Tom Petty

Another good book I read recently was a Tom Petty biography by Warren Zanes.

As Zanes tells it, Petty grew up in Gainesville, Florida a southern boy with more than a little redneck in him.  Zanes describes Tom's boyhood and sometimes rocky relationship with his old man.  Also rocky was Tom's interest in anything to do with school and higher education of any sort other than getting high.  Rock and roll pretty much saved Tom who went onto to become one of the greatest of rock stars.   Zanes does a nice job documenting Tom's journey from redneck to rock star.

Check out this video which features Tom and the Heartbreakers discussing the making of their Southern Accents album.  Video has interviews with two members of the Heartbreakers who are no longer in the band:  Bass player Howie Epstein passed away due to heroin addiction and drummer Stan Lynch was replaced with Steve Ferrone.   (In his book, Zanes goes into detail on all these changes.)
Here is Zanes discussing how he came to write the bio.