Taylor Swift Opens Up About Tom Petty's Influence on Her Career

Taylor Swift is paying tribute to the late Tom Petty, who sadly died on Monday (October 2) at the age of 66.

The 27-year-old Reputation singer revealed that Tom represented the “kind of songwriting I idolized” in a statement to Rolling Stone.

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“To me, Tom Petty represented a kind of songwriting I idolized: complex simplicity,” she said.

“It said so much in the lyrics, the concepts, the stories, the message, the nuances…but always brought you back to a hook that got stuck in everyone’s head. He motivated thousands of guitarists to learn to play just because they wanted to be able to play ‘Free Fallin.” Count me as one of them.”