Tom Petty Suffers Cardiac Arrest at Age 66

Musician Tom Petty appeared to have suffered a full cardiac arrest at his home in California on Monday afternoon, and many media outlets announced that he had died. Later in the afternoon, the reports were clarified to point out that Petty had been removed from life support but was still alive at 5:00 p.m. Eastern time. Petty is a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, and his songs have been a part of many film soundtracks, including those of The Silence of the Lambs and Jerry Maguire.


Via Huffington Post.

UPDATE: 5:00 p.m. ET ― Multiple outlets have cited sources claiming that Tom Petty has died. TMZ has updated its story to state that Petty has been taken off life support on a do not resuscitate order but has not yet died. A rep for the LAPD declined to confirm his death to HuffPost and said information on the singer “was inadvertently provided to some media sources” in a tweet.

PREVIOUSLY: 

Tom Petty, lead singer of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, has died after being found unconscious in his home, the Los Angeles Police Department confirmed to CBS News. He was 66.

HuffPost has reached out to Petty’s reps for comment.

Petty was rushed to the UCLA Medical Center at Santa Monica while in “full cardiac arrest” on Sunday night, and reportedly taken off life support when he was found to have “no brain activity,” according to TMZ.

Petty’s music career kicked off in 1976 with his band’s self-titled first album, which included the Top 40 hit “Breakdown.” Over the following decades, the band turned out over a dozen studio albums and a steady string of hits that included “Don’t Do Me Like That,” “Refugee,” “Free Fallin’” and “American Girl.” Petty kept busy by also recording with the rock group Mudcrutch and the Traveling Wilburys, a folk-rock supergroup featuring Bob Dylan, George Harrison and others.

The Heartbreakers have continued to perform with few changes to the band’s original lineup, marking the 40th anniversary of their debut record last year. Their anniversary tour kicked off in April, but in an interview with Rolling Stone, Petty called it the group’s “last big one.”

Get the rest of the story at Huffington Post.


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