Tom Petty’s House Suffered Wildly Destructive Parties, a SWAT Raid, Arson, and More
From the mid-’80s into the late 2010s, Tom Petty owned a sprawling six-bedroom, 10-bathroom home in the Encino neighborhood of LA. But even the legendary rocker’s luxurious property was subject to more than its fair share of damages.
Over the years, Petty’s house suffered an unfortunate series of events including a fire, wild parties, and even a SWAT raid.
Tom Petty: his life, music career, net worth, and tragic death
Before becoming a Platinum-selling artist, Petty was born to a humble, working-class family in Gainesville, Florida, on October 20, 1950. As a teenager, Petty was enamored by rock ‘n’ roll icon Elvis Presley. But it wasn’t until he saw the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show that he knew he wanted to be in a band, per NPR.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers released their debut album to moderate success in 1976. But it wasn’t until their second studio album, Damn the Torpedoes, that the group would go Platinum.
1988 saw the formation of the Traveling Wilburys, which consisted of Petty, George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, and Jeff Lynne. The following year, Petty released his solo album Full Moon Fever, which included a couple of his greatest hits: “I Won’t Back Down” and “Free Fallin.”
He continued to tour with varying members of The Heartbreakers and the Traveling Wilburys for much of his life. Petty’s Net Worth was estimated to be around $95 million, per Celebrity Net Worth.
Sadly, in 2017, Petty died due to an accidental overdose at just 66. The musician was found unconscious at his home in Malibu, not breathing and in cardiac arrest. The toxicology reports revealed that Petty had ingested a lethal combination of fentanyl, oxycodone, acetyl fentanyl, and despropionyl fentanyl — all opioids. He was reportedly taking the medications due to persistent knee and hip pains.
Tom Petty’s Encino home was once stormed by a SWAT team
For a large portion of his life, Petty called the San Fernando Valley neighborhood of Encino home. The rocker and his family moved into the lavish home in the mid-’80s, though they would soon be forced to move out after an arsonist set fire to the house in May of 1987.
According to the LA Times, Petty, his wife, and his daughter were sitting down to have breakfast when the wooden staircase erupted mid-meal. Luckily, everyone inside the home at the time was unharmed. However, the fire caused over $1 million in property damage. “It was arson,” Petty told author Paul Zollo in the book Conversations With Tom Petty. He continued:
“They found the evidence where someone had cut a hole in the back fence on a hill and had been watching the house. For probably a period of time. And really early one morning they came down and set the house on fire. And it was a wooden house, and it went up really quickly. The whole place, just like a matchbox, it went up really fast.”
The arsonist was never caught. Thankfully, first responders salvaged Petty’s basement recording studio, which stored original tapes and musical instruments. Petty and his family then elected to rebuild the canyon home. They lived in it together until Petty’s former wife, Jane Benyo, acquired it in their 1996 divorce settlement.
But the fire wasn’t the only unfortunate accident to strike the home. After Benyo tried and failed to sell the property in 2013, the house was foreclosed. Benyo was forced to declare bankruptcy thanks to ongoing loans, per Realtor.com. The house was then rented out to various tenants. This included a “professional party host” who repeatedly held out-of-control bashes on the premises.
But when bank representatives attempted to seize the property, the tenant resisted. He had to be forcibly removed by a SWAT team, complete with helicopters and black vans. After he was taken to jail, the home was reportedly left in poor condition. This led developers to snag the property and make major renovations before returning it to the market.
Fellow musician Selena Gomez reportedly bought the roughly 11,500 square foot home for $5 million in 2019. However, in 2020, it was relisted and sold for the third time since 2017. Today, it’s worth $6,448,600, according to Zillow.
Why Tom Petty said the fire that once burned down his house “revitalized” him
After the fire set his home ablaze in 1989, Petty and his family were understandably left feeling shocked. He explained:
“It was such a shock. To have somebody try to kill you is a really bad feeling. And I never really wanted to talk about it in detail, because it frightened me so bad. I wouldn’t even use the word ‘fire’ in a song or anything. It really frightened me. They didn’t just try to kill me, they tried to wipe out my whole family. And it was a hell of a day. It was my wife’s birthday. We were planning an afternoon barbecue. So as the house was burning, guests were arriving.”
However, Petty was able to find a positive side to what was an otherwise horrific incident. He told Mojo in a 1999 interview (via The Petty Archives), “I think it revitalized me. I kind of came out of it in a good spot. It just made me glad to be alive for a long time.”
The Grammy-winning artist attributed the fire to helping him choose to step away from touring with Bob Dylan:
“I remember telling Bob, when we were in England at the end of the tour, that we were going to have to stop, as far as backing him up. I had to go back and sort out my life and my family, and find a home, and we needed to get back to just being The Heartbreakers. And we had really enjoyed it, and now he needed to get his own band, because we needed to get back to our own thing.”
