Fans everywhere Monday started posting memories and favorite songs of the singer, who has so many ties to Tulsa. In fact, the music histories of Tulsa and Tom Petty are intertwined.
When Petty was 26, he recorded his first album on the Shelter Records label. He also recorded a follow-up album while with Shelter Records.
Shelter Records was launched by Tulsa’s Leon Russell and English record producer Denny Cordell in 1969. Shelter Records had offices in Los Angeles and Tulsa. The Tulsa facility was the historic Church Studio.
“A lot of people used to think Petty was from Tulsa,” Tulsa rocker Dwight Twilley said in a 2010 interview. “It used to really bother him.”
Petty grew up in Florida and, pre-Heartbreakers, played with a band named Mudcrutch. Petty signed with Shelter Records after heading to L.A. in search of a record contract. Mudcrutch dissipated, but Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were born in the aftermath, and he spent time in Tulsa.
Before Petty became famous, he was a musician in Twilley’s band for a few gigs, according to a 2010 Tulsa World story. The story said Petty’s first national television appearance as a bass player came when he played with Twilley on a Saturday morning children’s comedy and variety show, “Wacko,” in the 1970s.
The aforementioned Twilley interview preceded a 2010 Petty concert at the BOK Center.
“This is our very first show in Tulsa, Oklahoma,” Petty said during the concert as the crowd responded with almost a minute of cheers. “I love it here!”
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