I saw an article on Tom Petty and the album Wildflowers the other day so I decided to crank it up and listen to it again on my way to work. It's been awhile since my high school days when it came out. I just recently talked to several non-musicians who have claimed they are devastated by Petty's passing and other artist's within the year. I remember Cobain killing himself and I always thought it was so cheesy and so dumb that these fans are sad. Did you know them? Were you friends with them? Why are you sad? They didn't even know you existed. Yes, when someone dies it's sad. I get it. I get it even more now with Petty's death. No, they didn't know them. They didn't hang out….when in actuality we DID know them. We all hung out. We shared the good times and the bad. The songs helped us and healed us. When a popular musician or artist dies, they aren't going to make music anymore. They can't make us feel good anymore. We can't connect anymore with what they are telling us. That someone isn't there to make more music again. The music seems to have died with the artist..but it hasn’t. It continues to help us and heal us. It is unfortunate, but we will never know if there was any music left inside that soul to pour out and share with us. R.I.P. Petty..you were a great singer/songwriter and I hope to write at least one song half as good as the tons of songs you wrote for us.