Tom Petty's Florida
Become "A Tom Petty Scholar"
By digging deeper in your research into the life and music of Tom Petty, perhaps you too will be dubbed "a Tom Petty Scholar" by Jon Scott, author of Tom Petty and Me: My Rock ‘n’ Roll Adventures with Tom Petty.
Tom Petty's life, legacy, and footprints
Petty: The Biography
Conversations With Tom Petty
Conversations With Tom Petty
Zanes, Warren. (2015) Petty: The Biography. New York: Henry Holt and Company.
Conversations With Tom Petty
Conversations With Tom Petty
Conversations With Tom Petty
Zollo, Paul. (2005, 2024) Conversations With Tom Petty: Expanded Edition. London: Omnibus Press.
Tom Petty and Me
Conversations With Tom Petty
Tom Petty and Me
Scott, Jon. (2018) Tom Petty and Me: My Rock ‘n’ Roll Adventures with Tom Petty. Sherman Oaks, Calif.: CB Publishing.
Heartbreaker
Runnin’ Down a Dream
Tom Petty and Me
Campbell, Mike, with Ari Surdoval. (2025) Heartbreaker: A Memoir. New York: Grand Central Publishing.
Runnin’ Down a Dream
Runnin’ Down a Dream
Runnin’ Down a Dream
Zanes, Warren, editor. (2007). Runnin’ Down a Dream: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. San Francisco: Chronicle Books. (companion book for Peter Bogdanovich’s four-hour documentary, “Runnin’ Down a Dream”)
Music Everywhere
Runnin’ Down a Dream
Runnin’ Down a Dream
Jourard, Marty. (2016) Music Everywhere: The Rock and Roll Roots of a Southern Town. Gainesville, Fla.: University Press of Florida.
Tom Petty: Essays on Life, Work
“Tom Petty: Ultimate Guide to Music & Legend”
Tom Petty: Essays on Life, Work
Sands, Crystal D. editor. (2019) Tom Petty: Essays on the Life and Work. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland and Company.
“Tom Petty: 1950-2017”
“Tom Petty: Ultimate Guide to Music & Legend”
Tom Petty: Essays on Life, Work
Fricke, David. (Nov. 2, 2017) “Tom Petty: 1950-2017.” Rolling Stone, issue 1299, pp. 14-21.
“Tom Petty: Ultimate Guide to Music & Legend”
“Tom Petty: Ultimate Guide to Music & Legend”
“Tom Petty: Ultimate Guide to Music & Legend”
“Tom Petty: The Ultimate Guide to His Music & Legend.” Special Collectors Edition of Rolling Stone, Feb. 26, 2015. It was also packaged as a Special Tribute Edition, Jan. 12. 2018.
Guitar Greats of Jacksonville
“Tom Petty: Ultimate Guide to Music & Legend”
Fitzgerald, Michael Ray. (2023) Guitar Greats of Jacksonville. Charleston, S.C.: The History Press.
The Petty Archives
The Petty Archives
The Petty Archives is valuable resource for a Tom Petty fan who wishes to dig deeper and learn more. A couple thousand articles have been archived. All are available for free through a searchable database. Here is where you find them:
Tom Petty Nation
The Petty Archives
Tom Petty Nation is a Facebook group started in 2013 by superfan Keith Eveland that has grown to the point that it now has been recognized by the Petty Estate as the official fan club for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. As of November 2024, there were more than 80,500 members in this group. The members are naturally all Tom Petty fans, but many are fellow Tom Petty scholars who have shared information that has been helpful to learn more. This Facebook group can be found here:
The Gainesville Sun
The Gainesville Sun covers news like any daily newspaper, but since the early 1970s the coverage has included all things Tom Petty – from the early Mudcrutch era to today, with stories about the Tom Petty Weekend.
To read its coverage of Gainesville’s native son, here is a starting point for your online search:
Note that paywall usage fees charged by the newspaper may apply.
A special thank you
"My Adventure Partner" -- Keith Harben about Tom Petty
Document and preserve, that's what Tom Petty Trail is attempting to do with Tom Petty's Florida history. Helpful in this preservation have been the above books, networking with fellow fans at Facebook's Tom Petty Nation, and interviewing those who were connected to his life in some way.
I wish to give a special thank you to Keith Harben, Tom Petty's lifelong friend who grew up a stone's throw from Tom's childhood home. Tom was "my adventure partner," Keith told me. "There was never a dull moment, which is good."
Keith was instrumental in getting the city to rename Northeast Park, where he and Tom would regularly play as kids, with its current name of Tom Petty Park. And it was Keith who came up with the idea for the annual Tom Petty Weekend, held around the time of Tom's 1950 birthday, Oct. 20 -- nine days after Keith's, Oct. 11.
Keith is one heck of a nice guy. It's no wonder that he was Tom's lifelong friend. But to me, Keith Harben is the true Tom Petty Scholar.
Thank you, Keith, for the ongoing conversation.