{"id":5869,"date":"2017-10-03T14:55:41","date_gmt":"2017-10-03T19:55:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/?p=5869"},"modified":"2018-08-20T16:36:34","modified_gmt":"2018-08-20T21:36:34","slug":"tom-petty-captured-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/tom-petty-captured-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom Petty captured America in all its beauty and ugliness"},"content":{"rendered":"

The last 30 hours have been a bit of a roller coaster for many Americans. Beyond dealing with the fallout of the deadliest mass shooting<\/a> in modern U.S. history, in which a man in Las Vegas at last count killed 59 and injured more than 500 at an outdoor concert, we\u2019ve also had to process the mortality of one of our great American icons: rocker Tom Petty.<\/p>\n

News first broke Monday afternoon that Petty was on life support following a cardiac incident. CBS News prematurely reported<\/a> his demise, leading to a gargantuan outpouring of grief while the rock star was still clinging to life. Sadly, Petty succumbed<\/a> late Monday night, leaving behind a legacy that cements him as one of, if not the<\/em>, greatest rock stars in American history.<\/p>\n

Born Oct. 20, 1950 in Gainesville, Fla., Thomas Earl Petty would become a household name in the 1970s, along with his band, The Heartbreakers, on the strength of immortal songs like \u201cAmerican Girl,\u201d \u201cRefugee\u201d and \u201cDon\u2019t Do Me Like That.\u201d And while that decade saw many young American men achieve stardom on the strength of their songs, there was something even more distinctly American about Tom Petty than the rest of them.<\/p>\n