Dhani Harrison On Mourning Tom Petty
Dhani Harrison has a lot to say about Tom Petty in the wake of his passing on October 2.
Harrison and Petty became close friends via the former’s father, George Harrison, who played with Petty in the Traveling Wilburys.
Harrison — who just released a new solo album, In///Parallel — tells us that Petty’s death affected him deeply:
“It hasn’t hit me yet how much I’m gonna miss him…My heart’s broken…I haven’t felt an outpouring of grief and love like that since my father died. I haven’t seen anything affect people so much, so it’s tremendously sad and, yeah, it’s absolutely heartbreaking. He’s one of my best mates, y’know…We were all so close, and as families we hung out, the Harrisons and the Pettys. I’ve hung out with them. They’ve been my neighbors and my friends. They’re my family. It’s a huge loss.”
A private funeral service was held on Monday (October 16) for Petty in Los Angeles, and Harrison says he’s also been commiserating with others in Petty’s orbit since his death:
“I’ve spent a lot of time with the Heartbreakers in the last week. Even (drummer) Steve Ferrone came to support me the other night on Jimmy Kimmel…They’re my family and they’ve always really looked after me and ever since my father passed away and I spent a lot of time with Jeff (Lynne) this weekend. He came down to my record launch. We were gonna cancel everything ’cause we were all so sad and then we thought Tom would want us to go out and play loud and turn that s*** up and play hard and loud and can’t on with it. Don’t bore us, get to the chorus. So that’s what we did, and we just carried on. We’re just keeping on keeping on.”
Harrison starts a tour to support In///Parallel on November 8 in New York City.
Gary Graff is an award-winning music journalist who not only covers music but has written books on Bob Seger, Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen.
