Tom Petty Once Revealed Why He Never Talked About Being Friends with The Beatles: ‘I Don’t Like to Bring it Up’
Tom Petty was a rockstar in his own right, having shot to fame with his band Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. However, he also gained notoriety after joining forces with former Beatles member George Harrison in the form of a band called The Traveling Wilburys. Petty spent plenty of time getting to know The Beatles — especially Harrison — and was a dear friend to them throughout most of his life. But when speaking about his connection to the rock band, Petty once said he didn’t “like to bring it up.”
Tom Petty had a close relationship with George Harrison and The Beatles
Despite being quite a few years younger than The Beatles, Tom Petty always had a close friendship with the band. Petty and his band, The Heartbreakers, formed in 1976 but didn’t see their major rise to fame until the 1980s with hits like “Free Falling” and “I Won’t Back Down.” Still, Petty was in the same industry with the likes of George Harrison and Roy Orbison, and before The Heartbreakers took off, he was a member of The Traveling Wilburys.
Petty even credits The Beatles’ 1964 appearance on the Ed Sullivan show as being his major inspiration for wanting to become a musician. “I was always asking Beatle questions [to George Harrison], and probably annoyed him,” Petty once said in an interview with NPR.
Tom Petty didn’t like to talk about his friendship with The Beatles
Interestingly, despite it being common knowledge that Petty was especially close with Harrison, he didn’t like talking about the friendship because he felt like it created an air of arrogance to say he was friends with the most famous rock band in the world.
“We became very good friends, really, for decades. I don’t like to bring it up that much, because The Beatles are so special that people might see it as boasting or something,” Petty told NPR in 2014. But he said that Harrison, with whom he was closest, taught him how to be spiritual, which went a long way.
“I think [spirituality], probably, was the greatest gift he gave me,” Petty said. “But the best thing I can say to people that are curious about that is George was probably everything that you thought he was, and then some more.”
Tom Petty shared fond memories with George Harrison
When asked about his favorite memories with Harrison, Petty told NPR there were too many to count. “Thousands and thousands. We’d be here all day talking about George.”
Harrison died back in 2001, but he was the one who called Petty to tell him about Roy Orbison’s death back in 1988. A moment that Petty recalled as somewhat humorous, despite its sadness, because of Harrison’s words to him. “I don’t even know if I should say what he said to me, but I will anyway,” Petty once said in an interview. “When I came to the phone he said, ‘Aren’t you glad it’s not you?’”
Upon Harrison’s death, Petty spoke out about his longtime friend, per DiscoverMusic. “George was the kind of guy who wasn’t going to leave until he hugged you for five minutes and told you how much he loved you.”
