A Couple of Tom Petty Stories

A Halloween Ball
When I was an impressionable but precocious child of 12 or 13, Tom Petty and some other area musicians responded to a crisis at the University of Florida. The annual Halloween Ball was due to occur and the big name band had cancelled at the last minute. (I think the big band may have been someone like Grand Funk Railroad, but I'm not sure.) The Halloween Ball was a major event on campus and in the community. It was the closest Gainesville used to come to Mardi Gras like festivities. By the time I was old enough to attend classes at the university, they had changed the name of the event because they thought people were taking the "ball" part of the name too literally. (Too much public sex. I have to confess I believe it was my first experience witnessing sex between men and women. The sex was usually performed in the middle of a large ring of people after dropping acid or getting good and baked on "Gainesville Green.") So Tom and his "ragtag" crew of musicians (I think there were one or two of the Eagles who joined with him to play that day/evening.) came together and called themselves RGF for the event. RGF stood for Really Good Fuck. At 12 or 13 I thought that was really cool and a Tom Petty fan was created.

Addendum: I received an email from a member of RGF since I published this story correcting my not so great memory. RGF was a band in its own right. Tom Petty rounded up folks (or was rounded up with some other folks) to fill in for the no-show band and they called themselves Tommy and the Tornados according to Jeff Jourard, formerly of RGF and The Motels.
 

Klan Buster (or He was Queer-Friendly when Queer-Friendly wasn't cool)
I believe it was in 1992 that Gainesville's queer community decided to hold a public Pride event. In years past, the events had been quietly held in private or semi-private locations. As Gainesville was engaged in a heated public controversy around a requested amendment to the local antidiscrimination ordinance to include sexual orientation, folks decided to bring Pride out of the closet and held a picnic and rally at Westside Park. We were widely, publicly condemned by politicians, preachers and other public figures for being provocative. No one, except for Tom Petty, publicly criticized the Invisible Empire Knights of the Ku Klux Klan for their decision to attend our rally in full klan drag (Yes, pointy hats, masks and white gowns) and call for our public executions. Tom Petty and his wife showed up to show their support for us. Rolling Stone magazine ran a brief story about it and various newspapers picked up the story from the local press. We gave Tom one of the t-shirts Bill is wearing in the photo. He wore it a month or two later while being interviewed about his music on MTV.

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