In April 1996, Petty received UCLA's George And Ira Gershwin Award For Lifetime Musical Achievement. Previous recipients of the university's award include Ray Charles and Ella Fitzgerald. Petty was the first artist of  the rock era to earn this distinction. "I may not own any George and Ira Gershwin records," said Petty at the ceremony, "but I'm honored to be here and I want to thank
my fans for showing up at my concerts from time to time."

     In 1999, Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers received their own star on the Walk of Fame in Hollywood, an honor that acknowledges both their musical achievements and their humanitarian involvement with such organizations as  Greenpeace, the National Veteran's Foundation, USA  Harvest, Rock And Wrap It Up, and AmFAR (the American Foundation for AIDS Research).

    Petty released his first album for Warner Bros. Records in late 1994. Titled Wildflowers, it went on to sell over three million copies and produced the hits "You Don't Know How It Feels," "You Wreck Me" and "It's Good To Be King." In 1996, Wildflowers earned two Grammy Awards: Best Male Rock Vocal Performance ("You Don't Know How It Feels") and Best Engineered Album (Non-Classical). The album also garnered a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Album. Other Wildflowers achievements included Tom's  Best Male Video award for "You Don't Know How It Feels" at the 1995 MTV Video Music Awards.

       Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers grouped in    Gainesville, Florida before officially forming in Los Angeles-kicked the musical doldrums of the mid-'70s in the face with their 1976 self-titled debut album. It featured stripped- down-but-accomplished brand of rock that  blended jumpy rhythm & blues rhythms, ringing guitars and keyboards, over which Petty grabbed listeners by their throats with his disarmingly blunt lyrics and extremely direct vocal style. Still, it took America a full  year to catch up to the album. "Breakdown" was re-released to radio and became a Top 40 hit in 1977 after word filtered back the band was creating a firestorm over in England. By the end of the pivotal UK trek, Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers were headlining the very same venues they played as an opening act weeks earlier.

    Next, in 1979, came the triple-platinum Damn The Torpedoes album-which brought Petty And The Heartbreakers superstardom and arena headlining status. This was followed by the successful and critically acclaimed Hard Promises (1981), Long After Dark (1982), Southern Accents (1985), Pack Up The Plantation-Live! (a 1985 double live set, which had a companion long form video) and 1987's Let Me Up (I've Had Enough), featuring "Jammin' Me," co-written by Bob Dylan, with whom they teamed up for a historical world tour in 1986 and 1987.

   In 1989, Tom Petty released his debut solo album, Full Moon Fever, produced by Jeff Lynne (his partner in the Traveling Wilburys with Bob Dylan, George Harrison and Roy Orbison) with Petty and Mike Campbell. It was in the Billboard Top Ten chart for over 34 weeks and earned triple-platinum status, along the way spawning such hits as "I Won't Back Down," "Free Fallin'" and "Runnin' Down A  Dream."

    Platinum success returned in 1991 when Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers released Into The Great Wide Open, from which came the singles "Learning To Fly" and "Into The Great Wide Open," a song that looked at the hollow core of the music biz' star-making machinery.

    A Greatest Hits album followed in 1993, featuring the successful track "Mary Jane's Last Dance" -followed by an hour-long documentary, Tom Petty: Going Home, which aired in late 1994 on the Disney Channel.

    Tom Petty also earned a Grammy Award in 1989 for Best Rock Performance By A Duo or Group With Vocal for his work with the Traveling Wilburys. He also has been honored with 10 nominations since 1981 when he received his first nomination for his song "Stop Draggin' My Heart  Around"  in the category of Best Rock Performance By A Duo or Group With Vocal.

    In the liner notes to Playback, Petty observed that those who know the Heartbreakers only from their hit singles may not be familiar with the range of styles they have covered, from the Beach Boys influences of tracks like "You Can Still Change Your Mind" to the Nirvana-inspired hard rock of "Come On Down To My House" to various side trips into country, blues, psychedelic and surf music. "People had a mental picture of what we should sound like and if you played them something that didn't sound like  'Refugee' or 'American Girl' or 'Even The Losers' they were puzzled," Petty reflected in the album notes. "I still go through that."

   In tandem with the release of Playback was a long-form  home video of the same name that contains all of the videos by Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers. There are  17 videos here, from "Refugee" and "Here Comes My Girl" in 1979 (both created before there was MTV or any  regular outlet for them) to the award-winning favorites "Don't Come Around Here No More," "Free Fallin'," "Into The Great Wide Open" (with Faye Dunaway and Johnny Depp) and "Mary Jane's Last Dance" (with Kim Basinger).

  Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers are recognized as one of rock's premiere bands, a world-class outfit whose members are able to blend an array of musical styles and create their own distinctive sound in the process.