The loss of Tom Petty is a sad one. David Bowie and Prince burned so brightly, were so ephemeral, as awful as it was to see them go suddenly, it wasn’t quite shocking.

But Tom Petty, that slow steady rhythm of a rocker, at least from here, seemed like a stable kind of guy. A permanent kind of guy. A singer-songwriter with a voice we all knew, both lyrically and tonally.

So many of his songs are now ingrained inside of me, his clear, clean prose a lesson in painting with few, few words. He is a soundtrack to dreams and disappointments, from youth to maturity.

And those music videos.

As he vanishes Into the Great Wide Open, we bid this musician who meant so much to so many of us a beautiful journey.

“You follow your feelings, you follow your dreams
You follow the leader into the trees
And what’s in there waiting, neither one of us knows…”

(Wake Up Time)