As they say, heroes get remembered, but legends never die. Tom Petty may be gone, but his music lives on finding new fans and audiences. Thanks to the highly anticipated trailer of the video game Grand Theft Auto VI, Petty’s music is flying higher than ever.
According to Billboard. Before the release of the trailer, “Love Is a Long Road” drew on average of between 4,000 to 5,000 streams per day in the U.S. after the trailer leaked, that number became 78,000; it rose to 376,000 the next day when the trailer dropped.
After an online leak, Rockstar Games released the first trailer for its long-awaited sixth installment of the GTA franchise on Monday (Dec. 4), with Tom Petty’s 1989 track “Love Is a Long Road” soundtracking the adventure. The song, from his album Full Moon Fever, peaked at No. 7 on Billboard‘s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart that year.
Grand Theft Auto VI is set to release in 2025, 12 years after its predecessor, which achieved the second-best selling video game after Microsoft’s Minecraft. GTA5, which was released in 2013, has sold more than 190 million copies worldwide and generated more than $7.7 billion in revenue.
Tom’s estate has partnered with the university to form the Tom Petty Endowment for Guitars & Innovation, donating $100,000 (£79,000) to the music school’s guitar and music business programmes, Music-News reports.
Nearly two decades after earning a place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and more than four years after his death, rock icon Tom Petty has been awarded an honorary Ph.D. from the University of Florida.
The school’s board of trustees unanimously voted to award Thomas Earl Petty a posthumous doctoral degree in music during a meeting.
I don’t think anyone in our family, including him, thought that he would be linked with the University of Florida this way,” Tom’s brother Bruce Petty shared in a statement. “It’s such a powerful thing, it was his life-long dream, and I know he would just be over-the-top, crazy happy about it.”
The singer was previously awarded the university’s Distinguished Achievement Award in 2006.
Petty passed away from an accidental drug overdose in October 2017. Days later during a UF home football game, the song “I Won’t Back Down” was played at the stadium as a memorial to Petty. The song has since become a regular feature at Gators games.
Usually backed by the Heartbreakers, Petty broke through in the 1970s and went on to sell more than 80 million records, featuring hits like “Free Fallin,’” “Refugee” and “American Girl.” Petty and the Heartbreakers were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.
