you cant really blame the phonies because theres these beautiful houses on the hills of hollywood and mansions in beverly hills

not to mention beach pads in malibu

and fancy cars stuck in traffic alongside you.

and the phonies think that if they change who they are they will get the things that they want.

of course they are wrong. dead wrong. mostly wrong.

life is about living Your life, your truth, your path.

and if you get the house on the hill off that then great, you don’t have to change anything once you get it.

what the people in those houses won’t tell you is the turnover rate of those mcmansions are high

not because people be flipping them

but because fakers don’t belong there and the houses spit em right out.

tom petty died twice yesterday and he was no faker.

once he brought the Replacements on tour with him and they even jammed with he and the Heartbreakers from time to time.

the first time I saw Tom Petty was in the mid-80s. the Southern Accents tour.

i was renting a room from an old lady in Inglewood and I walked down to the show at the Forum.

for some reason i had an extra ticket and no one was buying so i placed my ticket down on the ground in the parking lot.

i dont think anyone took it.

next time i saw him was in 1989, also at the Forum, when the Replacements opened.

it was so surreal seeing them play in such a huge place, for them.

i dont remember a thing about Petty’s performance because i was so nuts for the Mats.

im sure i saw him again but the next time I am certain about was in january of 1997.

he played five nights at the legendary Fillmore in Frisco

only reason i know which show i went to was afterwards they were handing out Free posters and it was the night of the green mermaid.

again, no memories of the show other than the poster.

which i have carried around with me from apartment to apartment, lo these 20 years since.

about 10 years ago he played at the Hollywood Bowl and i didn’t have tickets so i brought $100 cash with me but everyone was selling tickets starting at $150

so i went home.

then a few years ago he played several nights at the smaller-than-the-Fillmore Henry Fonda Theater. my buddy Todd had a last minute extra ticket and he asked if i wanted to go, i said hell yeah

and that was the first time i ever took Uber cuz i had to get there fast and i didnt wanna park.

you may have remembered my little blog post about how we sat in the bar and listened through the door for a bunch of it because it sounded soooo good out there in the lobby because Petty had these arena sized amps and it filled the little club so well

probably the best sounding show ive ever been to.

the last time i saw him was just a few weeks ago at the Bowl.

i had heard that he was sick so i didnt sell my tickets.

we went. we laughed. we sang. and we got a little sad when glitches of something not so right appeared through his person.

in fact the whole time i felt like i was watching a time bomb slowly tick tick ticking.

so when they announced on twitter yesterday that he was rushed to the hospital i was all, whattya know, the person who told me was right about his illness.

and then last night he died and even though we were already sad about Vegas, i was doubly sad about Petty

a guy who was never a phony

who was always cool

who never tried to be anyone other than who he was: a chill lover of rock and all that has made up rock.

but i still cant believe he’s gone.