The one book that saw Tom Petty mocked by his family

Reading and rocking — many would say that they’re two very different things. In the history of rock music, defying authority and education has been a common theme. “We don’t need no education,” Pink Floyd has a choir of kids chanting. “School’s been blown to pieces,” Alice Cooper declared. In the world of rock and roll, the teacher is the enemy, so when Tom Petty ordered a book to help with his musical dreams, his family mocked him to no end.

In culture, the guitar and the book have always existed on two opposite ends of the spectrum. Rock music often sings about school, students, teachers and books as the realm of the enemy or the image of the squares and losers. But in reality, literature especially has always intersected with music. In fact, without it, some of history’s best bands and songs wouldn’t exist.

Without an influential poetry professor, Lou Reed would never have started The Velvet Underground. Without the impact of Arthur Rimbaud or the Beat Generation, Patti Smith would never have got on stage. The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, The Rolling Stones; all the greats turned to books for inspiration. So, while rock has always been quick to mock the academic world, it would be nothing without it.

That’s the argument Tom Petty should have put forward when his family mocked him for ordering a book to support his rock and roll dreams. As a young boy in the late 1950s and early ‘60s, Petty was, like so many others, obsessed with Elvis Presley. He was trying to gather as much information on the musician as possible to see how he made his career happen, but the magazines he could access only had so much knowledge. So, he sent out for more specialist intel.

“I sent a buck to England for this book, The Elvis Presley Handbook, much to the ridicule of my family for wasting a dollar,” he recalled in the 2012 book Conversations With Tom Petty. The younger dreamer thought that maybe this more in-depth look at the American icon would help provide him with a kind of blueprint or a clearer path he could follow to achieve his own musical aspirations.

“It took months to come, but the day it came was like Christmas,” he added, remembering how overjoyed he was to finally receive the book despite his family’s teasing. While they mocked him for being studious rather than leading with the stereotypical rock and roll spirit, Petty credited the book for having a real impact on his future career.

“Learning all of those Elvis songs and having that kind of background in rock ‘n’ roll of where it had come from has served me to this day,” he said, proving to his parents that the money spent wasn’t money wasted as it certainly came back to him with his own bestselling tracks. But maybe without this rock and roll bible in the form of an Elvis biography, none of that would have happened. As Petty said, “It became an invaluable thing to have. So for that, I thank him.”

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