Tom Petty Estate Blasts Politician for Using ‘I Won’t Back Down’

The Tom Petty Estate has released a statement in response to Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake using “I Won’t Back Down” during her campaign.

The statement begins, “The Tom Petty estate and our partners were shocked to find out that Tom’s song ‘I Won’t Back Down’ was stolen and used without permission or a license to promote Kari Lake’s failed campaign.”

It continues, “This is illegal. We are exploring all of our legal options to stop this unauthorized use and to prohibit future misappropriations of Tom’s beloved anthem.”

The statement concludes, “Thank you to all of the fans who brought this to our attention and who help us protect his legacy every day.”

The Tom Petty estate and our partners were shocked to find out that Tom’s song “I Won’t Back Down” was stolen and used without permission or a license to promote Kari Lake’s failed campaign. pic.twitter.com/DoT71whO43

— Tom Petty (@tompetty) November 18, 2022

Lake, who lost to Democratic candidate Katie Hobbs, is refusing to concede in the race. The Associated Press reports Lake is “assembling lawyers and collecting evidence of voters having trouble casting ballots on Election Day.”

In November 2020, Petty’s family issued the following statement about then President-elect Joe Biden using “I Won’t Back Down” during his victory speech in the 2020 Presidential election:

“We were all so touched to see Tom included on such an important night in America. Congratulations Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.”

We were all so touched to see Tom included on such an important night in America. Congratulations @joebiden and @kamalaharris pic.twitter.com/2nbCM1ROlG

— Tom Petty (@tompetty) November 8, 2020

Tom Petty: His 50 Best Songs, Ranked

Tom Petty was a bit like Tom Hanks: he was so great that after a while you almost took his greatness for granted. When compiling this list, we kept in mind that the man was putting out great music up until the very end, and we wanted to recognize some of his gems that didn’t get as much love as they should have, including some of his final recordings.

We decided that anything he wrote was fair game: obviously his songs with Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, as well as his three solo albums. We also included songs from Mudcrutch, his pre-Heartbreakers band (which included Heartbreakers Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench) who broke up in 1975 after recording a few songs; they reunited in 2007 and released a pair of albums. Of course, we included the Traveling Wilburys, focusing on the songs where Tom was the main singer, as well as the songs he wrote for Stevie Nicks, Roy Orbison and Roger McGuinn. We mostly went with studio recordings, but nevertheless, we still heartily recommend the 2008 box set The Live Anthology. We also decided against including covers (although we love his Byrds covers “So You Wanna Be A Rock And Roll Star” and “Feel A Whole Lot Better,” his cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Oh Well” and his duet with Stevie Nicks on Jackie DeShannon’s “Needles and Pins,” to name a few). It’s worth noting that we frequently referenced Paul Zollo’s excellent book, Conversations With Tom Petty often, and we’d definitely recommend that book, as well as Warren Zanes’ Tom Petty: The Biography.

Did we miss a few songs? Sure – Petty had waaaaay more than 50 great ones (and we’re sure you’ll let us know on social media what we missed). But for now, enjoy these, there might be some that you forgot about or some that you haven’t even heard.