Warren Zanes was granted the rights to write the biography of one of the most legendary musicians, Tom Petty in the new book “Petty, The Biography”. In this book, it is revealed that Tom Petty suffered from a terrible ongoing heroin addiction in the 1990s.
According to Consequence of Sound, “Petty, The Biography” is classified as unauthorized. This means that when it comes down to the final say of what goes in and what stays out of the book, neither Tom Petty nor any of his band mates have any say in it and it’s up to Warren Zanes.
Described as it just being a side effect of being a “rock and roller”, Zanes introduces what drove Tom Petty to his addiction in the following excerpt from “Petty, The Biography”. Check it out:
The first thing he said to me on the subject is, ‘I am very concerned that talking about this is putting a bad example out there for young people. If anyone is going to think heroin is an option because they know my story of using heroin, I can’t do this.’ And I just had to work with him and say, ‘I think you’re going to come off as a cautionary tale rather than a romantic tale.’ But I wanted to show that Tom Petty is a man who lived the bulk of his life in the album cycle. He wrote songs, they recorded those songs, they put a record together with artwork, they released it, and they went out on the road to support it. Over and over and over and over and over. And he, being the leader of the band, had to do most of the work around it. I think he was invested in being caught in that cycle in part because there was so much movement in it all that the trouble from his past was kept at bay. But then, when he left his marriage and moved into a house, by himself, things slowed just long enough that all of that past came right as he’s coming into the pain of not being able to control the well-being of his kids and not being able to control a dialogue with his ex-wife. The classic situation of midlife pinning a person down to the mat.
Recently, Tom Petty won royalties over Sam Smith’s song “Stay With Me,” due to their similarities in melodies. After contacting publishers, Tom Petty was named as a co-writer of the track.
To read more about Tom Petty’s life and journey as a musician, Warren Zanes’ book goes on sale November 10th.
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