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Petty also overcame a difficult relationship with his father. An Ogeechee lime tree that he purportedly planted while employed at the university is now called the Tom Petty tree (Petty stated that he did not recall planting any trees). As a young man, Petty worked briefly on the grounds crew of the University of Florida, but never attended as a student. ĭon Felder, a fellow Gainesville resident, who later joined the Eagles, claimed in his autobiography that he was one of Petty's first guitar teachers although Petty said that Felder taught him to play piano instead. He credited the group with inspiring him by demonstrating that he and musicians like him could make it in rock and roll. In an interview with the CBC in 2014, Petty stated that the Rolling Stones were "my punk music". It wasn't long before there were groups springing up in garages all over the place." He dropped out of high school at age 17 to play bass with his newly formed band. But I really saw in the Beatles that here's something I could do. You get your friends and you're a self-contained unit. "The minute I saw the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show-and it's true of thousands of guys-there was the way out. In a 2006 interview, Petty said he knew he wanted to be in a band the moment he saw the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show. Of that meeting with Presley, Petty said, "Elvis glowed." He instantly became a Presley fan, and when he returned that Saturday, he was greeted by his friend Keith Harben, and soon traded his Wham-O slingshot for a collection of Elvis 45s. In the summer of 1961, his uncle was working on the set of Presley's film Follow That Dream, in nearby Ocala, and invited Petty to watch the shoot.
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His interest in rock and roll music began at age ten when he met Elvis Presley. His brother Bruce was seven years younger. Petty was born October 20, 1950, in Gainesville, Florida, the first of two sons of Kitty (Katherine) Petty, a local tax office worker, and Earl Petty, who was a traveling salesman.