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Rock Legend Tom Petty Dies of a Heart Attack at 66

HeadlineOct 03, 2017

And rock 'n' roll hall of famer Tom Petty has died at the age of 66. Petty rose to fame in the 1970s as leader of The Heartbreakers and is best known for hit songs including “I Won’t Back Down,” “American Girl” and “Refugee.” Petty grew up in Gainesville, Florida, and later spoke out against racism in the South. In 2015, he told Rolling Stone magazine he deeply regretted using Confederate flag imagery onstage as part of his “Southern Accents” tour in 1985, calling the flag a symbol of hate. Petty also condemned the rise of for-profit prisons and voiced support for the Black Lives Matter movement, saying, “What’s going on in society is unforgivable. As a country, we should be more concerned with why the police are getting away with targeting black men and killing them for no reason.” Tom Petty died of a heart attack at the age of 66.

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