ROCK & ROLL HEALTH CHICK


by Electra Posada As I sit here numb, in shock and heart-


broken, at the news of Tom Petty’s death, I feel an urgent need to shout from the rooftops, STOP WHAT YOU ‘RE DOING AND TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF! A monumental musical hero, gone! No cancer, no public awareness of heart disease or any other dis- ease. Just like that, he’s gone! How long not getting oxygen to his brain before he was found? Could he have been saved if someone had been there? Did he know he had a prob- lem? Did anyone else know he had a prob- lem? Was he doing the right things? Did his drug use back in the day do permanent dam- age? There is a rumor here in Gainesville that Tom was touring with a broken hip and that a blood clot might have broken loose and caused his heart attack. Don’t take chances! Your body needs your help! Rest when needed! My mind won’t stop questioning. And


as usual, I ask myself, could I have helped him?


have spent nearly half of my life in Gainesville, Florida, off and on. You cannot


live here and not know about Tom Petty. And it would really be hard not to love him. My mom saw him play at the UF campus Hal- loween party with Mudcrutch around ‘71. She was new in town, before the rest of the family made our way here. My husband bought ukulele strings and picks from him as a kid around ‘67, when Tom worked at the infa- mous Lipham’s Music Store. Growing up, my husband played guitar and had struggles sim- ilar to Tom’s. He saw Tom as a fellow


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