Tom Petty Laid to Rest in Private Ceremony
Two weeks after his sudden death at the age of 66, Tom Petty was buried in a private ceremony yesterday that was reportedly attended by family members and a group of his closest friends.
A few details regarding the service leaked courtesy of TMZ, where it's reported that Petty was laid to rest at the Self-Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine in Pacific Palisades, an affluent suburb of Santa Monica near Los Angeles. He isn't the first renowned rocker to find a place at the Shrine; as TMZ's report notes, that's also where George Harrison — Petty's friend and former bandmate in the Traveling Wilburys — was buried after he died in 2001.
While the ceremony was limited to Petty's inner circle, fans were still able to catch a few glimpses of the service courtesy of his daughter AnnaKim, who posted a series of photos to her Instagram account. Under one shot, a picture of a display set up at the service, she wrote, "The dark of the sun we will stand together"; to caption another, she simply wrote, "Into the great wide open."
Into the great wide open⚡️ A post shared by @inviteloveinvitelove on
Petty's burial comes after weeks of widespread tributes to his incredible legacy, and arrives shortly before his longtime bandmate and creative partner Benmont Tench faces the difficult task of moving forward with his first solo show following Petty's passing. A cause of death has yet to be determined.
Tom Petty Through the Years: 1976-2017 Photos