Monday was the 41st anniversary of when Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers played on the roof of the world famous Don Cesar hotel in St. Petersburg. It was a show for MTV because they used to rock. MTV was following the band for a documentary about them and the recently released Southern Accents album.
Tom and his wife, Jane, were actually staying in suite 800, the same suite F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda stayed in back in 1930. That suite has an enormous balcony that, rumor has it, inspired Tom to want to end the documentary Beatles style with a spontaneous rooftop performance.
Tom’s manager even hired 4 local actors to play police that would come in to break up the show for the cameras. But Tom and the band played for over 40 minutes until a couple of the parking garage guys asked them to quit making all the noise. Read more about that at this link.
Here’s video of part of that rooftop show, with Tom wearing the top hat and glasses from Southern Accents biggest hit, Don’t Come Around Here No More, Tom’s greatest song ever, IMO.
Here’s the super rad trippy video for Don’t Come Around Here No More:
And here’s a pic from the band’s Facebook page remembering the day.
The band even had someone taking pictures of the whole day when they hired a local photographer, John Siebenthaler. His story about the day is pretty interesting too, which you can read here. And he’s still active around the bay area if you need a graphic designer/photographer.