The Surviving Heartbreakers Of Tom Petty And Where They Are Now

Ever wonder what happened to the surviving members of the Heartbreakers after Tom Petty‘s passing in 2017? It was a very sad year for the band as Petty died after an accidental overdose of painkillers just a week after their 40th-anniversary tour ended.

Prior to his death, Petty told the Los Angeles Times in 2017:

“The thing about the Heartbreakers is it’s still holy to me.

“There’s a holiness there. If that were to go away, I don’t think I would be interested in it, and I don’t think [the band] would. We’re a real rock ’n’ roll band — always have been. And to us, in the era we came up in, it was a religion in a way. (https://taylorsmithconsulting.com/) It was more than commerce, it wasn’t about that. It was about something much greater.”

The tragic news recalled another death of a former Heartbreakers member, bassist Howie Epstein, who died in 2003 from complications related to drug use. Though Epstein was fired from the band in 2002, Petty would later describe the bassist to be “never not a Heartbreaker.”

Today, the surviving members of the Heartbreakers are still recording and performing live. Guitarist Mike Campbell told Guitar.com in 2021:

“Music is the most important thing to us, other than family.

“It’s all based on love and a kind of spiritual appreciation of the gift we were given, to make this music. I still have that spark. That’s what keeps me going.”