Tom Petty’s iconic black & white jacket up for auction
nypost.comlate singer’s wardrobe hit the auction block on Friday and can be bid on online until June 18.The highlight of the lot, which contains 45 pieces of Petty’s prized possessions, is the black-and-white striped satin jacket he donned on the cover of the UK single for his 1978 hit, “Listen to Her Heart.”“For people my age, that’s Tom Petty, you know,” Bobby Livingston, executive vice president of Boston-based RR Auction, which is hosting the sale, told The Post.“Because of people’s love and emotional connection to Tom, I wouldn’t be surprised if this goes somewhere in the mid-five figures.”The eclectic clothing collection is from Petty’s Encino, California, home, which Chase Bank took possession of in 2015.“When he divorced his first wife [Jane Benyo], she got the house and then she defaulted on the mortgage, so the bank took possession of the home and its contents and these were all disposed of by the bank,” explained Livingston.
Other articles for sale belonging to the “Free Fallin'” rocker, who died in 2017 at age 66 from an accidental overdose, include the black denim jacket he sported on tour with Guns N’ Roses in 1987 and during a 1989 MTV Video Music Awards performance with Axl Rose.He also had a penchant for wearing hats, and many of them, including a Burmese cap adorned with yellow flowers and two elephants, are included in the assortment.
The Florida native was the lead singer of the rock band Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, which was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002, and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1999.
He was also a member of the British-American supergroup the Traveling Wilburys, alongside Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Roy Orbison and Jeff Lynne.
Read more on nypost.com