Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers at the Hangout Festival in May 2013 in Gulf Shores, Ala. (John Davisson/Invision/AP)When Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers toured to promote their 1985 release”Southern Accents,” the Confederate flag became a part of the marketing and appeared onstage. Legendary recording artist Tom Petty died at a Los Angeles hospital on Oct. 2 at the age of 66, after being found unconscious at his Malibu home. Then he’d go on to see people wearing Confederate flag paraphernalia in his audiences. A photo inside of the album cover showed the band playing in front of the Confederate flag, Petty said. Later, he’d come to see the Confederate flag on statehouse grounds as comparable to “how a swastika looks to a Jewish person.

Source: Washington Post October 03, 2017 16:30 UTC