Before his death on October 2, 2017, weeks before his 67th birthday, Tom Petty was already hinting at dialing back on going out on bigger tours. “We [the band] are all on the backside of our 60s,” said Petty in a 2016 interview. “I have a granddaughter now; I’d like to see [her] as much as I can. I don’t want to spend my life on the road. This tour will take me away for four months. With a little kid, that’s a lot of time.”
Armed with guitarist Mike Campbell, keyboardist Benmont Tench, drummer Steve Ferrone on drums, original Heartbreaker Ron Blair on bass, Scott Thurston on multiple instruments, and the Webb Sisters on backing vocals, Petty closed the band’s 40th-anniversary tour, plowing through what would be his final live performance at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on September 25, 2017, a week before his death.
Everything started where it all began for the band, the opening of their debut Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, “Rockin’ Around (With You),” and went into other Heartbreakers’ classics like “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” and Petty’s solo Wildflowers hit “You Don’t Know How it Feels,” one of eight pulled from Petty’s solo songbook throughout the night.
Throughout the evening, the band was on fire, specifically Petty who appeared to be more exuberant than usual, smiling and immersed in each song.
“Is Tom Petty drunk?” asked one fan in the crowd, according to a live review of the show by American Songwriter from 2017. Another audience member responded: “Drunk on rock and roll, dude.”
The band added the sole song pulled from their final album together, Hypnotic Man, with “Forgotten Man” before returning with a quartet of more Heartbreakers and solo hits—”I Won’t Back Down,” “Free Fallin’,” “Breakdown,” and “Don’t Come Around Here No More.”
Wildflowers resurfaced again with a triad of “It’s Good to Be King,” deeper cut “Crawling Back to You,” and the title track.
