American guy

Tom Petty has yet to run for elective office, but he has something in common with the president — neither of them has ever been spotted in Arkansas, Jack W. Hill writes in Thursday’s Arkansas Weekend section.

Well, one or both of them might have made a road trip through and stopped for gas or a doughnut or something, but what we’re referring to here are public appearances in President Barack Obama’s case and performances in Petty’s.

So fans of Petty and his band, the Heartbreakers, were the ones making road trips to see their heroes in Memphis or St. Louis or Dallas, starting back in the late 1970s, when Petty began his string of hits with “American Girl” (which at least was heard prominently last year when Taylor Swift used it as the song that played as she came onstage in Verizon Arena).

Read more from Petty, who will finally perform in Arkansas at North Little Rock’s Verizon Arena on Saturday night.

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