Music

Tom Petty had a heroin problem in the 1990s

by Dan MacRae

An upcoming book on the life and times of Tom Petty reveals that the veteran rocker dealt with a heroin problem in the ’90s.

This revelation appears in a new Tom Petty biography from Warren Zanes titled Petty: The Biography. NME reports that the book is technically an “unauthorized” profile, but it’s one that comes with the 64-year-old Rock and Roll Hall of Famer’s backing. Petty submitted to extensive interviews before the book was penned and here we are.

Becoming addicted to smack was something that happened to Petty close to the age of 50 following the demise of his 22-year marriage in 1996.

“He’s a rock and roller. He had had encounters with people who did heroin, and he hit a point in his life when he did not know what to do with the pain he was feeling,” said author Zanes. “Tom Petty is a man who lived the bulk of his life in the album cycle. I think he was invested in being caught in that cycle in part because there was so much movement in it all, that the trouble from his past was kept at bay. But then, when he left his marriage and moved into a house, by himself, things slowed just long enough that all of that past came right as he’s coming into the pain of not being able to control the well-being of his kids and not being able to control a dialogue with his ex-wife. The classic situation of midlife pinning a person down to the mat.”

Zanes says Petty was reluctant to open up about his heroin problem for the book because he was worried about the example it would send to young fans.

“I think you’re going to come off as a cautionary tale rather than a romantic tale,” was the response from Zanes to Petty’s concerns.

Petty: The Biography hits physical and digital book store shelves on November 10.