Rocker Tom Petty died Monday at a Los Angeles hospital where he was rushed Sunday after being found unconscious and in cardiac arrest at his Malibu home, according to TMZ and CBS News.
Petty, 66, who came to fame in the rock band Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, was taken to UCLA Medical Center in Santa Monica after Los Angeles County Fire Department emergency medical personnel worked to revive him, and he later died.
The county fire department confirmed they rushed to a Malibu home shortly before 11 p.m. Sunday, responding to a call of an unconscious patient in cardiac arrest.
Petty, a grandfather, just finished a 40th-anniversary tour at the end of September , playing arenas, festivals and an occasional stadium.
"I'm thinking it may be the last trip around the country," Petty told Rolling Stone in December before the tour kicked off in April.
"It's very likely we'll keep playing, but will we take on 50 shows in one tour? I don't think so. I'd be lying if I didn't say I was thinking this might be the last big one. We're all on the backside of our 60s. I have a granddaughter now I'd like to see as much as I can.
"I don't want to spend my life on the road. This tour will take me away for four months. With a little kid, that's a lot of time."
Petty, who grew up in Gainesville, Fla., with an emotionally and physically abusive father, filed for bankruptcy in 1979 after legal disputes with his label and lost his house to arson in 1987. He split in 1996 from his first wife, Jane Benyo, after 22 years of marriage and succumbed to drugs and depression.
"In my childhood, I was in such a troubled household," Petty says. "I see why I became a rock 'n' roll fanatic. Music was a safe place."
Petty was a longtime smoker. As he told Men's Journal in 2015, he smoked from the time he was 17 though he had gone down to less than a pack a day. But he didn't bother to pretend he was trying to quit.
"I'm an addict, man," he said then.
In June 2010, he was trying to quit, even taking up electric cigarettes, which helped his wife, Dana, quit smoking.
"I've cut way down," he told USA TODAY. "You get vapor and a shot of nicotine, nothing burning."
This story is developing...
Rocker Tom Petty dead at 66
Petty, 66, who came to fame in the rock band Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, was taken to UCLA Medical Center in Santa Monica after Los Angeles County Fire Department emergency medical personnel worked to revive him, and he later died.
The county fire department confirmed they rushed to a Malibu home shortly before 11 p.m. Sunday, responding to a call of an unconscious patient in cardiac arrest.
Petty, a grandfather, just finished a 40th-anniversary tour at the end of September , playing arenas, festivals and an occasional stadium.
"I'm thinking it may be the last trip around the country," Petty told Rolling Stone in December before the tour kicked off in April.
"It's very likely we'll keep playing, but will we take on 50 shows in one tour? I don't think so. I'd be lying if I didn't say I was thinking this might be the last big one. We're all on the backside of our 60s. I have a granddaughter now I'd like to see as much as I can.
"I don't want to spend my life on the road. This tour will take me away for four months. With a little kid, that's a lot of time."
Petty, who grew up in Gainesville, Fla., with an emotionally and physically abusive father, filed for bankruptcy in 1979 after legal disputes with his label and lost his house to arson in 1987. He split in 1996 from his first wife, Jane Benyo, after 22 years of marriage and succumbed to drugs and depression.
"In my childhood, I was in such a troubled household," Petty says. "I see why I became a rock 'n' roll fanatic. Music was a safe place."
Petty was a longtime smoker. As he told Men's Journal in 2015, he smoked from the time he was 17 though he had gone down to less than a pack a day. But he didn't bother to pretend he was trying to quit.
"I'm an addict, man," he said then.
In June 2010, he was trying to quit, even taking up electric cigarettes, which helped his wife, Dana, quit smoking.
"I've cut way down," he told USA TODAY. "You get vapor and a shot of nicotine, nothing burning."
This story is developing...
Rocker Tom Petty dead at 66
