"Go after what you really love and find a way to make that work for you, and then you'll be a happy person."
 

• Born Thomas Earl Petty Oct. 20, 1950, in Gainesville, Florida. Died Oct. 2, 2017, in Santa Monica, California.

• Tom Petty and his band the Heartbreakers broke things open with his third album, Damn The Torpedoes, which became a multiplatinum seller and featured the signature hits "Refugee," "Here Comes My Girl" and "Don't Do Me Like That." The 1989 album Full Moon Fever, released as a Petty solo work, contained the hits "Free Fallin'," "I Won't Back Down" and "Runnin' Down A Dream."

• Petty earned his first career GRAMMY win for 1989 as a member of the Traveling Wilburys with Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, and Roy Orbison for Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal for Traveling Wilburys Volume One. He earned his first solo GRAMMY for 1995 for Best Male Rock Performance for "You Don't Know How It Feels."

• An 11-year-old Petty got to meet Elvis Presley when Petty's uncle was employed one summer working on the set of a Presley film.

• Petty was honored as the 2017 MusiCares Person of the Year. The annual Person of the Year gala raises funds for MusiCares, which provides services and resources that cover a wide range of financial, medical and personal emergencies for music people.

• Petty and his wife Dana have been strong advocates for the homeless and in 2011 received the Golden Heart Award from the Los Angeles charitable organization Midnight Mission for their charity work.