Tom Petty revealed Elvis Presley had significant contribution to his musical career.
The Wildflowers singer’s love for the iconic Presley began since he was just 10-years-old and when his uncle got a job on the set of the film Follow That Dream in 1962.
Petty was able to see The King arrive on set, an experience that continued to stick with him as he began grow fonder and fonder of music.
“He arrived in a fleet of white Cadillacs,” Petty recalled to Rolling Stone in 2011, adding, “People were screaming, handing records over a chain-link fence for him to sign. I remember his hair was so black that the sunshine was glowing off of it.”
“Just a nod and a hello made your skin tingle,” Petty gushed at that time further recalling, “I was high for weeks. It lit a fever in me to get every record I could, and I really digested it. Elvis became the soundtrack of my early years.”
However, at that time, the Mary Jane’s Last Dance hitmaker had almost a decade full of stuff from Presley that he had to go through.
It was the popular 1956’s Heartbreak Hotel, that made Tom Petty become a fan of Elvis Presley for life.
“It could have been the national anthem,” he claimed, and stated before concluding, “It rocks, and when the piano comes in, it starts to roll in this really sensual way. The track is very spooky and very empty – there’s just bass and a little piano, with D.J. Fontana playing the deepest groove.”
