Thomas Earl Petty entered this world on this day in 1950 in Gainesville, Florida. His father worked on the set during the Ocala, Florida filming of the Elvis Presley film Follow That Dream in 1961, giving Tom the chance to meet Presley, an encounter that started the Young Petty on a musical path of his own. Seeing the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show sealed the deal for young Tom. "I had been a big fan of Elvis. But I really saw in the Beatles that here's something I could do. I knew I could do it. It wasn't long before there were groups springing up in garages all over the place." Tom started playing bass, quit high school and joined a band at 17. He switched to guitar, getting lessons from future Eagles member Don Felder, and formed a band named Epic, which morphed into Mudcrutch and included Benmont Tench and Mike Campbell before adding Ron Blair and Stan Lynch and becoming the Heartbreakers.
Other Noteworthy Classic Rock events on October 20 include...
1945 Ten Years After drummer Ric Lee born.
1951 Foreigner keyboardist Al Greenwood born.
1964 French Rolling Stones fans riot at the end of the group's first concert in Paris at the Olympia.
1969 John Lennon and Yoko Ono release The Wedding Album.
1973 Steve Miller Band releases The Joker.
1976 Led Zeppelin movie The Song Remains The Same premiers in London.
1977 Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines, and his sister, Cassie, are killed when tour plane crashes five miles north of Gillsburg, Mississippi in the early evening. The crash into a heavily wooded swamp was ruled the result of the pilot failing to make sure the plane had enough fuel for the chartered flight from Greenville, South Carolina to Baton Rouge. In addition to the band members that lost their lives, the group's assistant manager, the pilot and co-pilot died.
1978 The Police have their US live debut at CBGBs in New York City.
1979 Bob Dylan plays Saturday Night Live.
1980 U2 releases Boy.
1986 Billy Idol releases Whiplash.
1987 INXS releases Kick.
1990 Steve Miller Band does Special Olympics benefit concert at Cotton Bowl in Texas.
1994 Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young guest with Bod Dylan during his concert at the Roseland in New York City.
1997 Canned Heat guitarist Henry Vestine dies of respiratory and heart failure in a Paris hotel
1998 Aerosmith releases A Little South of Sanity, Black Sabbath releases Reunion.
2008 AC/DC releases Black Ice.
2017 Bob Seger undergoes surgery to address herniated disc that caused remaining 2017 tour dates to be cancelled...
