Update: Tom Petty is dead at 66; passing confirmed by family spokesperson

Kevin Bronson on October 2nd, 2017

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Tom Petty at June's Arroyo Seco Weekend (Photo by Samantha Saturday)

* Updated, 10 p.m.

Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Tom Petty is dead at age 66 after going into cardiac arrest at his Malibu home morning.

After a day during which multiple media outlets reported his death and then retracted those reports, his passing was confirmed in a statement issued on behalf of Petty’s family by by Tony Dimitriades, the longtime manager of Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers:

“On behalf of the Tom Petty family we are devastated to announce the untimely death of our father, husband, brother, leader and friend Tom Petty. He suffered cardiac arrest at his home in Malibu in the early hours of this morning and was taken to UCLA Medical Center but could not be revived. He died peacefully at 8:40 p.m. surrounded by family, his bandmates and friends.”

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers wound up their 40th anniversary tour — which included more than 50 shows across North America — only last Monday at the Hollywood Bowl. The Bowl shows earned praise from the Los Angeles Times as “the most invigorated almost-original-lineup classic rock act touring today” doing a “flawless collection of hits from one of the great writers of rock, backed by a band with a near-telepathic relationship to its singer.”

Petty, a Florida native whose indelible songs fused the sound of California with Southern rock, helmed the Heartbreakers for 13 albums over almost four decades, in addition to releasing three solo albums and two with Mudcrutch, his original Floridian ensemble. He was also part of the legendary supergroup the Traveling Wilburys with Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne and Roy Orbison. Petty was elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.

“It’s shocking, crushing news,” Bob Dylan told the Times. “I thought the world of Tom. He was great performer, full of the light, a friend, and I’ll never forget him.”