I've been blown away by just how much Tom Petty apparently was universally liked and appreciated by almost anyone who has an opinion on music. Specifically, the comments and thoughts I've read on the Virtual Swamp the past 48 hours have brought me a great deal of self-satisfaction knowing my favorite musical artist and his treasured skills seemed to have struck a nerve with many of you all, too. I knew he was respected musician, but I had no idea until the past two days to what extent. Tom Petty's death has really consumed and saddened me this week, and I'm glad this forum has been here to help me deal with the personal loss I've been feeling. Because of the absolutely horrible and tragic events in Las Vegas on the same day Petty passed, I've frankly felt very guilty so much of my sadness has centered on but one man - and a musician at that.

Growing up ever since I was old enough to stay home by myself (about 10) I was latch-key kid. Both my parents worked long hours and I was on my own pretty much every afternoon, and all-day over the summers. Consequently, I watched a lot of TV growing up because my parents insisted I stay safely inside when they were away. Thankfully, we got cable TV almost right away in it's infancy or else I probably would have gotten hooked on network TV soap operas. So of course, I was in on hard-core MTV watching since it's inception in 1981. In 1982, this one particular video came on and I was absolutely blown away. It was Tom Petty and the Heartbreaker's "You Got Lucky". From that point on I was hooked on the band for a lifetime. I still get fired up when Tom pushes Play on that cassette player, Mike nods approval, and the rest of the Heartbreakers arrive on the funky motorcycle and sidecar. Then Stan throws the Power switch, Tom turns on the TVs, Mike finds his guitar, Howie hits jackpot on the slot machine and dumps the coins on Ben's head, and Tom dumps over the Astro Invaders video game. If I had a nickel for the number of times I watched this video as I waded thru countless hundreds of hours of MTV viewing waiting and waiting for it to pop up again...

I listened and learned more and more Petty music through my teenage years, and then his first solo album "Full Moon Fever" hit big as I began my freshman year at UF in 1989. I sang Tom's praises to anyone that would listen on 3rd Floor South Hall while my dorm mates were then getting into early rap and moody music like REM and Nine Inch Nails. My first year at UF didn't go as gloriously as I had hoped as I broke up with my girlfriend and realized my intended major wasn't going to be a good fit for the career of my future. So that first college summer I went to North Carolina to be a camp counselor so I could "find myself" and get away awhile. The first thing I packed for my trip was my "Damn the Torpedoes" cassette and I played it continuously in my Mazda pickup until I arrived in the Carolina mountains. Who knew my 12, 12 -year-old Jewish campers from south Florida would rock so hard to "Refugee" that summer in our cabin?

Since college, I've bought every Petty solo or group album that's come out, purchased the box sets, and dragged two past girlfriends and an ex-wife to five Heartbreaker's concerts in Atlanta, Tampa, and the 30th reunion show in Gainesville. I'm a member of the TPATHB's fan club, and frequently wear my "Damn the Torpedoes" T-shirt on my weekly Tuesday night pilgrimage to Publix. Today, I still annoy my kids and play a lot of Petty music in the car, and when they were younger I made a DVD of all Tom's greatest music videos and made it required viewing in our household. And when it came time to get a personalized icon made for posting on this site, thank you again Swamp Woman for making me such a cool Tom Petty one.

So basically wherever I have gone in my life, Tom Petty came along for the ride, too. I've been blessed having his music be my personal soundtrack along the way. Now, I'm just very saddened Tom Petty's own incredible ride is suddenly over before any of his devoted fans like me were ready to say goodbye.