Tom Petty’s Daughter Said George Harrison Was ‘Something Special’ in Her Dad’s Life

TL;DR:

• George Harrison hadn’t met anyone like Tom Petty in his life.
• Tom Petty’s daughter recognized how close her father was with George Harrison.
• Tom Petty and George Harrison clicked immediately.

Tom Petty’s daughter Adria witnessed her father befriend a number of huge names in the music industry. Though Petty once said that he wasn’t always a pleasant person to be around, he seemed to be generally well-liked. In his many friendships, both within his band and outside it, Adria noted that while Petty had many good men in his life, George Harrison was particularly special to him.

George Harrison’s wife said he hadn’t met anyone like Tom Petty

Petty and his wife Jane began spending much of their time with Harrison and his wife Olivia. 

“Almost as soon as we met them, we spent more time with Tom and Jane Petty than with anyone but the Keltners,” Olivia said, per the book Petty: The Biography by Warren Zanes. “They were family. We had Christmases together. They came to Friar Park. We’d just hang out, for hours and hours, with [the children] Dhani and Adria and Annakim playing together, staying up way too late, probably. Tom and George playing guitars and ukuleles. Between George, Tom, and Jane — a lot of cigarette smoke.”

Petty grew up listening to The Beatles and looked up to Harrison. According to Olivia, Harrison hadn’t ever met anyone like Petty.

“We had fun. We got very close,” she said. “I think it was a lot of fun for Tom. And George had never met anyone quite like Tom. George with his Liverpudlian accent and Tom with his drawl, there was something connecting them, some common element.”

Tom Petty’s daughter said the former Beatle was a special person to her father

Adria, Petty’s elder daughter, noted that Petty formed many solid relationships with powerful people in the music industry.

“I know that Leon Russel was very generous to my dad when he was young,” she said. “And I know that when he was in the studios with producers, certainly Denny Cordell but even a Jimmy Iovine or someone like that, when there were other men that believed in him, Bob Dylan or Johnny Cash, I think it gave him an incredible sense of confidence. I even think Jeff Lynne nurtured him.”

She noted that of all the people her father knew, though, he had a particularly strong connection with Harrison. 

“It’s a lot of men, powerful men that came into my father’s life,” she said. “But George Harrison was something special.”

Tom Petty said he befriended George Harrison at a good time in his life

Petty seemed to agree. He felt that Harrison came into his life at the exact right moment.

“I think I needed a friend really badly,” Petty explained. “My friendship with the band was a different kind of friendship. And it was frayed. I’d become very lonely. George came along, and we got so close; it was like we had known each other in some other life or something. We were pals within minutes of meeting each other.”

Harrison felt the same sense of connection.

“I remember him saying to me a couple days after we’d known each other — he’s hugging me, holding me, and saying, ‘Tommy, you’re in my life now whether you like it or not,'” Petty said. “It was like I’d been sent the very person I needed. He healed a lot of wounds.”