Lately, I’d been humming Free Fallin’ more often than usual. My high school friend Kim invited me to see Blues Traveller, and I commented how one song reminded me of it…then Tom Petty suddenly died of a heart attack on October 2nd. Free Fallin’ is definitely in the top 10 soundtrack of my life in the late 80s. Such a beautiful song.

He was also unapologetically upfront about his politics. Here’s a quote from an interview he did for Rolling Stone expressing regret on his ignorance about what the Confederate flag stands for when he used it to illustrate a character in one of his songs. I didn’t know this side of him, and regret not getting to know him even more.

 

Truly a loss.