"Petty: The Biography" is the topic of a new class this coming fall at the University of Florida.
Tom Petty fans at the University of Florida are about to hit the books.
Just one book, actually, a biography of the late musician. The book, "Petty: The Biography," by Warren Zanes, is the topic of a new class this fall.
Journalism professor Clay Calvert will be teaching the class, also called “Petty: The Biography.” He said because of Petty’s death in October and his start in Gainesville, students would be interested in reading his biography.
“There are probably a lot of students who aren’t familiar with him or his music,” Calvert said.
Petty was born and raised in Gainesville, and his band the Epics turned into Mudcrutch. Later, with the Heartbreakers, Petty returned to Gainesville more than once to perform at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center.
The class is part of the honors program’s "(un)common reads," one-credit classes in which students discuss a particular book.
Calvert said the biography covers Petty’s highs and lows, including heroin use and divorce, as well as local music history.
“This book, it’s really a warts-and-all kind of biography of Tom Petty,” Calvert said. He said it’s not a “sugar-coated and glossy and sweet and sappy” look at the musician’s life.
“You keep fighting through it,” Calvert added. “He certainly had a passion and desire to achieve and to do well.”
The book details how Petty rose from a Gainesville knockabout to a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, which Calvert said can be related to any field.
“This really shows that (success) takes a lot of work,” Calvert said. “There’s a lot of hard work, effort and drive behind that.”
Only students in the honors program are eligible for the class, which will meet once a week. Students will read a chapter or two of Zanes’ book each week and discuss what they thought was most interesting or important. They’ll also analyze some of Petty’s lyrics.
The class will likely also take trips to “find sprinkles of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers that still exist in Gainesville,” Calvert said, including the Tench Building, named for Benmont Tench’s father. Tench, a keyboardist, was a founding member of the Heartbreakers.
The class will have room for 15 students, Calvert said. He usually teaches mass communication law classes, including a lecture with more than 200 students.
“It’s teaching out of my basic wheelhouse,” he said.
Calvert said he’s expecting students who liked Petty or whose parents liked Petty to join the class, as well as those who are just curious.
“Right now, given the amount of attention paid to him, I think students are interested in who he is,” he said.