Tom Petty Reveals ‘90s-Era Heroin Addiction in New Biography

image

Most rock stars have at least a single dark secret in their pasts, but Tom Petty has one he’s managed to keep under cover for years. The 64-year-old musician is revealing in a new biography that he was addicted to heroin in the ‘90s.

Warren Zanes — the author of the book, Petty: The Biography, which will be released November 10, gives fans a startling glimpse into the reasons why Petty, a prolific hitmaker since the mid-‘70s, would turn to the drug in his 50s.

Petty gave Zanes — a fellow musician whose band, the Del Fuegos, opened for Petty and the Heartbreakers – free rein in terms of writing the book, but did express concern that the disclosure of his addiction would be problematic.

“The first thing he said to me on the subject is ‘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,’” Zanes said in an interview with the Washington Post. “And I just had to work with him and say, ‘I think you’re going to come off as a cautionary tale rather than a romantic tale.’”

Zanes went on to explain that Petty, took up heroin as part of “the classic situation of midlife pinning a person down to the mat.”

Having grown up in a dysfunctional and abusive family, Petty coped with his past by keeping himself constantly busy “in the album cycle,” as Zanes puts it.

However, the demise of his 22-year marriage in 1996 triggered a downward spiral. Moving into a house by himself away from his family, Petty found himself in a rare slow period in which he could not escape his past demons nor control his current situation.

“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 Zanes.

Zanes also addresses the issue of Heartbreakers bassist Howie Epstein, who died in 2003 as a result of substance abuse. “The Heartbreakers sent Howie to rehab. They tried to help him,” he noted. “The Heartbreakers are hardly a case study in intolerance. They held on trying to keep that band together.”

In addition to the discussion of Petty’s addiction, Zanes’s biography offers revealing glimpses into the rocker’s milestones, including the birth of the Traveling Wilburys, Petty’s split with longtime drummer Stan Lynch, and more.