ASK Biblitz Tom Petty Playlist I.

Break bad! Keep on keeping on!

See also Fitness and Obesity and Body Image.

Heartbreaker Biblitz with the boys from left: Ron Blair, Tom, of course, Campbell, Tench and Stan Lynch, brothers in song. The ASKBiblitz Tom Petty Playlist I (from which you may infer others will follow) is but a sample of the fare listeners enjoy on Sirius/XM's Deep Tracks 16, which features Tom's kick-ass Buried Treasure program with selections from his personal collection of musical favorites. Biblitz listens Thursdays 5-6 p.m. (PT), Sundays at 11 a.m. and again on Mondays at 8 a.m. (PT).

Rolling Stone

It's Good to be King

Tom Petty on growing up as a hippie in redneck Florida, the early days of the Heartbreakers and the stories behind his biggest hits

By David Fricke
Dec. 10/09

Where's Tom on his gruelling 2010 Mojo tour? He and the boys were at GM Place, 'The Garage,' as locals call it, in Vancouver, B.C. June 8, where the cheap seats were $35 and front five rows a whopping $155! Biblitz declined not because he's cheap, though Scotch blood will tell, but b/c he wishes to keep what's left of his hearing! Blast me if you agree that concerts today are too damn loud! (If you don't agree, you're probably partly deaf already!)

How tough was your childhood?

I had a wonderful mother. She was a very kind, good person. My father was Jerry Lee Lewis if he didn't play the piano. He was scary and violent. He beat the living hell out of me, and there was constant verbal abuse. Looking back on it, he was probably disappointed that I was so drawn to the arts. He probably thought I was gay. I wasn't interested in sports. I didn't know the names of any baseball players. I liked films and books and records. He liked to fish and hunt. He'd drag me on those trips, and it was a nightmare. Shooting something repelled me. My younger brother became a football player right away. He didn't want the same shit.

The music - I was safe there. It was my thing. It rescued me in a big way.

How hard was it to be a longhaired rock 'n roller in Florida in the early and mid-Sixties? I hate to use the word "redneck."

It's full of rednecks, no doubt about it. Gainesville is not Miami. It's not palm trees. It's just southern Georgia. There were a lot of bands there, because there were so many places to play: the fraternities, the clubs that catered to college kids, the teen dances. You had to be good. They would boot you out of the way if you weren't. My dad used to own a grocery store in the black part of town. He got out of that business, and that store became a black nightclub called Mom's Kitchen. They had terrific bands.

But I got my ass kicked a lot because of my hair - threatened all the time. I remember driving on the interstate, pulling into truck stops. Our band would walk in and the whole room would laugh. Some of them plain-ass wouldn't serve you: 'You gotta leave.' One time, our van broke down. We pushed it into a gas station, and they made us push it off, just because we looked the way we did. It made you see what black people were going through. It was nowhere as severe, but you sympathized right away. (-- pgs. 72-74)

Listen to Her Heart



I Need to Know



Refugee



Don't quit now!

Keep going!

Don't back down!

The Warm-up:

This Old Town



Stop Draggin' My Heart Around



Shady Grove



Blast off!

Six Days on the Road



American Girl

The CDs:

Ease up some.

Breakdown



I Won't Back Down



Way-y-y-y down, now.

Free Fallin'



Learning to Fly