Jan 23, 2018 3 min read

Maybe it’s because rock stars seem to exist on a different plane than workaday mortals, but it was hard to believe when Tom Petty died last October that it was merely the result of cardiac arrest, even though he wouldn’t have been the first 66-year-old to have been felled by heart troubles after a lifetime of bad habits.

Sure enough, the medical examiner-coroner for Los Angeles revealed last Friday that Petty died as a result of an accidental drug overdose, which puts him in the same company as Prince, Janis Joplin, Whitney Houston, Gram Parsons and all too many other musicians who have been done in by drug use.

And, like Prince, it turns out Petty is another high-profile victim of the opioid epidemic. According to the coroner, there were traces of seven drugs in the guitarist’s system: fentanyal, acetyl fentanyl, despropionyl fentanyl, alprazolam, oxycodone, temazepam and citalopram. Along with pain, these drugs treat such conditions as depression and sleeplessness.

Upon the release of the details of Petty’s death, his wife, Dana, and daughter, Adria, released a statement explaining Petty had been suffering from a number of ailments in the months leading to his death, including emphysema, coronary artery disease, and problems with his knees and hips.

A tour Petty embarked upon last summer, which brought him to PPG Paints Arena in June and ended only a week before his death, exacerbated his physical woes, according to his family. He apparently soldiered on through the concert schedule despite hip pain, and “on the day he died, he was informed his hip had graduated on to a full on break, and it is our feeling that the pain was simply unbearable, and was the cause for his overuse of medication.”

Why Petty couldn’t have waited and embarked on a tour when he was in finer fettle is a question worth asking. Another is why Petty, who had endured a bout of heroin addiction in the 1990s, was prescribed powerful, potentially addictive opioids.

Nevertheless, Petty’s survivors said they are confident his death was accidental. They also stated, “As a family, we recognize this report may spark a further discussion on the opioid crisis, and we feel that it is healthy and necessary discussion, and we hope in some way this report can save lives. Many people who overdose begin with a legitimate injury or simply do not understand the potency and deadly nature of these medications.”

Indeed, Petty’s death illustrates not only the lethal nature of the opioid epidemic, but also how it has cut through all strata of our society. It is not limited to the marginalized, the dispossessed or those with weak wills. Anyone could fall victim to this plague, whether you are a guitar-slinger with gold records on the wall, a star of high school football or anyone of any age or status.

It surely doesn’t make Petty’s untimely departure any easier for his fans, but his wife and daughter should be commended for their candor.