--- title: Taylor Swift Says Tom Petty Made Her Want to Play Guitar description: Following Tom Petty's death, Taylor Swift shared how the iconic musician inspired her to learn how to play a guitar. canonical: https://time.com/4970525/taylor-swift-on-tom-petty/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-10-05T15:00:54.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-08T09:55:37.462Z og:title: Taylor Swift Reveals How Tom Petty Inspired Her Music og:description: "To me, Tom Petty represented a kind of songwriting I idolized" og:url: https://time.com/4970525/taylor-swift-on-tom-petty/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6beb75581cccb507/6988e0a5929fad7c96bedf4d/taylor-swift-tom-petty.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: Taylor Swift F1 USGP Austin, Texas og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Taylor Swift Reveals How Tom Petty Inspired Her Music twitter:description: "To me, Tom Petty represented a kind of songwriting I idolized" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6beb75581cccb507/6988e0a5929fad7c96bedf4d/taylor-swift-tom-petty.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Taylor Swift Remembers How Tom Petty Inspired Her Music > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=78f43682-74f3-4653-8fc0-aafd54f6c7b8&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Rock Superstar Tom Petty Has Died Aged 66 [Watch (HLS stream): Rock Superstar Tom Petty Has Died Aged 66](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/j2f1eEYo.m3u8) (0:59)  _Published 2017-10-03. Tom Petty, an old-fashioned rock superstar and everyman who drew upon the Byrds, the Beatles and other bands he worshipped as a boy and produced new classics such as "Free Fallin,' "Refugee" and "American Girl," has died._  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Oct 5, 2017 3:00 PM UTC  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Oct 5, 2017 3:00 PM UTC [Tom Petty](http://time.com/4965958/best-tom-petty-songs/)‘s legacy as a musician has been keenly felt in the days following [his unexpected death on Monday](http://time.com/4968182/tom-petty-tribute/), with many artists coming forward to pay homage to the musical icon, including country star-turned-pop princess [Taylor Swift](http://time.com/4944028/taylor-swift-reputation-album-theories/). In an interview with [_Rolling Stone_](http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/taylor-swift-on-tom-petty-he-had-songwriting-i-idolized-w507200), Swift shared that Petty’s skills as a songwriter and a guitarist inspired her to pick up a guitar and provided her with a blueprint for how to write songs. “To me, Tom Petty represented a kind of songwriting I idolized: complex simplicity,” she said. “It said so much in the lyrics, the concepts, the stories, the message, the nuances…but always brought you back to a hook that got stuck in everyone’s head. He motivated thousands of guitarists to learn to play just because they wanted to be able to play ‘Free Fallin’.’ Count me as one of them.” This isn’t the first time that Swift has shown admiration for Petty; in 2009, Swift recorded a cover of Petty’s “American Girl” while on her _Fearless_ tour. ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4970525/taylor-swift-on-tom-petty/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4970525/taylor-swift-on-tom-petty/"},"headline":"Taylor Swift Remembers How Tom Petty Inspired Her Music","datePublished":"2017-10-05T15:00:54.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-08T09:55:37.462Z","description":"\"To me, Tom Petty represented a kind of songwriting I idolized\"","url":"https://time.com/4970525/taylor-swift-on-tom-petty/","keywords":["Newsfeed","celebrities","Music","viral","Taylor Swift","tom petty"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6beb75581cccb507/6988e0a5929fad7c96bedf4d/taylor-swift-tom-petty.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6beb75581cccb507/6988e0a5929fad7c96bedf4d/taylor-swift-tom-petty.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Taylor Swift F1 USGP Austin, Texas","caption":"Taylor Swift F1 USGP Austin, Texas","creditText":"John Shearer/LP5—Getty Images for TAS","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4970525/taylor-swift-on-tom-petty/","name":"Taylor Swift Remembers How Tom Petty Inspired Her Music"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Rock Superstar Tom Petty Has Died Aged 66","description":"Tom Petty, an old-fashioned rock superstar and everyman who drew upon the Byrds, the Beatles and other bands he worshipped as a boy and produced new classics such as \"Free Fallin,' \"Refugee\" and \"American Girl,\" has died.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/j2f1eEYo/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-10-03T05:08:37.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/j2f1eEYo.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4970525/taylor-swift-on-tom-petty/","duration":"PT59S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4970525/taylor-swift-on-tom-petty/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```