The late great Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Tom Petty (1950-2017) released 13 studio albums with his band The Heartbreakers. He also released two albums as a member of The Traveling Wilburys with ex-Beatle George Harrison, ELO’s Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison and Bob Dylan.
Their first album, The Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1, was nominated for Album of the Year at the 1989 Grammys and “helped revitalize the careers of Dylan and Petty,” according to RadioMaxMusic.
When not on stage or in the studio, Petty spent time with family including his daughter, director Adria Petty, who was born in 1974. See father/daughter photo below. (Adria’s mother is Jane Benyo, Petty’s first wife.)
Adria Petty, now 48, is known for directing music videos for Coldplay and Rihanna (‘Princess of China’), Beyoncé (‘Countdown,’ and ‘Sweet Dreams’) and Regina Spektor (‘All the Rowboats’), among several others.
Adria also participated in the 2021 documentary Tom Petty Somewhere You Feel Free. The film is about the making of Tom Petty’s 1994 album Wildflowers, which includes several hit songs including ‘You Don’t Know How It Feels.’
After her father’s death, Adria Petty become a managing partner at the Tom Petty Estate and recently launched The Petty-Drayton Music Program, a free music program for under-served kids (aged 6-13) in Norwalk, Connecticut. She says it honors both grandfathers of her daughter, 9-year-old Everly, who was named after the Everly Brothers.
Above is a photo of Tom with his granddaughter Everly.
Adria is co-parenting with Everly’s father Charley Drayton, the multi-instrumentalist and drummer who is currently touring with Tom Petty’s old Wilbury brother, Bob Dylan, and his band. Below is a photo of Charley and Everly.
Drayton has performed with a plethora of musicians including The Rolling Stones, Paul Simon, The B-52s, and the Australian band Divinyls (of the 1990 hit song ‘I Touch Myself’), among many others. (Drayton was married to Divinyls lead singer Chrissy Amphlett before she died in 2013 after a battle with breast cancer: she was 53.)
Note: Charley Drayton’s father, Bernard Drayton, was a well-known studio audio engineer, and Bernard’s father, Charlie Drayton (above), was a famous jazz bassist in the 1930s.
