Mapping by Tom Petty’s legacy: How a fan keeps his Gainesville bonds alive

Before Tom Petty became a rock legend, he was just another child who roamed the streets of Gainesville and dreamed of making it big.

Petty’s roots are still running deep in the city, and thanks to Shawn Murphy, a long -time fan of Petty, co -fans can trace these roots through the Tom Petty Trail hometown.

The Tom Petty Trail was launched at the end of September and is an interactive experience with 129 stations in Gainesville and the surrounding areas, including Petty’s Children’s Home, Gainesville High School and Spots that inspired some of his earliest music.

Photos with the kind permission of Keith Harben

Murphy, a former journalist and now a retired professor, who lives in Plattsburgh, New York, started the website as a passion project to honor Petty’s connection to his hometown.

Since retirement, Murphy has had a lot of free time to compile and research the musician’s early life. He took several trips to Gainesville and led interviews during his visits to make the way to the ultimate experience for those who want to see the city through the lens of petty life.

Murphy’s love for Tom Petty and his music inspired the concept of the trail. Apart from his passion for Tom Petty, Murphy also had overlapping interests such as travel and history. This, combined with his natural curiosity, love to meet people, research and his past in journalism, made his persecution of this passion project pleasant and worthwhile.

Murphy originally intended to publish the list of the Gainesville addresses he put together online.

“It started that I would simply publish it as a unique thing on Facebook: ‘Hey, here is my typed list of addresses and you can check it yourself. Have fun, ”said Murphy.

He attributes to his wife Elaine, who encouraged him to publish all his research on a website so that everyone was interested in seeing them.

“She says: ‘No, no, because it is a private group and it is essentially away as soon as you publish it on Facebook. Nobody else will see it again. ‘She said I should design a website, ”he said.

Murphy used a site builder to create a detailed website to properly display his research and photos.

Photo with the kind permission of Keith Harben

While the entire trail is digital, including immersive Google Map composition for the various stops, said Murphy that he was not the technologically experienced.

He explained that the most difficult part of this entire process was to create a website from scratch and to navigate Google Maps with minimal experience and technology.

“I don’t know anything about websites. I have never designed a website and I am not a technological person. I don’t even have a smartphone, ”said Murphy with a laugh. He mentioned how he used a paper card from Gainesville during one of his travels there to map the various route stops.

Murphy’s passion for this project is love work. He puts a lot of thoughts and hard work in the way and constantly adds additional places and research. Murphy even plans to add a section to the location entitled “Tom Petty’s California” that includes additional trail places from Petty’s life to the west after moving out of the Sunshine State to pursue his music career.

While Murphy likes to share his knowledge and research with other small fans, Murphy’s motivation goes beyond the average fan.

Murphy announced that Petty’s music was “the soundtrack through the arch of his life” and helped him get through some of his most difficult times.

He was diagnosed with cancer last year. Murphy announced how much petty music and construction of the trail were distracted, of which he didn’t know he needed it, but he is extremely grateful to have them at that time.

“Since cancer weighs strongly in my head, it was Tom’s words in my ear when he tried to trace his Dreamville steps back, which gave me a focus that turned out to be therapeutic. After the operation at home, working on this website helped to get myself through the healing process, ”said Murphy.

His commitment to the place underlines the deeper meaning of the Tom Petty Trail – not only as a homage to petty heritage, but as a source of healing, reflection and inspiration for those who are doing.

Those who knew Petty personally reflects this feeling, including Keith Harben, a long -time friend of Tom Petty.

“Tom and I were friends from about 5 or 6 years,” said Harben. “I happened to live along the street in which he also lived and we were at the age of nine days in old age, so it was only natural for us to be friends.”

Harben believes that the trail maps more than petty’s early stamping grounds – it brings the fans closer to the person behind the music.

“People really only think of Tom’s musical side. They don’t think about his childhood side, so I write Gainesville to be a really strong building block for him, ”said Harben.

Harben met Murphy several times with Murphy and spoke to offer further insights into petty’s early life. Through her conversations, Harben contributed to forming the way by offering stories and photos of childhood and providing an insight into petty -shaped years.

“I hope that when I work with Shawn, I can help him to tell you what kind of person Tom was,” said Harben. “Only a normal child who grew up in Gainesville.”

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