a Southern story to him. I love Robbie Robertson's horn arrangement on the song. It's about a girl I was fond of when I was a teenager, and me just wondering about whatever happened to her."

"You Don't Know How It Feels"

This 1994 song was a memorable look at isolation and despair.

Petty: "One of the things that happened with the 'Southern Accents' album is that I started writing about specific characters, rather than just from my own experience, and this was a song in that style. This guy had no place to go, and he's just trying to find a place to fit in."

"Angel Dream"

This is from the music Petty wrote for the soundtrack to the 1996 film "She's the One," and it's one of his most tender tunes. Key line: "I saw an angel, I saw my fate. I can only thank God it was not too late."

Petty: "That's one of my all-time favorites. It's about my wife, Dana, and it's the truth, line for line. That has always been our song."

"Room At The Top"

This song, from the 1999 "Echo" album, is strikingly atypical of Petty's music. Rather than the clarity that is his trademark as a writer, this number finds its strength in its mystery. There's such a rowdy, disoriented feel to the arrangement that you have to struggle to even make out the words, but it feels like an absolutely accurate snapshot of disillusionment and pain.

Petty: "That 'Echo' album was one of the dark times. I can't even play it. It scares me because I was so down when I made it. It was the toughest period of my life. The character in that song is really desperate. It was the time of my divorce and the aftermath, when I was having to rebuild a lot of relationships, including those with my daughters. There was a lot of misunderstanding. I probably spent a year withdrawn from everyone, just staying home. It was a lonely, weird time, and I guess a lot of that is captured in the song.

"But time really is a healer and my life is wonderful now. You'll be able to tell in the songs I've been writing. I feel like I'm back in control again--that my world is whole again."

The Golden Circle - Rolling Stone - Tom Petty targets "the celebration of mediocrity in America". Several weeks before he'll be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame alongside his band, the Heartbreakers, Tom Petty stands in a Hollywood studio working on a new album he describes as "a kind of audio movie" dealing with "the celebration of mediocrity in America." That includes the music business, of course -- the headline of a 1981 Rolling Stone cover story on Petty was one man's war against high record prices -- particularly the extravagantly expensive VIP concert seats known as golden-circle tickets. The title of the album, in fact, is The Golden Circle.

"I've gotten into this whole golden-circle thing," Petty says, "about how they sell these seats down front at the venues with the names of the big companies. And it drives me nuts." Based on a half-dozen unfinished tracks, the album -- expected to be released in late summer or fall -- makes good on Petty's intention to break some new ground. Petty and the Heartbreakers are recording with producer George Drakoulias (best known for his work with the Black Crowes), but they've also solicited contributions from Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac and Jon Brion -- the L.A. musician who has produced albums for Fiona Apple and Rufus Wainwright. Brion provided orchestrations for several of Petty's songs.