📍Gainesville, Florida, USA
1950 – 1974“I was born in Gainesville, Florida, in October 1950, and I grew up in this university town in north-central Florida, with its oak trees, hot summers and the swamps and springs beyond. My father, Earl, was a hard, volatile man, and home could be frightening; my mother, Kitty, was gentle and kind, and she and my grandmother were my refuge. I was a quiet, sensitive kid who didn't fit my father's idea of a son. In the summer of 1961, my uncle Earl Jernigan was working on the Elvis Presley film Follow That Dream, which was being shot in nearby Ocala, and he took me to the set. Elvis seemed to glow. I went home and traded my slingshot for a box of Elvis records, and I caught the fever that day. Then, in 1964, I saw the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show and knew what I wanted to do. I took guitar lessons at Lipham Music in Gainesville from Don Felder, who later joined the Eagles, and I formed bands with friends, playing at fraternity parties, dances and bars all over town. Our band, Mudcrutch, became a local legend in Gainesville, playing to crowds at the farm we rented outside town. In 1974 we drove across the country to Los Angeles to find a record deal, and in 1976 I formed Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers with friends from Gainesville. Songs like American Girl and Free Fallin' carried the feel of the Florida towns I grew up in. Gainesville has named a park after me and painted my face on its walls.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today