In a sense, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers are America’s band. Durable, resourceful, hard-working, likeable and unpretentious, they rank among the most capable and classic rock bands of the last quarter century. They’ve mastered the idiom’s fundamentals and digested its history while stretching themselves creatively and contributing to rock’s legacy. Moreover they are, like such compatriots as Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, a people’s band, writing of everyday struggles and frustrations while offering redemption through tough-minded, big-hearted, tuneful songs.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ knack for generating concise, tuneful pop nuggets has kept them consistently on the charts and in critics’ and fans’ good graces, and they’ve weathered passing fads by sticking to the basics of solid, melodic songs delivered with passion and conviction. They’ve also hung together through good and bad times, resulting in a lengthy shared history and deep musical bonds that few other bands can approach. They are rock classicists with a restless streak, innovating atop a rock and roll base that’s as solid as bedrock.