There was something so Tom Petty about the way the news arrived. How the CBS report that he died the morning of Oct. 2 was later rescinded. Even in the way that the hours between the false reports and the official announcement allowed Petty fans to imagine that the man who sang "I won't back down" was, in his last moments, not backing down.
Few outside the music business know just how accurate those lyrics were. Within it, the story is canonical. Decades before Prince changed his name to a glyph and compared the major-label system to indentured servitude, Petty took on the entire industry, waging a battle for his music rights that changed forever how artists negotiate with record companies.
Read Full Article »