The regret Tom Petty held about Prince: “You should just act on those things”
In the aftermath of Prince’s death, a video of the musician performing alongside Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne performing The Beatles’ ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ started re-circulating on social media. While this was undoubtedly one perfect moment in time solidified by the beauty of technology, Petty remains haunted by one other aspect, one that he can’t shake no matter how much he tries.
Losing a friend brings about a whole host of strange existential questions: How did I not know? Could I have done more? Why didn’t I check in? The list goes on. Petty performed with the late musician in 2004 for George Harrison’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a star-studded event that also welcomed ZZ Top, Bob Seger, Jackson Browne, Traffic, and Fifties doo-wop group the Dells, and others.
There are two moments throughout this performance that remain embedded in the annals of music history: firstly, the mind-blowing guitar-solo mid-track, and secondly, something Prince did at the end of the song, where he throws his guitar in the air, and it seems to never come back down. The show is entirely Prince’s, a fact Petty was more than willing to admit, despite the strange oddness of the ending in which his instrument seems to defy gravity.
“Everybody wonders where that guitar went, and I gotta tell you, I was on the stage, and I wonder where it went, too,” Petty’s drummer, Steve Ferrone, told The New York Times. But the peculiarity didn’t distract from his earlier musical eruption and even overshadowed the events that came after. As Petty put it, “He just burned it up. You could feel the electricity of ‘something really big’s going down here.'”
Unfortunately, however, more mystery surrounded the late musician than just his disappearing instrument, as Petty confirmed when he recalled the moments leading up to his unexpected passing. In fact, just a few days prior, Prince was all over Petty’s mind like a warm comforter, the kind that urges you to pick up the phone just to make sure everything is fine.
In his case, however, he didn’t listen to his instincts, something that he regrets to this day. “It’s funny because just a few days ago, he was in mind all afternoon, I was thinking about him,” the singer recalled, adding that he had just been discussing the song ‘Manic Monday’ with Susanna Hoffs, a song that Prince wrote for the Bangles. “I was thinking about him a lot that day,” Petty added, continuing, “I almost told myself I was going to call him and just see how he was.”
Petty didn’t pick up the phone, nor did he speak to the star again before his passing on April 21st, 2016. Looking back, the musician now understands the power of listening to your mind, even if the outcome isn’t anything of note. In his words: “I’m starting to think you should just act on those things all the time.” Although it’s unlikely that Petty’s attempt at reaching out would have altered much, hindsight will always leave you wondering: what if.
