My Morning with Tom Petty
Years ago, in what seems now like another lifetime, I met
Tom Petty. I did not know who he was at the time. I was not, let’s say, a big
fan of his music. I was much younger, a bit wild and just trying to live life
to the fullest. I had a week down in the Miami area with a few friends. I’d
spent my entire day on the beach letting the sun kiss my skin in ways that
would make me cringe about now. That night I hit a few clubs with my friends.
We spent the wee hours of the night and morning drinking, dancing, and
flirting. Right before the sun came up, my friends decided to go back to the
room. They’d drank much more than I had and they were wasted and ready to pass
out. I was, as usual, feeling restless and unsettled. I didn’t want to go back
to the room so I made my way down to the beach. I sat there alone, on South
Beach and watched the sun come up. I remember feeling it warm my shoulders. At
some point I decided I was in need of a drink; maybe something to eat. So I
walked across the street where my hotel was. The bottom floor had a bar that
served food, with a street side door. It was early and I wondered if it would
even be open. But I pulled the door and when it opened I stepped inside.
There was one man sitting at the bar. The rest of the place
was eerily empty. Before I could get inside a lady poked her head out of the
kitchen area and said “We don’t open for another hour”. I started to turn and
leave, but the man at the bar said to her “it’s okay hon, she’s with me”. The
lady nodded and I continued into the bar. The man motioned for me to join him.
When I sat he asked me if I was 21 yet. I told him yes by a few years. So he
offered me a mimosa and I readily accepted. He looked strangely familiar, like
he was someone I should know; but I couldn’t place him. I couldn’t put a name
with the face. He was dressed strangely for the beach area. He wore a pair of
jeans that looked like he might have bought them a decade back and worn them
every single day. He had on a plain white t-shirt and a black hat. He was barefoot.
Hardly anyone wore jeans in South Beach, so that alone was strange. But I sat
and had the mimosa with him and we talked like two old friends. He asked about
my trip to the beach and I told him what I’d been up to. I told him where I was
from, and what I was doing with my life.
At one point I asked him what he did for a living. He looked
at me for a long moment and then replied “Well, mostly I guess I just bum
around the country picking a guitar and singing for people wherever they let
me”. (Note that I still did not know this man was a famous singer, much less
Tom Petty.) I asked him if he was any good at it. Yes. I Know! Looking back
later, it was such an incredulous question to ask of such a highly skilled
entertainer. But I didn’t know that at the time. So yes, I asked him if he were
any good. He actually thought about it a moment before saying “I play a pretty
mean guitar but my singing? Well I’m not sure I’m a very good singer at all…but
some people say I am”. I then told him that maybe he wasn’t giving himself
enough credit. (Oh to go back and smack myself over these stupid statements I
made that morning!)
While we talked, he poured us another drink. The kitchen
lady came back out and told us that the kitchen was ready and asked what we
wanted to eat. The strange man sitting beside me looked me right in the eyes
and asked “Would you like to go outside and have breakfast with me”? I told him
that I would love to do that. So he ordered us a plate of Eggs Benedict and
told the lady to bring it outside when ready. We walked out the door and sat at
a cafe table. We sat there quietly and watched the ocean. A few people were out
jogging. Many birds were flying and diving into the water. It was so peaceful
just in that moment. We talked a little more and then we ate our breakfast. He
told me about his different guitars and why he liked this one or that. Most of
it was senseless to me because I knew nothing about guitars at the time. I
still know virtually nothing about guitars.
After we ate he looked over at me and asked “You wanta walk
down there and put our feet in the water”? Again, I agreed and we walked across
to the beach. We walked up and down that beach for about a half hour, talking
the entire time about everything and nothing. He asked me at one point “Do you
ever just feel tired? Like just tired of life in general….tired of living”? I
said no. I told him “I don’t feel tired of living. But yes, life often makes me
tired. I get tired of the way I am always unsettled, always seeking something
that I’m not even sure exists…”. He stopped walking and looked me right in the
eyes. He said “maybe that’s just it. Maybe that’s what makes us so tired of
life. Maybe we are just meant to search and search for something that we will
never have”. I told him that sounded sad to me.
We were quiet then for the rest of our walk.
When we’d walked back to the place we started he asked if he
could show me something. I said yes and he asked me if I could wait right
there. I remember saying then “you haven’t even told me your name”. And he said
“oh sorry, I’m Tom”. He promised he would be right back. So I said “Well then
Tom, yes I will wait right here”. He walked back across to the bar where I’d
met him and disappeared inside. I sat down in the sand wondering what I was doing.
I’d spent my entire morning with this strange man. I was sure my mother would
scold me for my behavior if she’d known! When he returned he was carrying a
beat up, hard guitar case over his shoulder, and two big cups. He handed the
cups to me. Mimosas! He sat down across from me on the sand and pulled out his
guitar. We used the hard case as a table for our drinks. He then started tuning
and strumming the guitar. While he did this he said “you know, in another life
I think I could fall in love with you…or a girl like you” and I smiled,
thinking not in a million years. He was much older than me I thought, and he
was not handsome in any way. But he seemed like a good soul and I was flattered
by his comment. I asked “are you going to sing me a song”? He told me that he
was most definitely going to play me a song. Then I asked him if I could pick
the song. (Yes, I was very young and stupid.) He laughed heartily and said “I
thought I’d play you one of mine if that’s okay”. I shook my head and sat
quietly watching the waves hit the shore while he tuned is guitar.
When he started playing the song I was mesmerized by the
guitar. He was not a hack. He was quite obviously an expert at guitar playing.
It wasn’t until he started singing that I realized what song he was doing. He
sat there in the sand signing “learning to fly” and it was then that I realized
who he was. I gasped when this realization hit me. He saw it the moment I
figured it out but he never skipped a beat. He continued his song and then went
right into “American girl”. Granted, I was not a big Tom Petty fan. But
everyone knew these songs. Everyone. I sat there staring at him singing just
basking in the sun and in the realization that Tom-freaking-Petty was singing
songs just for me! Looking at him then, it was obvious WHO he was and I was a
bit ashamed of myself for not figuring it out from the start. I mean, you’re
never really prepared to run into a major rock star over breakfast, ya know? I
knew right then that I had a great story to share with my friends later. I also
knew they would all be extremely jealous!
When he stopped singing I said “why didn’t you tell me who
you were”? He laughed again before saying “I’ve enjoyed spending the morning
with you while you didn’t know who I was. Fame is a crazy thing. It’s nice to
be able to shrug it off for a while”. I thanked him for the songs and then he
said he really had to go. People, it seems, were probably waiting for him or
looking for him. He packed up his guitar, drank the rest of his mimosa in one
big gulp and stood up. He hugged me and kissed me on the cheek before he left.
I stood there watching him go, wondering if I should start being a Tom Petty
fan.
The truth is, I’ve never really become a huge fan of his
music. There are several songs he’s done that I really do love. But I’ve never
taken to his voice in the way I have other singers. At the same time, I’ve been
a fan of Tom Petty the person, ever since that morning. He was the kind of
person you imagine when you hear the term “old soul”. He was kind and friendly
and gracious. He was extremely down to earth and talkative, even to a strange
girl he met at a beachside bar. Another truth here is that later that day I
thought I was dying. Apparently the eggs benedict we had that morning gave me a
horrible case of salmonella poisoning. I had to actually visit an ER at South
Beach late that evening. I have wondered all these years if Tom also got sick
from our breakfast together. I spent the next three days of my beach vacation
locked in my hotel room, sick and in bed. But you know, it was totally worth
it. I’ve told this story to many, many people over the years. Some of them
probably didn’t even believe me. Some of them probably think I made the whole
thing up. My friends who were with me that week in South Beach were about 50/50
on whether they believed it was really Tom Petty. One of them thought maybe I’d
just met a look alike or an impersonator. But I know the truth of that morning.
I’ve thought of him so fondly over the years and I’ve given all of his music a
chance. Only a few of those songs touched me. But every time I hear American Girl or Learning to Fly it takes me back to that morning on the beach. In
that moment I was so at peace; I felt so settled and calm while he was signing.
So, that’s my story of meeting and having breakfast with Tom
Petty. I ended up with some pretty great memories and a pretty bad case of
salmonella! But you gotta take the good with the bad in this life. RIP Tom, my
old friend. You’ll be sadly missed by so many. I’ll have this one memory of you
though, forever.
~Kymber
