The New York Times Bestseller *One of Rolling Stone 's 10 Best Music Books of 2015* An exhilarating and intimate account of the life of music legend Tom Petty, by an accomplished writer and musician who toured with Petty. No one other than Warren Zanes, rocker and writer and friend, could author a book about Tom Petty that is as honest and evocative of Petty's music and the remarkable rock and roll history he and his band helped to write. Born in Gainesville, Florida, with more than a little hillbilly in his blood, Tom Petty was a Southern shit kicker, a kid without a whole lot of promise. Rock and roll made it otherwise. From meeting Elvis, to seeing the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, to producing Del Shannon, backing Bob Dylan, putting together a band with George Harrison, Dylan, Roy Orbison, and Jeff Lynne, making records with Johnny Cash, and sending well more than a dozen of his own celebrated recordings high onto the charts, Tom Petty's story has all the drama of a rock and roll epic. In his last years, Petty, known for his reclusive style, shared with Warren Zanes his insights and arguments, his regrets and lasting ambitions, and the details of his life on and off the stage. This is a book for those who know and love the songs, from "American Girl" and "Refugee" to "Free Fallin'" and "Mary Jane's Last Dance," and for those who want to see the classic rock and roll era embodied in one man's remarkable story. Dark and mysterious, Petty managed to come back, again and again, showing us what the music can do and where it can take us. "Petty and Zanes have decided to tell the unvarnished truth, and the result is not only the definitive account of Petty's life, but one of the best rock biographies in recent memory." ― Rolling Stone “Imagine a long ride on the tour bus with Tom and the Heartbreakers where everyone was feeling loose enough to tell all their stories. What a historic night that would be. This book is that.” ― Eddie Vedder "This fascinating biography of Tom Petty was written by someone who deeply understands the rock n roll life and the creative personalities it takes to create this classic music. I wish Warren Zanes could write a biography about everyone I admire." ― Judd Apatow “Warren Zanes' writing is definitive and thrilling, filled with hidden corners and inspiring truths... as soaring and soulful as the great journey of Petty himself.” ― Cameron Crowe “Tom Petty is a human-sized rock star, an ordinary guy from Florida who quietly amassed an indelible body of work, and created one of rock and roll's greatest and most durable bands along the way . In this deeply engaging and highly readable biography, Warren Zanes not only illuminates the enigmatic man behind the songs, but he captures the human drama of being in a rock band as well as anyone who's ever written on the subject.” ― Tom Perrotta “This amazing book is a Tom Petty biography (and it's great on that account) but it's far more than that. It's an X-ray of the most fragile, most volatile, and most sublime social unit ever invented: the rock-and-roll band. The alliances, the distortions, the deep bruises and the absurd elations that can never be explained to an outsider. Sure, Petty is a book about a rock band but it's really a book about being human - how we meet and collaborate, break up and make up, learn to trust (or not) and, once in a lucky while, sing as loud as we can. It's a masterpiece.” ― Stephen Dubner “Expertly researched and deeply felt, Petty is also the first peer-to-peer biography: the life of one musician through the eyes of a man who has prowled the same stages and chased the same dream. Warren Zanes tells his tale in a voice that is crisp and passionate, sympathetic, unsparing, and shot through with hard experience.” ― Peter Ames Carlin “With insight and rigor, Warren Zanes digs into the brilliance and ambition that have driven Tom Petty's magnificent career. Zanes gets deep inside Petty's life and songs, but perceptively, he pays special attention to the fierce tenacity required to maintain the complex organism known as a rock & roll band.” ― Alan Light, author of The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley and the Unlikely Ascent of "Hallelujah" "If you're interested in the structure of a band, in that world, this book is the Citizen Kane of rock and roll." ― Andrew Loog Oldham , manager and producer of The Rolling Stones from 1963-1967 "Marvelous, kinetic, funny, and if you’ll pardon me, heartbreaking...Zanes is never less than entertainingly artful and sometimes breathtakingly graceful...The author’s most impressive feat may be the way he assiduously avoids the salaciousness and grime that often accompany these kinds of tales, and the candor he was able to elicit from his subject...Electrifying but never flashy and always in service of the song ― Zanes tells the story with artful brevity and a keen sense of the necessary." ― Boston Globe "A thorough, well-written,