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50 free Tom Petty trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Tom Petty spent four decades writing songs that sounded like they had always existed, and he did it while fighting his record label, outlasting two bands and joining the biggest supergroup ever assembled. From a meeting with Elvis on a film set in Ocala to a final show at the Hollywood Bowl one week before his death, the life is full of details worth knowing. These 50 questions cover the whole arc. The easy tier sticks to the hits, the Heartbreakers and the Wilburys. The middle asks about Mudcrutch, the Gainesville years, Stevie Nicks, the Mad Hatter video, the bankruptcy filing that beat MCA, the Super Bowl halftime show and the King of the Hill character he voiced for five seasons. The hard end goes for the Wilbury pseudonyms, the Sam Smith royalty settlement, the Encino arson, the 1981 list-price fight, who officiated his second wedding and which album finally gave him a Billboard number one. Every answer is cited to a page we checked and comes with a short explanation, so you learn something even when you miss. Play it solo or print it for a classic rock night.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which Florida city was Tom Petty born and raised in?
Gainesville
The city gave him the keys twice, renamed a park after him and painted a tribute on its 34th Street Wall a week after he died.
Q 02What was Petty's pseudonym on the first Wilburys album?
Charlie T. Wilbury Jr.
Lucky was Dylan, Otis was Lynne and Lefty was Orbison; on the second album Petty became Muddy Wilbury.
Q 03Which Wilburys song was originally meant as a B-side for a George Harrison single?
Handle with Care
Warner Bros. had asked Harrison for a European B-side to This Is Love; the result was judged too good to waste.
Q 04The supergroup's second album, made as a quartet after Orbison died, skipped a number. What was it?
Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3
The name was a response to bootlegged sessions being sold as Vol. 2; Orbison had died before it was recorded.
Q 05What was the title of Petty's 1989 debut solo album?
Full Moon Fever
It featured I Won't Back Down, Free Fallin' and Runnin' Down a Dream, and MCA initially refused to release it.
Q 06Who co-produced Petty's 1989 solo debut with him and Mike Campbell?
Jeff Lynne
The ELO leader's glossy production gave the record a Beatlesque feel; the two later split Sam Smith royalties.
Q 07Which MCA executive initially refused to release Petty's 1989 solo debut, believing it had no hits?
Irving Azoff
Azoff resigned within months and the new MCA management put it out; it went five-times platinum.
Q 08Who appears on drums in the I Won't Back Down video, though the part was played by Phil Jones?
Ringo Starr
Two other Wilburys, Harrison and Orbison, played on the album itself.
Q 09Which producer made Wildflowers and two further albums with Petty?
Rick Rubin
Petty said he and Rubin wanted more freedom than being strapped into five guys, so the record went out under his name alone.
Q 10Wildflowers was originally planned as a double album of how many songs?
25
Warner's Lenny Waronker thought it too long; the ten leftovers surfaced in 2020 as Wildflowers & All the Rest.
Q 11Which Wildflowers outtake became a hit the next year for Rod Stewart?
Leave Virginia Alone
Four other outtakes were reworked for the She's the One soundtrack in 1996.
Q 12What was the name of Petty's pre-Heartbreakers band, reformed in 2007?
Mudcrutch
It grew out of a group called the Epics and included future Heartbreakers Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench.
Q 13What was the only 1970s single by Petty's first signed band, released by Shelter in 1975?
Depot Street
It failed to chart and Shelter broke the band up later that year, keeping only Petty under contract.
Q 21What did Petty file for in May 1979 to avoid being transferred to MCA without his consent?
Bankruptcy
He ended up signed to the new MCA subsidiary Backstreet Records, on his own terms.
Q 22What list price did Petty fight MCA over for the 1981 album Hard Promises?
$9.98
He considered naming the album Eight Ninety-Eight in protest; MCA backed down.
Q 23Petty's first duet, Insider on Hard Promises, was with which singer?
Stevie Nicks
Nicks also joined the band at Bonnaroo 2006 for Stop Draggin' My Heart Around.
A misheard remark by Petty's first wife inspired the title of which 1981 hit?
Q 14Whose independent label, Shelter Records, signed Petty's first band after its move to Los Angeles?
Leon Russell
The band kept recording at Russell's Tulsa studio and later at his home in Encino.
Q 15Tom Leadon, who co-founded Petty's first band with him, was the brother of a member of which band?
Eagles
Bernie Leadon was a founding Eagle; another Gainesville native, Don Felder, joined the Eagles later.
Q 16Which future Eagle claimed to have been one of Petty's first guitar teachers?
Don Felder
Petty remembered it differently, saying Felder taught him piano instead.
Q 17At age ten, Petty met which star on the set of the film Follow That Dream?
Elvis Presley
His uncle was working on the shoot in Ocala; Petty came home and traded his slingshot for a pile of Elvis 45s.
Q 18Petty traded which toy for a collection of Elvis singles after meeting Presley?
A Wham-O slingshot
He said of the encounter: Elvis glowed.
Q 19What odd job did Petty briefly hold as a young man?
Gravedigger
He also worked on the University of Florida grounds crew; a lime tree there is called the Tom Petty tree.
Q 20Which 1979 album was the Heartbreakers' breakthrough, with Refugee and Don't Do Me Like That?
Damn the Torpedoes
It went platinum quickly and sold nearly two million copies.
Edge of Seventeen
Jane Benyo said she met Petty at the age of seventeen; Nicks heard the North Florida accent differently.
Q 25In the Don't Come Around Here No More video, Petty dressed as which character?
The Mad Hatter
The Dave Stewart-produced single came from Southern Accents; the video ends with Alice served as cake.
Q 26Which bassist replaced Ron Blair in the Heartbreakers for 1982's Long After Dark?
Howie Epstein
That lineup lasted until 1994; the album's hit was You Got Lucky.
Q 27Who invited the Heartbreakers to back him on the 60-date True Confessions Tour in 1986?
Bob Dylan
Petty and Dylan also co-wrote Jammin' Me, released on Let Me Up (I've Had Enough) in 1987.
Q 28Which Philadelphia venue hosted the Heartbreakers' four-song Live Aid set in 1985?
John F. Kennedy Stadium
The crowd was 89,484; Southern Accents came out the same year.
Q 29Which two actors appeared in the music video for Into the Great Wide Open?
Johnny Depp and Faye Dunaway
The 1991 album was co-produced by Jeff Lynne and also yielded Learning to Fly.
Q 30Which animated series featured Petty as the voice of Lucky Kleinschmidt from 2004 to 2009?
King of the Hill
He voiced the character in 28 episodes; he had guest-starred as himself on The Simpsons in 2002.