ShuenrokuAn archive of musicians' final live performances

Final in retrospectHollywood Bowl

Tom Petty's last concert: the Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, September 25, 2017

On September 25, 2017, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers played the last night of their 40th Anniversary Tour at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. The tour had opened in April and run to 53 shows, and it ended with three sold-out hometown nights at the Bowl. This was the third. The 18-song set opened with "Rockin' Around (With You)," a song from the band's first album, gathered a run of songs from Wildflowers, included "Breakdown," which was played only on this night of the three, and closed with "American Girl" as the encore. Before that last song, Petty thanked the crowd for "40 years of a really great time." Petty had said this might be his last big tour, but the show was not billed as a farewell, and he had no plans to stop playing. A week later, on October 2, he died at 66, and the night at the Bowl became his last concert.

By Shuenroku Editorial TeamPublished

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers performing on a stage with red lighting and a large video screen: a piano on the left, the drum kit and a guitarist with a red guitar in the center, and Tom Petty playing a white guitar at the microphone on the right
Reference photoTom Petty and the Heartbreakers performing in Berkeley, California, on the 40th Anniversary Tour in August 2017.Photo: Davidwbaker / CC BY-SA 4.0
Date [14][21][24][4]
VenueHollywood Bowl (Los Angeles)
Event40th Anniversary Tour [14][21]
All datesSeptember 21, 2017, September 22, 2017, September 25, 2017 [14][5]
CategoryFinal in retrospect
Why it endedDeath [1][4][24][22][13]
LineupTom Petty, Mike Campbell, Benmont Tench, Ron Blair, Steve Ferrone, Scott Thurston, The Webb Sisters [15][5][21]
Attendance UnverifiedNo attendance figure found. The venue has 17,500 seats (Hollywood Bowl), and all three nights sold out (UCR).[5][18]
Last song performed“American Girl” [14][24][15][3]
Songs performed18 songsSee the setlist ↓
Video release UnverifiedNo official video or audio of this show has been found (November 2026). A fan in the audience, Kim Roberts, filmed the encore, which TIME and others shared.[22][23]

About the artist

Thomas Earl Petty was born in Gainesville, Florida, on October 20, 1950.[1] At 10, an uncle took him to the set of the Elvis Presley film Follow That Dream, where he shook Elvis's hand; at 13, seeing the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show made him decide to start a band.[2] That band eventually became Mudcrutch, which split at the end of 1975, after which he moved to Los Angeles.[2] His partnership with the guitarist Mike Campbell, the closest musical collaborator of his life, began in Mudcrutch.[3]

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers released their first album in 1976, with "Breakdown" and, as its closing track, "American Girl."[4][2] It caught on first in Britain rather than at home; the band played Top of the Pops on June 16, 1977.[2] "Breakdown" became their first U.S. Top 40 hit.[5] Their third album, Damn the Torpedoes (1979), reached No. 2 and gave them "Refugee" and their first Top 10 single, "Don't Do Me Like That."[4]

The 1980s brought "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" with Stevie Nicks (1981) and "Don't Come Around Here No More" (1985), written with Dave Stewart of Eurythmics.[2] In March 1986 the band toured Japan with Bob Dylan, playing four shows at the Nippon Budokan, Osaka-jo Hall and Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium.[6] In 1988 Petty joined George Harrison, Dylan, Jeff Lynne and Roy Orbison in the Traveling Wilburys, whose first album won him his first Grammy.[4]

His first solo album, Full Moon Fever (1989), made with Jeff Lynne, reached No. 3 and included "Free Fallin'."[4][2] Wildflowers, made with the producer Rick Rubin and Campbell, came out on November 1, 1994,[7] and its song "You Don't Know How It Feels" brought him his first solo Grammy in 1995.[4] In 2002, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame by Jakob Dylan.[8]

Why this was the last show

The 40th Anniversary Tour was announced in December 2016. Talking to Rolling Stone, Petty said the tour, due to start in April 2017, might be "the last trip around the country," and added: "I'd be lying if I didn't say I was thinking this might be the last big one."[9] He had a granddaughter he wanted to see as much as he could, he said, and "we're all on the backside of our 60s." The band would very likely keep playing, but he doubted they would take on another tour of 50 shows.[9] Campbell shrugged it off, saying he had heard Petty say the same thing for ten years and that it would be a shame to stop at the peak of their abilities; Benmont Tench said Petty had never said it to him.[9]

In the same interview, Petty explained that a tour built around the songs of Wildflowers, an idea he had been weighing, had been pushed aside: "The 40th anniversary kind of got in the way of that," and it would have been wrong to focus a 40th-anniversary tour on one album. Once that tour was over, he said, it was not out of the question that he would put together a box set and take it on the road to theaters.[10]

The tour opened in Oklahoma City on April 20, 2017.[11] In July the band headlined British Summer Time in London's Hyde Park.[12] The day after a show at Red Rocks in Colorado, Petty sat down with Rolling Stone at a hotel in Denver. Asked whether this was the end of 50-show tours, he said, "It is," and added: "We'll probably, certainly cut back on doing this kind of tour, but to stop playing is unimaginable to me." He spoke of a "deep, brotherly love" within the Heartbreakers.[13]

The tour's last stop was the Hollywood Bowl, with three nights on September 21, 22 and 25. According to the band's official site, all three sold out, and the tour ended at home. In all it ran six months and 53 shows across 24 states and three countries, and played to more than a million fans.[14] (Best Classic Bands counts 56 concerts, including nine festival dates.[11])

Paul Zollo of American Songwriter, who reviewed the final night, wrote that Petty had suggested this might be the final tour and said he hoped it would not be. Petty had told him that playing, rather than vacationing or golfing, was what he loved to do best.[15] The show was not billed as a last concert; Petty expected to tour less, not to stop.[13]

A week after the show, on October 2, 2017, Tom Petty died at a hospital in Santa Monica, California, at 66.[1][4] In January 2018 the Los Angeles County coroner ruled his death an accidental drug overdose.[16][17] A statement from his family at the time said he had toured with a fractured hip, and that in the days before he died he had been extremely proud of finishing the biggest tour of his 40-plus-year career.[17][16]

What is known about the day

The Hollywood Bowl is an outdoor amphitheater that opened in 1922 and has 17,500 seats.[18] Its first stage was a wooden platform under a canvas top, and the Beatles first played there in August 1964.[19] September 25 was a Monday,[20] the last of three sold-out nights.[5] Lucinda Williams opened.[21]

The set began with "Rockin' Around (With You)," the first song Petty recorded for the band's 1976 debut album.[15][21] On stage with him were Mike Campbell on guitar, Benmont Tench on keyboards, Ron Blair on bass, Steve Ferrone on drums and Scott Thurston on guitar, keyboards, harmonica and more, along with the Webb Sisters, who had joined for this tour as harmony singers.[15] Campbell, Tench and Blair had been there since the beginning.[5] Blair had left the band and come back; Ferrone had been the drummer since 1994.[15]

To Zollo, the night felt "more like a party than a concert," and Petty seemed happier than ever, talking to the crowd with real gusto. He introduced Campbell as one of the great guitar heroes of any American rock band, and said Ferrone did things that drum machines can't do. Early in the set Tench took an organ solo that Zollo compared to a Jimi Hendrix guitar solo.[15]

The seventh song was the one slot that changed across the three nights: "Walls" on the 21st, "Into the Great Wide Open" on the 22nd, and "Breakdown" on this last night.[14] It was the 1977 song that had given the band its first Top 40 hit.[5] Next came "Don't Come Around Here No More," which Petty had made with Dave Stewart in 1985 using drum machines and synthesizers; here the band played it all the way through, with Ferrone echoing the record's drum pattern.[15]

The middle of the set gathered songs from Wildflowers: "It's Good to Be King," "Crawling Back to You," which Zollo singled out, and an acoustic "Wildflowers."[15] Counting the encore, five of the night's 18 songs came from that album.[7] After "Learning to Fly" and a few more, the main set closed with "Refugee" and "Runnin' Down a Dream."[14][11] Some of the biggest hits, among them "You Got Lucky," "Don't Do Me Like That" and "The Waiting," were not played.[15]

The encore opened with "You Wreck Me," a Wildflowers song written with Campbell; Petty had spent a year on it after its first title didn't feel right.[15]

Before the last song, Petty spoke to the crowd. As Best Classic Bands transcribed it, he thanked everyone for coming out, told them "We love you dearly," and added, "I want to thank you for 40 years of a really great time."[11] LAist and TIME also reported those words from the final night.[21][22] Then he said they were almost out of time, but had time for one more.[11][2]

That song was "American Girl," the closing track of the first album,[2] played with an extended instrumental coda.[23] A set that began with a song recorded for that first album ended with the song that closed it.

When it was over, Petty stayed on stage to talk to fans and signed a few autographs.[23][22] His parting words to the crowd were "God bless you! Goodnight!" A fan in the audience, Kim Roberts, filmed the encore.[22]

The recap on the band's official site begins at 1:22 a.m., as the last lighting, video and sound cases were being loaded out. It lists the crew, from twelve on lighting to eleven truck drivers and seven on sound, and ends with a thank-you to everyone who made the tour happen.[14]

What the show left behind

On October 3, after Petty's death, NME, TIME and The A.V. Club all ran the footage from the Bowl as his last song and his last show.[24][22][23] American Songwriter published Zollo's review that day, with an editor's note explaining that it had been written before Petty died.[15]

Bob Dylan told Rolling Stone that the news came as a painful shock and that he had held Tom in the highest regard. On October 21, at a show in Broomfield, Colorado, he played "Learning to Fly," the 1991 song, as an encore.[25] It had been in the set on the last night at the Bowl.[14]

His family and his band took over the work of sorting through what he left. An American Treasure, a box set released on September 28, 2018, was put together by his wife Dana, his daughter Adria, Campbell, Tench and the engineer Ryan Ulyate, and gathered unreleased songs, alternate takes and live recordings; its first single was "Keep A Little Soul," a song recorded in 1982 and never released.[26] A two-disc edition came out in Japan on October 24 through Warner Music Japan.[27]

His hometown remembered him too. In 2018 the city of Gainesville renamed Northeast Park, in the neighborhood where he grew up, Tom Petty Park.[28] The dedication was set for October 20, his birthday.[29][1] In 2024 a historical marker honoring him was added to the park.[28]

On October 16, 2020, Wildflowers & All The Rest was released. Petty, Rubin and Campbell had originally finished Wildflowers as a 25-song double album nearly two hours long, but on the label's advice it came out in 1994 as a single disc of 15 songs. The new set added the ten songs left off and five unreleased ones; the deluxe edition also included 14 live recordings from tours between 1995 and 2017. It was curated by his daughters Adria and Annakim, his wife Dana, Campbell and Tench, and produced by Ulyate.[7] The Wildflowers project that Petty said in 2016 had been pushed aside by the 40th anniversary[10] was finished by his family and his band.

In Japan, a 50th-anniversary box set, Origins 1971–1978 (four CDs, a Blu-ray and a DVD), and No Sleep 'Til L.A., a collection of early recordings, are due on November 6, 2026. On November 9 a cinema in Shinjuku, Tokyo, will hold a Dolby Atmos playback of the box, with replicas of a flyer from one of the band's Japan tours handed out to those attending.[30]

And on September 16, 2026, at the 25th Americana Honors & Awards at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Campbell, Tench, Blair and the drummer Stan Lynch, who had left in 1994, took the stage together as the Heartbreakers. Guitar Player reported that it was the first time they had played as the Heartbreakers since 2017. With Chris Stapleton they played "American Girl" and "Breakdown," and Ferrone and Thurston joined them for "You Wreck Me."[3] All three had been played on the last night at the Bowl.[14]

In that article Campbell recalled that "American Girl" was the last song he and Petty played together, and one of the first songs they ever played together. He has no sad attachment to it, he said; it is "too much of an optimistic burst of joy."[3]

The song that closed the last night was played again nine years later, by the band he left behind.

Setlist

18 songs [14][11][15][24]
1. Rockin' Around (With You)2. Mary Jane's Last Dance3. You Don't Know How It Feels4. Forgotten Man5. I Won't Back Down6. Free Fallin'7. Breakdown8. Don't Come Around Here No More9. It's Good to Be King10. Crawling Back to You11. Wildflowers12. Learning to Fly13. Yer So Bad14. I Should Have Known It15. Refugee16. Runnin' Down a Dream17. You Wreck Me18. American Girl

Main set Encore Last song

  1. Rockin' Around (With You) · opener; the first song Petty recorded for the 1976 debut album (American Songwriter; LAist). Opened all three nights (official site)
  2. Mary Jane's Last Dance
  3. You Don't Know How It Feels · from Wildflowers; won a Grammy in 1995 (NPR)
  4. Forgotten Man
  5. I Won't Back Down
  6. Free Fallin'
  7. Breakdown · the one slot that changed across the three Bowl nights: "Breakdown" on this night ("Walls" on the 21st, "Into the Great Wide Open" on the 22nd; official site). American Songwriter's review mentions "Walls"; the official setlist is followed here
  8. Don't Come Around Here No More
  9. It's Good to Be King · from Wildflowers
  10. Crawling Back to You · from Wildflowers
  11. Wildflowers · acoustic (American Songwriter)
  12. Learning to Fly
  13. Yer So Bad
  14. I Should Have Known It
  15. Refugee
  16. Runnin' Down a Dream · last song of the main set (Best Classic Bands)
  17. EncoreYou Wreck Me · encore; co-written with Mike Campbell, from Wildflowers (American Songwriter)
  18. American Girl · the last song performed; the closing track of the debut album (NME), played with an extended instrumental coda (The A.V. Club)

Another final curtain

More nights that no one knew would be the last.

TimelineCareer span, final show and later events, limited to what sources confirm.
19801990200020102020October 2, 2017 Dies at a hospital in Santa Monica, California, at 66.October 21, 2017 Bob Dylan plays "Learning to Fly" as an encore in Broomfield, Colorado, in tribute.January 2018 The Los Angeles County coroner rules his death an accidental drug overdose; his family says he had toured with a fractured hip.September 28, 2018 The box set An American Treasure, curated by his family, Campbell, Tench and Ryan Ulyate, is released (the Japanese edition follows on October 24).October 20, 2018 Northeast Park in his hometown of Gainesville is renamed Tom Petty Park, with a dedication set for his birthday.October 16, 2020 Wildflowers & All The Rest, realizing the album's original double-length plan, is released.September 16, 2026 At the 25th Americana Honors & Awards in Nashville, Campbell, Tench, Blair and Stan Lynch play as the Heartbreakers with Chris Stapleton; Ferrone and Thurston join them for "You Wreck Me."November 6, 2026 In Japan, the 50th-anniversary box set Origins 1971–1978 and No Sleep 'Til L.A. are due (as of November 2, 2026).September 25, 2017198020002020October 2, 2017 Dies at a hospital in Santa Monica, California, at 66.October 21, 2017 Bob Dylan plays "Learning to Fly" as an encore in Broomfield, Colorado, in tribute.January 2018 The Los Angeles County coroner rules his death an accidental drug overdose; his family says he had toured with a fractured hip.September 28, 2018 The box set An American Treasure, curated by his family, Campbell, Tench and Ryan Ulyate, is released (the Japanese edition follows on October 24).October 20, 2018 Northeast Park in his hometown of Gainesville is renamed Tom Petty Park, with a dedication set for his birthday.October 16, 2020 Wildflowers & All The Rest, realizing the album's original double-length plan, is released.September 16, 2026 At the 25th Americana Honors & Awards in Nashville, Campbell, Tench, Blair and Stan Lynch play as the Heartbreakers with Chris Stapleton; Ferrone and Thurston join them for "You Wreck Me."November 6, 2026 In Japan, the 50th-anniversary box set Origins 1971–1978 and No Sleep 'Til L.A. are due (as of November 2, 2026).September 25, 2017
  1. Active years (1976 – September 25, 2017)
  2. Final show
  3. Dies at a hospital in Santa Monica, California, at 66.
  4. Bob Dylan plays "Learning to Fly" as an encore in Broomfield, Colorado, in tribute.
  5. The Los Angeles County coroner rules his death an accidental drug overdose; his family says he had toured with a fractured hip.1 year later
  6. The box set An American Treasure, curated by his family, Campbell, Tench and Ryan Ulyate, is released (the Japanese edition follows on October 24).1 year later
  7. Northeast Park in his hometown of Gainesville is renamed Tom Petty Park, with a dedication set for his birthday.1 year later
  8. Wildflowers & All The Rest, realizing the album's original double-length plan, is released.3 years later
  9. At the 25th Americana Honors & Awards in Nashville, Campbell, Tench, Blair and Stan Lynch play as the Heartbreakers with Chris Stapleton; Ferrone and Thurston join them for "You Wreck Me."9 years later
  10. In Japan, the 50th-anniversary box set Origins 1971–1978 and No Sleep 'Til L.A. are due (as of November 2, 2026).9 years later

We may earn a commission if you buy through these links. Details

These are not recordings of this show, but releases mentioned in the article and key works by the artist.

  • アメリカン・トレジャー（An American Treasure）

    アメリカン・トレジャー（An American Treasure）

    CD · Released October 24, 2018 · Cat. no. WPCR-18119/20

    The two-disc Japanese edition of An American Treasure (2018), the box set curated by his family and bandmates, mentioned in the article. It does not include this show.

    Amazon.com楽天市場

  • Wildflowers

    CD

    The 1994 album with songs played at this show (import).

    Amazon.comAmazon.co.jp楽天市場

  • フル・ムーン・フィーヴァー（Full Moon Fever）

    フル・ムーン・フィーヴァー（Full Moon Fever）

    CD · Released June 22, 2016 · Cat. no. UICY-25706

    His 1989 first solo album, which reached No. 3 in the US, mentioned in the article.

    Amazon.comAmazon.co.jp楽天市場

Supported by Rakuten Developers

Sources

32 sources
  1. Tom Petty | Biography, Songs, & Facts — Encyclopaedia Britannica (accessed 2026-11-02)
  2. The Tom Petty NME obituary: 1950 – 2017 — NME (Kevin EG Perry), October 3, 2017 (accessed 2026-11-02)
  3. Nearly a decade after Tom Petty's death, the Heartbreakers reunite: "There was a deep love that kept us together" — Guitar Player (Joe Bosso), September 17, 2026 (accessed 2026-11-02)
  4. Rock Star Tom Petty Dies At 66 — NPR, October 3, 2017 (accessed 2026-11-02)
  5. The Day George Harrison Played His Final Full-Length Concert — Ultimate Classic Rock (Jeff Giles), April 7, 2017 (accessed 2026-11-08)
  6. ボブ・ディランの来日公演歴 — ソニーミュージック, April 27, 2016 (accessed 2026-11-02)
  7. Tom Petty's 'Wildflowers & All The Rest' to Be Released October 16 — BroadwayWorld, August 20, 2020 (accessed 2026-11-02)
  8. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers — Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (accessed 2026-11-02)
  9. Tom Petty Says His Next Tour May Be the 'Last Big One' — Ultimate Classic Rock (Dave Lifton), December 10, 2016 (accessed 2026-11-02)
  10. Tom Petty Still Interested In 'Wildflowers' Tour Despite 40th Anniversary Tour Announcement — JamBase (Scott Bernstein), December 9, 2016 (accessed 2026-11-02)
  11. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers' Final Concert — Best Classic Bands (accessed 2026-11-02)
  12. Family of Tom Petty confirm his death — Louder (Scott Munro), October 3, 2017 (accessed 2026-11-02)
  13. Tom Petty's Last Rolling Stone Interview — Rolling Stone (republished on Pocket), October 5, 2017 (accessed 2026-11-02)
  14. Hollywood Bowl — tompetty.com, September 2017 (accessed 2026-11-02)
  15. Live Review: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' Last Show at the Hollywood Bowl — American Songwriter (Paul Zollo), October 3, 2017 (accessed 2026-11-02)
  16. Rock legend Tom Petty died of accidental drug overdose, LA County coroner says — ABC7 Los Angeles, January 20, 2018 (accessed 2026-11-02)
  17. Tom Petty's family confirm his cause of death — NME (Sam Moore), January 20, 2018 (accessed 2026-11-02)
  18. Our Venues — Hollywood Bowl (accessed 2026-11-02)
  19. Hollywood Bowl History — Hollywood Bowl (accessed 2026-11-02)
  20. Watch "Free Fallin'" and "American Girl" from Tom Petty's Final Show — Guitar Player (Damian Fanelli), October 20, 2020 (accessed 2026-11-02)
  21. Looking Back At Tom Petty's Final Shows At The Hollywood Bowl — LAist (Emma Specter), October 2, 2017 (accessed 2026-11-02)
  22. Watch the Final Moments of Tom Petty's Last Ever Live Show — TIME (Billy Perrigo), October 3, 2017 (accessed 2026-11-02)
  23. Here's Tom Petty closing out his very last concert with "American Girl" — The A.V. Club (Randall Colburn), October 3, 2017 (accessed 2026-11-02)
  24. Watch the last song and gig that Tom Petty ever played — NME (Andrew Trendell), October 3, 2017 (accessed 2026-11-02)
  25. ボブ・ディラン、故トム・ペティのカヴァーを披露 — Billboard JAPAN, October 23, 2017 (accessed 2026-11-02)
  26. Tom Petty Box Set To Feature 63 Unreleased Recordings — GRAMMY.com (Philip Merrill), July 12, 2018 (accessed 2026-11-02)
  27. アメリカン・トレジャー / An American Treasure — ワーナーミュージック・ジャパン (accessed 2026-11-02)
  28. Tom Petty Park — City of Gainesville (accessed 2026-11-02)
  29. Tom Petty Park Dedication October 20, 2018 — tompetty.com, 2018 (accessed 2026-11-02)
  30. トム・ペティ＆ザ・ハートブレイカーズ、デビュー50周年記念ドルビーアトモス試聴会が開催 — Billboard JAPAN, October 30, 2026 (accessed 2026-11-02)
  31. Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, USA — LatLong.net (accessed 2026-11-02)
  32. WPCR-18119 の検索結果 — 楽天市場 (accessed 2026-11-02)

Revision history

  • Page created