Reviews
Tom Petty is a human-sized rock star, an ordinary guy from Florida who quietly amassed an indelible body of work, and created one of rock and roll's greatest and most durable bands along the way . In this deeply engaging and highly readable biography, Warren Zanes not only illuminates the enigmatic man behind the songs, but he captures the human drama of being in a rock band as well as anyone who's ever written on the subject., Expertly researched and deeply felt, PETTY is also the first peer-to-peer biography: the life of one musician through the eyes of a man who has prowled the same stages and chased the same dream. Warren Zanes tells his tale in a voice that is crisp and passionate, sympathetic, unsparing, and shot through with hard experience, With insight and rigor, Warren Zanes digs into the brilliance and ambition that have driven Tom Petty's magnificent career. Zanes gets deep inside Petty's life and songs, but perceptively, he pays special attention to the fierce tenacity required to maintain the complex organism known as a rock & roll band., "Petty and Zanes have decided to tell the unvarnished truth, and the result is not only the definitive account of Petty's life, but one of the best rock biographies in recent memory." -- Rolling Stone "Imagine a long ride on the tour bus with Tom and the Heartbreakers where everyone was feeling loose enough to tell all their stories. What a historic night that would be. This book is that." -- Eddie Vedder "Tom Petty is a human-sized rock star, an ordinary guy from Florida who quietly amassed an indelible body of work, and created one of rock and roll's greatest and most durable bands along the way . In this deeply engaging and highly readable biography, Warren Zanes not only illuminates the enigmatic man behind the songs, but he captures the human drama of being in a rock band as well as anyone who's ever written on the subject." -- Tom Perrotta "This amazing book is a Tom Petty biography (and it's great on that account) but it's far more than that. It's an X-ray of the most fragile, most volatile, and most sublime social unit ever invented: the rock-and-roll band. The alliances, the distortions, the deep bruises and the absurd elations that can never be explained to an outsider. Sure, PETTY is a book about a rock band but it's really a book about being human - how we meet and collaborate, break up and make up, learn to trust (or not) and, once in a lucky while, sing as loud as we can. It's a masterpiece." -- Stephen Dubner "Expertly researched and deeply felt, PETTY is also the first peer-to-peer biography: the life of one musician through the eyes of a man who has prowled the same stages and chased the same dream. Warren Zanes tells his tale in a voice that is crisp and passionate, sympathetic, unsparing, and shot through with hard experience" -- Peter Ames Carlin "With insight and rigor, Warren Zanes digs into the brilliance and ambition that have driven Tom Petty's magnificent career. Zanes gets deep inside Petty's life and songs, but perceptively, he pays special attention to the fierce tenacity required to maintain the complex organism known as a rock & roll band." -- Alan Light, author of The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley and the Unlikely Ascent of "Hallelujah" "A biography of a reticent musician that will allow even his biggest fans to see him with fresh eyes and hear him with fresh ears.... Zanes brings a depth and empathy to the narrative that never veers toward sensationalism... Though it attests to the artist's singularity, this incisive, illuminating biography also serves as an elegy to one of the golden eras of the classic rock band-of the days when 'a band was everything, a shield and a shelter.'" -- Kirkus (Starred Review) "Warren Zanes' writing is definitive and thrilling, filled with hidden corners and inspiring truths... as soaring and soulful as the great journey of Petty himself." -- Cameron Crowe "[A] balanced chronicle of Petty's career with the detached delivery of a seasoned journalist combined with the intimacy of a friend bold enough to dig deep beneath the surface of his own personal musical hero...required reading for fans. Zanes's working knowledge of band dynamics, in conjunction with his crisp and concise writing, undeniably qualify him to tell this story of one of rock's most reclusive superstars." -- Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) "For Petty fans who've wondered about the artist behind the music, this book functions like a door being thrown open on on the singer's musical and personal lives. Expect eager readers from rock fans" -- Booklist "An intimate and insightful portrait that can come only from a genuine insider." -- Oakland Press, Imagine a long ride on the tour bus with Tom and the Heartbreakers where everyone was feeling loose enough to tell all their stories. What a historic night that would be. This book is that., Warren Zanes' writing is definitive and thrilling, filled with hidden corners and inspiring truths... as soaring and soulful as the great journey of Petty himself., A biography of a reticent musician that will allow even his biggest fans to see him with fresh eyes and hear him with fresh ears.... Zanes brings a depth and empathy to the narrative that never veers toward sensationalism... Though it attests to the artist's singularity, this incisive, illuminating biography also serves as an elegy to one of the golden eras of the classic rock band-of the days when "a band was everything, a shield and a shelter.", [A] balanced chronicle of Petty's career with the detached delivery of a seasoned journalist combined with the intimacy of a friend bold enough to dig deep beneath the surface of his own personal musical hero...required reading for fans. Zanes's working knowledge of band dynamics, in conjunction with his crisp and concise writing, undeniably qualify him to tell this story of one of rock's most reclusive superstars., This amazing book is a Tom Petty biography (and it's great on that account) but it's far more than that. It's an X-ray of the most fragile, most volatile, and most sublime social unit ever invented: the rock-and-roll band. The alliances, the distortions, the deep bruises and the absurd elations that can never be explained to an outsider. Sure, PETTY is a book about a rock band but it's really a book about being human - how we meet and collaborate, break up and make up, learn to trust (or not) and, once in a lucky while, sing as loud as we can. It's a masterpiece., A biography of a reticent musician that will allow even his biggest fans to see him with fresh eyes and hear him with fresh ears.... Zanes brings a depth and empathy to the narrative that never veers toward sensationalism... Though it attests to the artist's singularity, this incisive, illuminating biography also serves as an elegy to one of the golden eras of the classic rock band-of the days when 'a band was everything, a shield and a shelter.', "Imagine a long ride on the tour bus with Tom and the Heartbreakers where everyone was feeling loose enough to tell all their stories. What a historic night that would be. This book is that." -- Eddie Vedder "Tom Petty is a human-sized rock star, an ordinary guy from Florida who quietly amassed an indelible body of work, and created one of rock and roll's greatest and most durable bands along the way . In this deeply engaging and highly readable biography, Warren Zanes not only illuminates the enigmatic man behind the songs, but he captures the human drama of being in a rock band as well as anyone who's ever written on the subject." -- Tom Perrotta "This amazing book is a Tom Petty biography (and it's great on that account) but it's far more than that. It's an X-ray of the most fragile, most volatile, and most sublime social unit ever invented: the rock-and-roll band. The alliances, the distortions, the deep bruises and the absurd elations that can never be explained to an outsider. Sure, PETTY is a book about a rock band but it's really a book about being human - how we meet and collaborate, break up and make up, learn to trust (or not) and, once in a lucky while, sing as loud as we can. It's a masterpiece." -- Stephen Dubner "Expertly researched and deeply felt, PETTY is also the first peer-to-peer biography: the life of one musician through the eyes of a man who has prowled the same stages and chased the same dream. Warren Zanes tells his tale in a voice that is crisp and passionate, sympathetic, unsparing, and shot through with hard experience" -- Peter Ames Carlin "With insight and rigor, Warren Zanes digs into the brilliance and ambition that have driven Tom Petty's magnificent career. Zanes gets deep inside Petty's life and songs, but perceptively, he pays special attention to the fierce tenacity required to maintain the complex organism known as a rock & roll band." -- Alan Light, author of The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley and the Unlikely Ascent of "Hallelujah" "A biography of a reticent musician that will allow even his biggest fans to see him with fresh eyes and hear him with fresh ears.... Zanes brings a depth and empathy to the narrative that never veers toward sensationalism... Though it attests to the artist's singularity, this incisive, illuminating biography also serves as an elegy to one of the golden eras of the classic rock band-of the days when 'a band was everything, a shield and a shelter.'" -- Kirkus (Starred Review) "Warren Zanes' writing is definitive and thrilling, filled with hidden corners and inspiring truths... as soaring and soulful as the great journey of Petty himself." -- Cameron Crowe "Must Read Bio, the Definitive Tom Petty History" -- Rolling Stone "[A] balanced chronicle of Petty's career with the detached delivery of a seasoned journalist combined with the intimacy of a friend bold enough to dig deep beneath the surface of his own personal musical hero...required reading for fans. Zanes's working knowledge of band dynamics, in conjunction with his crisp and concise writing, undeniably qualify him to tell this story of one of rock's most reclusive superstars." -- Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) "For Petty fans who've wondered about the artist behind the music, this book functions like a door being thrown open on on the singer's musical and personal lives. Expect eager readers from rock fans" -- Booklist "An intimate and insightful portrait that can come only from a genuine insider." -- Oakland Press
Synopsis
The New York Times Bestseller *One of Rolling Stone 's 10 Best Music Books of 2015* An exhilarating and intimate account of the life of music legend Tom Petty, by an accomplished writer and musician who toured with Petty No one other than Warren Zanes, rocker and writer and friend, could author a book about Tom Petty that is as honest and evocative of Petty's music and the remarkable rock and roll history he and his band helped to write. Born in Gainesville, Florida, with more than a little hillbilly in his blood, Tom Petty was a Southern shit kicker, a kid without a whole lot of promise. Rock and roll made it otherwise. From meeting Elvis, to seeing the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, to producing Del Shannon, backing Bob Dylan, putting together a band with George Harrison, Dylan, Roy Orbison, and Jeff Lynne, making records with Johnny Cash, and sending well more than a dozen of his own celebrated recordings high onto the charts, Tom Petty's story has all the drama of a rock and roll epic. Now in his mid-sixties, still making records and still touring, Petty, known for his reclusive style, has shared with Warren Zanes his insights and arguments, his regrets and lasting ambitions, and the details of his life on and off the stage. This is a book for those who know and love the songs, from "American Girl" and "Refugee" to "Free Fallin'" and "Mary Jane's Last Dance," and for those who want to see the classic rock and roll era embodied in one man's remarkable story. Dark and mysterious, Petty manages to come back, again and again, showing us what the music can do and where it can take us., The New York Times Bestseller *One of Rolling Stone 's 10 Best Music Books of 2015* An exhilarating and intimate account of the life of music legend Tom Petty, by an accomplished writer and musician who toured with Petty. No one other than Warren Zanes, rocker and writer and friend, could author a book about Tom Petty that is as honest and evocative of Petty's music and the remarkable rock and roll history he and his band helped to write. Born in Gainesville, Florida, with more than a little hillbilly in his blood, Tom Petty was a Southern shit kicker, a kid without a whole lot of promise. Rock and roll made it otherwise. From meeting Elvis, to seeing the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, to producing Del Shannon, backing Bob Dylan, putting together a band with George Harrison, Dylan, Roy Orbison, and Jeff Lynne, making records with Johnny Cash, and sending well more than a dozen of his own celebrated recordings high onto the charts, Tom Petty's story has all the drama of a rock and roll epic. In his last years, Petty, known for his reclusive style, shared with Warren Zanes his insights and arguments, his regrets and lasting ambitions, and the details of his life on and off the stage. This is a book for those who know and love the songs, from "American Girl" and "Refugee" to "Free Fallin'" and "Mary Jane's Last Dance," and for those who want to see the classic rock and roll era embodied in one man's remarkable story. Dark and mysterious, Petty managed to come back, again and again, showing us what the music can do and where it can take us.
