Despite cherishing these friendships, he rarely discussed them with others.
Tom Petty, the renowned musician who rose to fame, had the remarkable opportunity to meet and befriend his childhood idols, including George Harrison and Bob Dylan. Petty didn’t deliberately seek out these friendships, but fate stepped in and made it possible for him to develop genuine bonds with these renowned musicians.
Petty treasured these connections but avoided talking about them with others because he thought it was a little “embarrassing.” Dylan and Harrison were Petty’s acquaintances before joining together to form “The Traveling Wilburys.” The two musicians’ friendship strengthened after Dylan invited Petty’s “Heartbreakers” band to go on tour with him.
Reflecting on his time with Dylan in an interview with American Songwriter, Petty remarked, “One of the nicest things about Bob is that he’s an honest guy. Really, really honest. Not someone who would ever lie. Not someone who would blow his own horn. And I enjoyed all those years of working with him, and I think we had a genuine friendship. Still do. We had a lot of long talks.”
Petty considered Harrison to be one of his closest friends. In the book “Petty: The Biography” by Warren Zanes, Petty revealed, “I think I needed a friend really badly. My friendship with the band was a different kind of friendship. And it was frayed. I’d become very lonely. George came along, and we got so close; it was like we had known each other in some other life or something. We were pals within minutes of meeting each other.”
When questioned about playing alongside artists of the quality of Harrison and Dylan in “The Traveling Wilburys,” Petty compared it to spending time with brothers. Then he said to The Petty Archives in 1999, “I’m seven years younger than them now. They’re like my older brothers. It’s very strange, you know. I was telling a friend of mine the other day how odd it is that I never sought out any of those people. Any of my heroes. And somehow, the ones that really matter to me, I got to know them all well.”
Despite the closeness and importance of these ties, Petty felt embarrassed talking about them in front of other people. He elaborated, “I got to know them past what we’ve done. I got to know them really well as people and became really good friends with them. So it’s embarrassing. I never mention my friends to people because they think I’m bragging. But it is kind of cool.”
Petty may have been embarrassed about his connections, but he had no qualms about gushing about how much he admired Harrison and Dylan. He expressed to them his gratitude in a direct manner by saying, “I’ve always been up-front with them, too, about how cool I think it is. And they’ve been a big help to me in many ways. Especially George because he’s someone who’s been through all this.”
“And I don’t have an older brother, and he’s always been there to advise me. He’d tell me, ‘It’s like this,’ or says, ‘I wouldn’t take that seriously at all.’ It’s great to know someone who has been through all that. Because it’s an unusual way to live sometimes, and to know someone who has been through it, it’s great.”
Tom Petty’s journey from admiring musical legends to becoming friends with them proves the value of chance encounters and the enduring value of shared experiences. Despite his notoriety and success, Petty treasured the close relationships he formed and sought comfort in the advice and company of Harrison and Dylan.
Even while he may not have been inclined to brag about these connections, their importance in his life cannot be overstated. The lesson from Petty’s narrative is that meaningful connections may go beyond fame and music and that even heroes can make friends.
