Tom Petty Thought News of John Lennon’s Death Was a Joke at First

Tom Petty met every former Beatle except John Lennon. He looked up to Lennon, though, and credited him as an early inspiration. Petty could remember exactly where he was when he heard that Lennon had been shot. At first, he thought it was a joke. He recalled the terrible moment when he realized that the news was true. 

Tom Petty looked up to John Lennon

Petty knew he wanted to be a musician from the moment he saw The Beatles perform on The Ed Sullivan Show. He said that he was particularly struck by Lennon as a performer.

“John Lennon meant everything,” Petty told Rolling Stone in 2000, per The Petty Archives. “His influence was immeasurable in those times, when I started to play, in the mid-Sixties. He was probably one of the two or three great rock singers ever, and what can you really say about his songwriting? He was just … transcendental. And his rhythm-guitar playing — I really studied it quite a bit. If you ever want to see some great rhythm guitar, check out A Hard Day’s Night when they do ‘And I Love Her.’ He could really just make a band just kind of surge and jump.”

He believed Lennon was a good role model for the next generation of musicians. 

“To me, Lennon’s legacy is honesty,” he said. “When I was young and seeing the Beatles performing on TV, they were the first ones who weren’t just saying pat, showbiz banter. They’d actually say something. He was a great role model for my whole generation, because you knew when John suffered and you knew when John was happy, but it all somehow came out OK.”

Tom Petty had a hard time believing the news about John Lennon

In 1980, Mark David Chapman shot Lennon outside his Manhattan apartment building. Petty remembered where he was when he heard the news. At first, he believed it was a joke. 

“I was in Cherokee Recording Studios in Hollywood when I heard,” he explained. “I was working with [producer] Jimmy Iovine, who knew John and had worked with him quite a bit. Someone called the studio from New York and said that John had been shot. We thought it was a gag, and we kept working.”

Soon, someone updated the group with news that Lennon had died. 

“Then someone called and said, ‘John’s dead.’ It just stopped the session,” Petty said. “I went home, and on the way I could see people sitting in their cars at traffic lights just crying. It was a hard thing to believe. I still have trouble believing it.”

He was angry about the death for a long time

Petty said he was angry about Lennon’s death for a long time. He was one of Petty’s idols, and his untimely death was difficult to accept.

“His death hurt real bad, still hurts,” he told Playboy in 1982. “Each time I see his picture or hear him sing, I immediately get pissed off that some f***ing jerk could just blow him away. In fact, the only two people I have ever looked up to, idolized — Lennon and Elvis — are both dead. And I’m not someone into idols.”

The year had already been challenging for Petty, and Lennon’s death meant that it ended without relief.

“The spark was gone. It hurt for so long, it f***ed me up,” he said. “My mom died the same year. It was a black year.”