You belong in a boat out at sea
You belong among the wildflowers
You belong in a boat out at sea
Sail away, kill off the hours
You belong somewhere you feel free
– Wildflowers, Tom Petty
Once I met a bloke who lived on a boat named after a Tom Petty song.
His name was Paddy and hers was Wildflower and they must have made an impression because nine years later they are still in my life.
Wildflower the boat
Wildflowers – the song
Nine years later and the Captain and I were privileged enough to see the man himself in concert. We had no idea it would be our last opportunity.
I’d always quite liked Tom Petty, but he certainly played a bigger part in my life after I met Paddy. The first time he came over to my house I tried to impress him with a best of Tom Petty CD casually playing in the background (smoooooooth…)
He still gives me shit about that.
Petty for Paddy is like Bowie for me – a massive part of his life for most of his life. He has a Petty lyric for just about every situation. He’s dealing with the loss of his idol in a typical Kiwi bloke fashion, but I can tell he is hurting. We both are. We have so many memories wrapped up in TP. In the end even my cat (the late, great Mr Pies) was a fan.
The best of those memories was earlier this year when we actually got to see a Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers concert.
Paddy was turning 50 and our initial plan was to head to Hawaii – Hawaii Five-0 styles. Our plans changed pretty quickly though when I spotted on TP’s official Instagram that he was touring the United States at the same time we were going to be over there. My fuzzy American geography decided that our best bet was to detour via Texas, and so the adventure began.
When tickets went on sale I found myself at 4am mashing keys and refreshing my browser in a bid to secure our spot. I was mildly hungover after a few drinks to celebrate the end of the working year and all the usual things went wrong. The internet dropped out, my computer froze, the website got confused because I was in New Zealand trying to buy tickets for a concert in the United States.
But I got there in the end, waking Paddy up to crow about my success. (He muttered something unintelligible and went back to sleep.)
TP didn’t disappoint – the distance we traveled, the adventures to get there – the frisking Paddy got at the airport trying to leave Hawaii (a story for another day) were all worth it. The man still had it. It was an absolutely amazing concert and you could tell he was loving every minute of performing.
The crowd were loving it too – quite a bit judging by the funny smelling cloud of smoke that appeared over the stadium when he played Last Dance with Mary Jane.
It was amazing and we were both so freaking happy (and not because of the funny smelling smoke).
And to make the night even more perfect, out of all of his massive back catalogue, what did he play? Wildflowers.
Paddy probably won’t admit it, but it was quite an emotional moment.
Here’s my wonky recording – ignore the wobbles, the sound is good!
Paddy says losing Tom would have been so much worse if he had never got to see him play. It’s like the best thing and the worst thing happened in the same year. I’m so sad, but happy at the same time that I could help make this happen for him.
I’ll leave you with another favourite of Paddy’s from the 2010 Mojo album
I know that look that’s on your face
But there’s somethin’ lucky about this place
And there’s somethin’ good comin’
For you and me
Somethin’ good comin’
There has to be
– Something Good Coming – Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
