Rock and roll to the last, or a media savvy move? How you perceive Tom Petty’s refusal to authorise the latest biography to be published about him probably depends on how cynical you’re feeling. Petty: A Biography by Warren Zanes came out of the historic friendship between Zanes and Petty, but also some frank admissions on Petty’s part. One such admission is that Petty was actively using heroin back in the ‘90s.
Petty is hardly the first rock star to admit to drug use, and he definitely won’t be the last. However, turning junkie as you hit 50 is slightly more unusual. And given the highly publicised departure of The Heartbreakers’ bassist Howie Epstein in the early 2000’s (Epstein was reputedly kicked out due to heroin addiction), the revelation certainly demands some explanation.
In an interview with The Washington Post, Zanes attributes Petty’s turn to heroin to a certain type of midlife crisis. An escape from the pain of life, and heroin being the rockstar’s painkiller of choice. Regarding his reluctance to speak about this before, Petty is quoted as saying that “I am very concerned that talking about this is putting a bad example out there for young people. If anyone is going to think heroin is an option because they know my story of using heroin, I can’t do this.” And in answer to the inevitable questions about the hypocrisy of Epstein’s departure from The Heartbreakers, Zanes recounts how the band tried to help Epstein. Sent to rehab, but failing to kick the habit, stopped by police whilst in possession of black star heroin days before touring; in Zanes’ words “They held on trying to keep that band together… But it got untenable.”
Even though Zanes’ information clearly comes from Petty himself, Petty: A Biography remains “unauthorised”. Petty apparently taking the attitude that he couldn’t tell Zanes what to write and that“authorised is bull sh*t”. At the age of 65, and with an illustrious musical career behind him, it’s doubtful that an admission of heroin use will damage Petty. But if it does… well he never actually admitted to the admission, did he?