He was the leader and frontman of the rock bands Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Mudcrutch and a member of the late 1980s supergroup the Traveling Wilburys.

The band included future Heartbreakers Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench and was popular in Gainesville, but their recordings went unnoticed by a mainstream audience.

Their eponymous debut album gained little popularity among American audiences, achieving greater success in Britain[citation needed].

Their third album, Damn the Torpedoes, quickly went platinum, selling nearly two million copies; it includes their breakthrough singles "Don't Do Me Like That", "Here Comes My Girl", "Even the Losers" and "Refugee".

[24] In September 1979, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers performed at a Musicians United for Safe Energy concert at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan.

[27] Bass player Ron Blair quit the group and was replaced on the fifth album, Long After Dark (1982), by Howie Epstein; the resulting lineup lasted until 1994.

[28] In 1988, Petty, along with George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison and Jeff Lynne, was a founding member of the Traveling Wilburys.

The band's first song, "Handle with Care", was intended as a B-side of one of Harrison's singles, but was judged too good for that purpose and the group decided to record a full album, Traveling Wilburys Vol.

[29] In 1989, Petty released Full Moon Fever, which featured hits "I Won't Back Down", "Free Fallin'" and "Runnin' Down a Dream".

It was nominally his first solo album, although several Heartbreakers and other well-known musicians participated: Mike Campbell co-produced the album with Petty and Jeff Lynne of Electric Light Orchestra, and backing musicians included Campbell, Lynne, and fellow Wilburys Roy Orbison and George Harrison (Ringo Starr appears on drums in the video for "I Won't Back Down", but they were actually performed by Phil Jones).

The album's singles were "Walls (Circus)" featuring Lindsey Buckingham, "Climb that Hill", and a song written by Lucinda Williams, "Change the Locks".

[36] Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers played "I Won't Back Down" at the America: A Tribute to Heroes benefit concert for victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

[36] In 2005, Petty began hosting his own show "Buried Treasure" on XM Satellite Radio, on which he shared selections from his personal record collection.

It debuted at number four on the Billboard 200, which was Petty's highest chart position since the introduction of the Nielsen SoundScan system for tracking album sales in 1991.

[43] During the summer of 2007, Petty reunited with his old bandmates Tom Leadon and Randall Marsh, along with Heartbreakers Benmont Tench and Mike Campbell, to reform his pre-Heartbreakers band Mudcrutch.

The album's sales helped buy instruments for students in New Orleans public schools and contributed to the building of a community center in the city's Hurricane Katrina-damaged Ninth Ward.

Prior to the tour, five of the band's guitars, including two owned by Petty, were stolen from their practice space in Culver City, California in April 2010.

[49] In 2012, the band went on a world tour that included their first European dates in 20 years and their first ever concerts in the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador.

[57] In 2024, he posthumously appeared on rapper Snoop Dogg's twentieth studio album Missionary, on the track "Last Dance with Mary Jane", also featuring fellow singer Jelly Roll.

[58] Petty appeared in the 1997 film The Postman, directed by and starring Kevin Costner, as the Bridge City Mayor (from the dialogue it is implied that he is playing a future history version of himself).

[2] In 2002, he appeared on The Simpsons in the episode "How I Spent My Strummer Vacation", along with Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Lenny Kravitz, Elvis Costello, and Brian Setzer.

In it, Petty spoofed himself as a tutor to Homer Simpson on the art of lyric writing, composing a brief song about a drunk girl driving down the road while concerned with the state of public schools.

[2] In 2010, Petty made a five-second cameo appearance with comedian Andy Samberg in a musical video titled "Great Day" featured on the bonus DVD as part of The Lonely Island's new album Turtleneck & Chain.

[61] In early 1981, the upcoming Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers album, which would become Hard Promises, was slated to be the next MCA release with the new list price of $9.98, following Steely Dan's Gaucho and the Olivia Newton-John/Electric Light Orchestra Xanadu soundtrack.

"[67] Some outlets have claimed that the Red Hot Chili Peppers single "Dani California", released in May 2006, bears a close musical similarity to Petty's "Mary Jane's Last Dance".

"[70] In January 2015, it was revealed that Petty and Jeff Lynne would receive royalties from Sam Smith's song "Stay with Me" after its writers acknowledged similarities between it and "I Won't Back Down".

He said his father found it difficult to accept that Petty was "a mild-mannered kid who was interested in the arts" and subjected him to verbal and physical abuse on a regular basis.

[94] In a statement on his website, Petty's wife and daughter said he had a number of medical problems, including emphysema, knee difficulties "and most significantly a fractured hip".

[102] In October 1981, and again in September 2006, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers received the keys to the city of Gainesville, Florida, where he and his bandmates either lived or grew up.

In December 2023, Petty's song "Love Is a Long Road" was used in the first trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI,[124] which is considered one of the most anticipated video games ever made.